Hobbies and Crafts

Tec I hope you will soon be able to return home and get back to feeding your birds, I'm sure they wouldn't have gone hungry this winter with it being so wet and mild there has been plenty of natural food about and don't forget robins are territorial so that's one friend I'm sure will be waiting for you to return :-D

Rats need to eat the poison more than once for it to take affect and because the poison makes rats want to vomit which they can't do (I don't know how I know rats can't vomit) you should make sure there is water for them to drink.

kandj it's not often I have a brain wave :-0 I'm glad the suggestion worked :-D

Enjoy your holiday Ann and I hope you feel the sun on your back...the thought of that makes me tinkle :-D

Jane before our middle daughter went to Thailand she went on a low carb diet so she would look good in her bikini :-S I told her she should be fattening herself up because no doubt she would lose weight while she was there...mums know nothing...I did some weeding this afternoon...not in the loft though ;-)

~~~~~~~~to Jude and Vera I hope you are both well.

Lesley x

Hello Tec:)
AnnG...bit late but pics onway via email, hope its the right email addy.

jude xx

Good Morning Everyone

How lovely to have others join in our happy gang,I hope you all have a good day today.

Goodness Jane, it's a good job that James spotted the light in your loft. The builders obviously think you are made of money! I am not commenting on the R*T because I shudder reading about him on here. I think I would have left home by now!! Good job you have a long back garden. Let's hope he stays down there.

Your good tip worked Lesley and the birds in the back garden are happily enjoying the treat. Mainly hedge sparrows and blue tits which don't seem to want to come to the front window feeder which is a shame as we would especially love to see the tiny blue tits close up.

I have topped the fat seedcake slice with sultana this morning hoping to encourage the young blackbird back to the window. The starlings are popping back and forth but if we blink then we have missed them. The flag is ready for when (if) the blackbird comes back to the window. We hope it will visit us today.

The heavy overnight frost is clearing and the garden looks quite Springlike with snowdrops, crocus, miniature daffs and larger daffodils about to bloom. I am ignoring the weeds until it gets much warmer.

Good afternoon all,

The last few days have been a bit hectic so I haven't been on the boards. We had a lovely time with all the family here - son, his three daughters and his partner (plus dog) from Thursday to Sunday and we were joined on Friday by daughter, son-in-law, and their son and daughter. Lots of noise, lots of laughter and a house like a tip when they had all gone. Then we had things to go to yesterday afternoon and evening and this afternoon. I've now got a short time to grab something to eat before we are out again this evening.

I hope everyone who has been unwell is feeling much better now and that Ann is enjoying her hols.

Jane, your rat sounds urghhhh. I know we live close to them all the time but I'd rather not see them face to face. My eldest granddaughter has pet degus (other name squirrel tailed rats). They're fun to watch in their cage but somehow pets are different to wild rats.

We haven't seen any new birds in the garden but a little group of 3 or 4 blackbirds are in the garden a lot. They are not using the feeders but are pecking around the grass and in the bed where we planted a witch hazel. The ground is very soft and I think there are plenty of insects for them. We are still only seeing one blue tit but he is a regular visitor to the suet cake. I haven't actually seen anything on the fat balls but I had a look this morning and something has been pecking at them. OH has also seen the pair of goldfinches again fluttering around the trees just the other side of our fence so I am hoping to tempt them in soon. At least the birds are flying around now even if they are not spending much time with us. When we first came here I thought we had moved to a wasteland!

Vera,you must be exhausted after all your visitors.Did they ALL stay with you ??
Was it a special occassion? You may have said and I might have missed it.How nice to have such a family gathering :-D

I have been out most of the day so don't know if You Know What has been around.I will be out tomorrow too so will ask my son to keep an eye out .
OH and I are going to Anglesey Abbey .(I thought it was in Wales !!!),but it is not too far from Cambridge so OH says.It looks like it might be a decent day weather wise too :-D

I must admit Jane that I am feeling pretty tired now, so I am off for an early night. The family visit wasn't for a special occasion but son and his girls live about 250 miles away. Son is divorced but has the girls with him as much as possible and generally brings them to visit every school holiday, or occasionally we go there. However, for various reasons we didn't see them in either the October half term or the Christmas holiday, which meant we hadn't seen them since August. Daughter is only about 25 miles away so she and her family didn't stay overnight. I count myself very lucky that we are a close knit family even if we are a distance apart.

Enjoy Anglesey Abbey. It's a great place for snowdrops so I hope they are all still in bloom for your visit.

