Hobbies and Crafts

Oh my word Ann what a huge ship !!!!.Just had a look at the 'virtual tour' !!!!.I am not surprised that you wanted to find a bit of peace and quiet on the sunbathing deck for the over 21s :-D :-D

Hello All

Glad that you are home safely Ann and I hope that you have got over the jet lag.
That ship is huge but I think you will have enjoyed the scenery and experience too.

It will be noisy in your garden for a while Vera but it is sure to be worth all the mess to think how lovely your garden will be at the end of it all.

The lone magpie has disappeared (perhaps flown over to Maryanna's garden).
We rarely get them, it's starlings that come in droves and eat everything in sight.
A wet and windy rainy day today. When are we going to get a dry Summer??

Poor little sparrow with a broken leg Jane. Hope Thomas doesn't catch it for dinner!

The ship statistics are: 14 decks. Tonnage 130,0000. Length 1,004 feet capacity 3,690 guests (plus crew total 1,386). So yes Jane big! Carnival breeze(has a website) is the Carnival flagship. :-D

Glad you are home safe and sound Ann...4,000 passengers !!!.It sounds like a pretty big cruise ship.I am guessing that it would not be you normal choice of holiday :-D.Nice to have the adult space on board for a bit of quiet sunbathing .OH and I have done one Cruise to the Norwegian Fjords and it was a child free ship :-D.

I bet the noisy Sheep could be missing their babies Maryanna :-(..We don't have sheep here but cows and i hate to hear the distressing mooing when Mums and calves are separated .One year when that happened the 'Mums' escaped from the field and all came down our road trampling in and out of peoples gardens !!!!.The Police had to try and block off the road before the cows got as far as joining the A14(dual carriage way).This was all going on at 5am in the morning.The noise of mooing and hooves was just awful .I do have a picture imprinted in my mind though of a Policeman running down the middle of the road with his arms waving trying desperately to round up these Cows(and failing miserably lol)

We have a little Sparrow with a broken leg :-( :-(..It just drags the leg behind).and it's tail looks a bit at an odd angle ,but that might just be it has to be like that for balance.
It has been around for a while so is managing to fly and eat.Not nice to watch him walk though.

Are the sheep maybe being separated from their lambs Maryanna?

Why is it that wood pigeons think they can balance delicately on the lightest feeders? Wings flapping they cling on for grim death.

Welcome back Ann, look forward to hearing about your trip, glad you had a good time.

If only we had just one Magpie, there were about a dozen on the lawn yesterday.

A big fat wood pigeon broke one of my feeders the other week, stupid things think they are sparrows.

The sheep over the back ar being very noisy today, we don't usually hear them very much, lots of Baaing going on.

M.

Glad you are safely home Ann. Hope you are getting over the jet lag.

It took us ages to get any birds to come to the garden when we first moved in here and I think we are going to have to start all over again in 3 or 4 weeks time. Our garden makeover has started so the bird feeding station has had to come down and there is absolutely nowhere I can put any food down. I have managed to stick a shallow bowl of water in one corner but I think the noise of machines being used will frighten them away. :-(

I'm home!!!

Full report some time later when I rejoin the land of the living instead of being half asleep.

Hello, we are home, wonder if you missed me?

I am jet lagged, just got in from a flight from Miami so not sure which way is up. We have been on a 6 day cruise round the Western caribbean, we called at three Islands, although we opted to stay on the ship and enjoy the peace while the majority of the 4000 is passengers went ashore. We visited, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel (a small Island off the coast of Mexico) The weather was good, 83 to 90 degrees all week day and night.
I didn't particularly want to go on the cruise which was won by our son and given to us. It was an experience and I am glad we went. But I am not sure I would repeat the experience. It was a big ship and so very clean everywhere, all day every day they were cleaning, the food was ok not fantastice but good. I am pretty certain we were the only British on board, most of the passengers were American or Mexican. And, although we thought we had found out when American school holidays were, there were a lot of children on board, from tiny to teenagers. Luckily there was one sunbathing deck only open to over 21s. So you can guess where we spent most of our time.

Loved the sound of the fish menu Maryanna, my favourite food. Favourite meal of the week for me was shrimp cocktail (prawn) followed by lobster tail. and finishing with creme brulee.

Kanji there will another one there somewhere :-D.You never get just the one Magpie.
I can well believe the story of someone with that many cats.What an amount of money though!!!!!.I always think it rather sad when you hear of these things .Was the lady a recluse?
I'm not sure when Ann is back .But I hope she has had a wonderful time.

Cloudy here with some sun but feeling really quite warm.I am in just a sleepless top


:-D

Hello All

Cloudy and cool here in Yorkshire today. Is it today that Ann and OH return home?

I have spotted a Magpie Jane. Just the one. Now how does the poem go?....
1 for sorrow??? well, I hope it's joined by another and I can think of 2 for joy then.

Would you believe that the pigeon has been back yet again! Not on the window feeder but he flew onto the windowsill and kept popping his head against the glass window and looking intently into the lounge...... very weird methinks.

I saw headlines in this mornings newspaper of a lady who lived with 122 cats and spends £90k a year on them. Can that be right?? More money than sense imho.

