Hobbies and Crafts

Yes Ann that would be nice to meet up down there .My Sister retires at Christmas and we have been talking about me going down on my own (without OH ) for a few days in the spring.So that might be a good opportunity to meet :-D :-D That would be nice.

Glad you are having a good birthday Ann. You seem to have been lucky with the weather. It started pouring here about 1.45, rained quite heavily till around 4, then it stopped for a while but at the moment it looks as though the heavens are about to open again. At least we won't have to water the pots tonight :-D

Thanks for that tip Jane as we would never have considered going there. We went to Raymond Blanc in M Keynes and had a very infifferent overpriced meal. So that is good to know.

And maybe, one time that youa re in the area, we could meet up. (I know these visits are usually full on and filled with other things, but worth remembering. We are 20 minutes from Cheltenham by bus (don't usually take the car in. And about the same by car from Tewkesbury.

Ann you have been lucky with the weather then :-D.It seems to just be starting here :-S.The wind is blowing and the rain is getting going.
My Sister spends a lot of time in Hobbycra** Cheltenham .
If you fancy a really nice meal in Cheltenham sometime .I would recommend Raymond Blan* Brasserie .It is in what was part of Queens Hotel.We went for a Sunday lunch the weekend before last and I have to say it was the best meal ever :-D
I hope you enjoy the rest of your special day <3

Thank you Jane

The forecast changed slightly to lighter rain here but so far, it is 3.30 and we have not had any rain at all so we wonder if we needed to change our plans at all.


I am having a lovely day.We went to Hobbycraft at Cheltenham and bought quite a few bits I didn't know I needed with OH's birthday money, also went to homesense there and Sainsbury's for coffee. Then we drove back and went to Table Table (stupid name for a restaurant, part of the brewers fayre chain) and had a very nice lunch, I had prawn cocktail, scampi and OH had Calamari and fish and chips and we shared a cherry and apple crumble.

No more to eat today although we brought home half a bottle of wine so shall drink that this evening I expect. :-D :-D <3

Happy Birthday Ann <3
I hope you have a lovely lunch today wherever you go.Hope the rain isn't going to be as awful as they say.
It is supposed to be due here much later today.

I think there are not many birds around at all
At the moment except the usual doves and pigeons.. Glad you had a good meal out Jane, was it a special occasion? We are hoping to eat out tomorrow lunch time for my birthday, but the weather is against us. We were going up to Webbs of Wychbold and then for lunch to the Harvester but that area is due thunderstorms and has a weather warning for flash floods so not a good idea to go driving up the motorway. So we shall have to go local instead somewhere. Mind you we are expecting rain as well so even that could be fun.

You're braver than me Jane. I love watching the birds but I am a real wuss when it comes to handling them or having them flap around me.

On one occasion, hearing noises in the bathroom, I opened the door and a bird was flapping about inside. I shut the door very quickly. When OH came in I told him and he had a look but the bird had managed to find the open window and fly out again. It had left a bit of a mess but as the bathroom was fully tiled it wasn't much of a problem clearing up.

Another time a starling managed to fall down the chimney. Luckily the fire wasn't alight and there was a fire guard in front so it didn't fly into the room but OH had to do his rescue act again.

The garden is still bird less but it won't be too long now before we get a couple of trees and some shrubs in. Then hopefully they will be back.

Kandj I had a lovely lunch out with my friends thanks.I am still full now so will not be having anythng else to eat today .The men are seeing to themselves this evening so I am havingtime off from the kitchen :-D

Yesterday I found a little bird sitting on one of our small tables in the lounge.I think it was a young House Sparrow.I don't know how long it had been here.I had one failed attempt at covering it with a teatowel and picking it up but it got out and flew to the top of a curtain before flying behind another and settling on the window sill.I managed at the second attempt and let it go onto one of the branches of the tree just outside .
I then discovered 'poop' down one of my walls :-S :-S..Can I get it off??? .No.
So we will have to see if we have some paint left over from the decorating last year and just try and paint over the mark.
I was just relieved that the cat wasn't in :-D

We have 3 Buddleias in our garden and still see very few butterflies, mainly cabbage whites. saw 2 peacocks about 3 weeks ago.

Hello All

A pleasant day here, not too hot which is fine for us two.

I think the birds have left us. We haven't seen any for 3-4 days?? They obviously are getting better food elsewhere!

Just the odd cabbage white butterfly fluttering in the borders too. Obviously I made the wrong decision to cut back the budlija earlier this year.

I had a flying ant land on my laptop last night??...no idea where that came from, but I sprayed all around before bed last night and thankfully no sign of any ants so far.

Hope Jane is enjoying her lunch with Fitz and her friend and that everyone else will have a good time today.

We had a little wren this morning, we sat and watched it from the conservatory as it went in and out of the trellis and hanging baskets. They are so tiny and so cute.

I didn't use that link Kense as I had to instal Quicktime to listen to the bird sounds, and we had a lot of problems when we had it installed before. Even getting it uninstalled turned out to be a bit of a nightmare.

But if you just enter something like "Wren Alarm Call" in to Google, you get offered a number of YouTube recordings. The wren alarm certainly sounds like the tic, tic that Jane described.

http://www.garden-birds.co.uk

go to the site, select robin or wren then tab down until you find the alarm call.

I think, once you have entered the home page, that the links I posted will work.

Hello All

You have had a long walk today Ann, I am feeling tired just reading where you have both been to today. I wouldn't have been comfortable in a field with cattle though, you are obviously much braver than I am.

Kense, I was curious to hear the robin/wren bird sounds but the link said I was "forbidden", a bit strange and like Jane, I admit that I am not good with computers.

Jane, how is Thomas coping with this hot weather? I think the birds have all been visiting your feeder because ours is still full. No birds wanting to visit us today.

I keep seeing the odd ant with wings on the kitchen floor. No idea where they are coming from. I have sprayed around the floor units and skirting boards just now.

No Worries Kense :-D..Thanks though for the info.
My window feeder is empty again.The birds must just nip in quick and go .No hanging about with the 'cat lurking'..I am surprised really that they still visit..
The birds seem to have been lining up for turns in the Bird Bath today ( it has been so hot))..OH just said he felt we should be offering them towels LOL

Sorry Jane, the links didnt work for me when I accessed them from my tablet. I think you have to enter the site from the home page first.

Thanks Kense but I can't get into the site :-S.It looks a bit complicated for me (being totally useless when it comes to computer stuff).I am pretty sure the little bird looked like a Wren :-D

The robin and wren both have tick tick type alarm calls.

This is the robin's:
http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/sounds/robin1.mp3
and this is the wren's
http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/sounds/wren1.mp3

Ann I did google the sound of the Wren .But it sounded nothing like the bird I saw.I think it is the same bird I heard in the front hedge earlier in the year.For the life of me I can't think what it was.I originally thought it was a Nut Hatch but someone put me right.
My Brain has gone..The sound is like a Tic Tic or Cick Click ( if that makes sense)