Vera ,we had a lovely day today .Sadly the Snowdrops had just about finished ,but what a beautiful place it is :-D.It was so warm I was just in a cotton top (plus trousers ;-).We will definitely be going back when things are in bloom and the house open.It took us just about an hour to get there.It was heaving with visitors too.I couldn't believe the numbers.Old ,young,babies and children :-D All having a really nice time.

No sign of the 'you know what' :-D so hopefully the poison has done the trick .
I am going to change the suet pellets in the window feeder .This last lot I bought seem quite hard and long and the Blue Tits keep turfing them out on to the ground :-S.I just had to sweep up :-S :-S
Hopefully you have recovered now from all your visitors and the house is back to normal again :-D.
I hope Ann has arrived and is enjoying some lovely sunshine .

Oops I spoke too soon.My son has just seen 'it' :-S :-S

Hi all, two lovely warm sunny days here, we were actually in shorts on the patio this afternoon. Lots of sparrows around but not yet seen many other birds.

Ooh Jane, you have not exterminated it yet then? :-D

Ann I am being pressured now into getting rid of the Window Feeder :-S :-S.I really don't want to......I did say to OH well I could stick it up on his green house down by the veg patch :-D..........I won't tell you want his answer was to that other than it was a 4 letter word followed by a 3 letter one lol
I saw the little blighter too and it is still looking very sprightly :-S
Shorts eh!.I bet you come home with a good tan :-D

Either that or alcohol poisoning Jane
:-D

Glad that you are enjoying your break Ann. The weather for the weekend is meant to be dry and sunny so that will be a good tonic to everyone, especially the flood victims who still have an horrendous task ahead of them.

Your day our to the Abbey sounded good Jane. We have a Priory nearby who also have an amazing display of snowdrops. We didn't get to see them this year, so maybe next year we will go and relax in wonderful surroundings.

Still not a lot of activity since I put the birdseed cake in the window feeder. This morning I have sprinkled some of the mealworm suet pellets in there and will wait and see what happens today. Can't believe that we have got such fussy eaters!!

Kandj, ours seem to be pretty fussy eaters too. Perhaps they are distant cousins of your birds.

We were up earlier than usual this morning but have seen only one pigeon and one blackbird, and they weren't using the feeders. I did a bit of work in the garden today and usually the robin appears when I am doing that, but not today. Shame because he would have got some nice juicy worms.

I checked the feeders before I came in and both the ground feeder and the mesh tray on the pole feeder have been emptied of suet nibbles, so I think that is why they haven't come around this morning. They all seem to like the nibbles so I am going to finish my cup of tea and go and refill the feeders. Sometimes I think they eat better than we do.

LOL Ann.Enjoy :-D what's your tipple?

I am on R** watch .OH is in the summerhouse painting, with the gun beside him lol If I spy it I am to ring his mobile and he will jump into action !!!.Yeah Right !!!!! by the time he is up and trying to spot it ,it will be long gone :-S

Jane your OH might stand a chance if Mr/Mrs Rat has eaten some poison :-D

I hope your enjoying your holiday and the alcohol Ann :-D

Lesley x

Normal before meal tipple Jane is G&T, with meal, wine, after, either amaretto, whisky or brandy. Tonight it is brandy :-D cheers :-D

I agree Lesley :-D.But it seems to be still very lively :-S :-S
I have changed the food in the window feeder to the smaller pellets and haven't filled it to overflowing which is what i have been doing.I just thought if the pellets are actually lower and smaller then there might be less chance of them being chucked out to the ground .I will have a look in the morning and see .

Not even mentioning the unmentionable creature that is giving Jane the run around!!!

Heavy rain and dark grey clouds here first thing this morning but now it is blue sky and white fluffy clouds but very cold wind about.

Still not many birds around, even the number of starlings have greatly reduced this week. Perhaps they are all huddle up together somewhere?

It has been beautiful here this afternoon but, as kandj says, not many birds about. However, this morning there were TWO bluetits in the garden at the same time, one on the suet cake and one just sitting on a rose twig. They didn't stay for more than a couple of minutes but at least I know there is more than one around.

Wow it been like a real summer afternoon here :-D.The fleeces have finally come off our Olive Trees and other things on the patio.
OH bought a R** box thingy this morning and filled it with the tasty stuff :-S.
I have seen a Blue Tit on the feeder with a very long and overgrown looking beak.It's head looks a funny shape too .But it seemed to be picking up the pellets ok.The top of the beak looks much longer and almost hooked ( if that makes sense).

Not long now Lesley before your Daughter gets home.Have you cleared all your washing ?? :-D.Does your OH have to get up in the early hours again to collect her from the airport?When James came home from his travels he just wanted a good Roast Dinner lol