Off now to wash out the two birdbaths and refill the feeders now.

Wow Kandj.That is a big bird for a window feeder.I am surprised it didn't come unstuck .I bet it didn't expect to see 2 humans looking out LOL.I did have a Magpie land briefly on ours yesterday but as soon as I shot out of my chair it was off.Touch wood it hasn't been back .We have a few Magpies about at the moment ,and they are not my favourite birds at all.

Well Thomas has just had another mouse.OH intercepted just in time and shooed him back down the path with mouse firmly clamped in his mouth (Thomas not OH :-D)
We are going have to keep a close eye on him as i do not want little pressies in he house.Not like my friend who lives down the lane.His cat drags all sorts in through the cat flap.Including a Pheasant and a Squirrel !!!!!!

Yes Jane, was only joking. Thomas is only doing what comes naturally but I'm glad our neighbours cats only drink the milk and don't give me any little "gifts" ha ha.

I'm sure Ann and OH are having the time of their lives. A wonderful experience, she is sure to let us know all about it on her return...... I think 21st was mentioned earlier.

Well. Today we had a pigeon fly on to the window feeder, that hasn't happened ever before. The bird hovered around and then landed on the top of the feeder and then flew away as quickly as it had come. Two seconds later the pigeon came back.
It looked into the lounge and turned its head this way and that way and just stood staring............. we must look very strange ha ha. We both had a good view and the bird just stood still and then flew off without eating anything at all from the feeder.
Very odd!!

Touch wood no more Kandj.Well not that I have seen.I couldn't put him in the naughty corner as it is just Nature .I do think he knows I wasn't too happy though lol

Bet Ann is having great time now on the cruise.I wonder if she might manage to get some pics of any exotic birds.
Nothing much happening here ,although I have seen 2 Moorhen :-D.The trouble is they don't hang around for long now as they must know 'Thomas' is about :-S

Jane..... uuuggghhh!!!! send Thomas straight back to the naughty corner!!

I'm glad you enjoyed your meal Maryanna.I'm afraid it would have been my worst nightmare.I like Haddock ,Cod and at a push maybe Sea Bass ,but that is about it on the fish front.

Kandj .I won't go into the details BUT I just managed to shut the back door (yesterday) to stop Thomas coming in with a bird in his mouth.He then sat under the patio table and ate the whole thing :-( :-(.Not a feather or anything left!!!!!,just a bit of blood on the paving :-S...I know it is just nature ,but I hate it.He doesn't even have the excuse of being hungry any more....But he is still a dear and here to stay I think :-D :-D

Hello All

The meal sounds good to me Maryanna as I love fish and the menu sounds delicious.

Jane, is your pusscat still in the naughty corner???!!!

A beautiful sunny day here today. I think that Summer has arrived at long last.

The usual birds at the window and ground feeders, it's lovely to see the fledglings now.

The meal was lovely, it was a fish tasting menu, so all fish.

I am not normally too keen on fish, it will usually be the last thing I choose to eat but this was four courses, fish soup, cured salmon, skate and Mullet all done differently and perfectly cooked. Along with a glass of fizz, of course, and a lemony pudding.

We then met our eldest son and wife in the pub next door for a few drinks afterwards. Bump coming along very nicely, she certainly is a fidget bum, bouncing about all over the place.

We have just come back from a picnic on the moor. There were two little grey Wagtails pottering about and at one point I looked up are there were NINE buzzards circling overhead. Looked like a load of Vultures waiting for one of to peg out !!!!

Lovely and sunny here but blinking cold.

M.

:-D Vera I hope your visitors have arrived.....any wine left?
Another lovely meal out then Maryanna !!!!..You have done well haven't you :-D :-D.Your celebrations have gone on and on .What a year to remember :-D

Bet Ann is out at sea now with lots of sun and hot weather maybe on the balcony supping a cocktail or two:-)
I am cooking Roast Beef....and just caught 'the cat' lapping the beef juices out of the little cup I had drained it off into :-| :-| :-|.....so what was left has now been poured away :-(...I must remember cover everything.He has gone out with a flea in his ear now.

Hope you enjoyed your meal Maryanna. Also hope Ann is a bit warmer than we are. Had lots of rain and now it is grey, damp and cold. I'm waiting for friends to arrive at the moment. They are staying a couple of days so I'm hoping tomorrow will be better weather.

Just looked out of the window and there are 12 starlings and three fat pigeons on and around the feeder and the 6" square fat cake OH put out this morning has almost gone. A couple of them are having a right squabble over the remains of the fat cake. No wonder the little birds are keeping out of the way.

I think friends may have got lost - they have never been here before. If they don't arrive soon I'm opening the wine anyway :-D

Maryanna that was a nice kind thought from your brother in law. Enjoy your meal out.

Heavy rain for most of today which put paid to all thoughts of the gardening plans that I had in mind for today. Tomorrow is forecast to be pretty much the same too.
Hey ho..... at least it will save me a job of watering the garden and all the tubs!

Hardly any birds today, so I guess they are hiding in the shrubbery to keep warm and dry. Sensible idea methinks. You wouldn't guess that it is June would you?
Ann and OH are sure to be enjoying their special cruise in the warm Med.