Hobbies and Crafts

salt, is a deterrent! Gwyn

Clever..........
Seems a bit pointless putting crushed eggshells or gravel around plants to stop them being eaten then?

Amazing photo's Bob. I have never seen any so close up ever before. Thank you

We have been well entertained today watching mother birds feeding young ones from the ground feeder. There have been wrens, sparrows and starlings, and it would seem that even mother birds have their favourites as some baby birds definitely had more food fed to them than others!!

As I understand it, Gwyn,
the mucus the snail secretes, allows it to traverse a razor blade edge without harm, so a few liddle prickles is no bovver what so ever!

Determination Gwynne :-D

Snails...... A pain for gardeners, but one I saw this week had me wondering how it had managed to get where it was.

Alongside the edge of a public footpath was a self-seeded small young gorse bush.-
About 2 feet from the ground, amidst all the flowers and prickles was a large snail. It hadn't just been dropped, as there were marks showing it had been moving on the bush.

HOW ?

I think mum is saying 'for goodness sake get a move on'!

Now you will have to erect a To Let sign Bob.

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Bob :-D empty nest syndrome :-D :-D :-D Time for a nice cut lawn now, no excuse.

well, three went this morning, quite willingly, but the last one took a bit of cajoling, all have gone now, looks like all ten were successful..........
what do I do now?.........I suppose I'll have to get the lawnmower out........

Bob

Sure looks weird, four trying to sleep where ten were huddled together, looks like they cant get used to having so much room........
Bob

All very interesting Bob, you will miss them when they all fly the nest.

Hope Jane and daughter had a reasonable car journey and will enjoy Devon.

Maryanna, I hope that the weather is kind so you and OH can have a wonderful anniversary holiday in Scotland.

Vera, I'll also keep my fingers crossed that all is good in Devon and Scotland.

Ann, hope the weather is dry enough for you to carry on working in your garden.

Cold weather here this morning and then became warmer. Dried all the bedding, so I am a happy bunny today.

So interesting to see it 'real' isn't it Bob? I expect they are also feeding the young fledgelings as well ar the moment. Are they blue tits or great tits? Have the feathers got any colour do you know?

they are still coming in and feeding the remaining chicks......so all is well at the mo....

the tower is running XP and 'windows camera and scanner wizard' is getting the out put from the web cams.
this shows real time action, and has the facility to " Snapshot" the activity in the nest, and to save the image to a folder.......which in turn I transfer to a flash drive, edit, and then put that onto my lappie which is internet abled.......and so on to keepsafe,,,,,,a bit long winded, I have something like 290 snaps taken mainly early morning or late evening, since she started building the nest, over the last nearly six weeks..........something I've never seen before in real life........

I hope Jane and Maryanna enjoy their holidays and the weather is kind to them. You never can tell in this country. About 5 years ago we were staying in Fort William in March so I packed vests and warm jumpers and didn't need any of it. It was warm and, most of the time, dry. I'll keep my fingers crossed for good weather for both ladies.

Bob, I managed at last to see your pics. but I had to sign back in between each picture!! Great photos and good to hear they are fledging. It'll be interesting to see if they have all survived. Mum and Dad must be ready for a rest by now; I should think they are worn out keeping that tribe fed :-D

Well, it seems that through the morning some of the birds have flown,
as far as I can tell, six have gone, four left, when THEY go I'll check for corpses,

how do they group when they leave? do they immediately become self sufficient?

I recall when my daughters' Martins went they had flying lessons for about a week before they dispersed...........

Bob

Hope Jane has a good time in Devon.

Maryanna, enjoy your week and hope your feet don't swell too much. I do know what you mean as I have the same trouble.

No doubt you could do with fewer not more magpies!!

Our conservatory roof leaks sometimes too (glass panels). Keep saying we should get it fixed then it seems to seal itself. :-) :-S

I'm packing too Jane, just don't know what to take. I am not going to be able to lift my case at this rate, I have got enough clothes to last a month, all just in case. When we went to Austria a couple of years ago, we virtually ran out of clothes as it rained so much everything got soaked through and we couldn't get it dry as the radiators were all tuned off.

It would help if we didn't have some builders coming later on to repair the conservatory roof which still has been leaking since the bad weather of the winter before last. I think that is the very last of the repairs from all the wind and rain damage we had. Although Himself lifted some of the re laid patio in order to put his soaker hose feeder under it.

We have to keep putting buckets and bowls under the drips which have been filling with alarming speed. We were worried we might come back to an indoor swimming pool if we din't get it sorted. They were going to come earlier in the week......... but it was raining too much !!

The Magpies have three babies, all five of them were sitting on the bird bath, I think Mum and Dad were showing the youngsters how to soak bread, they nearly toppled it over, great big things.

Have a good week everyone, might try to log in if we manage to get any wifi.

Coach goes at 9am tomorrow morning from the next town, the worst bit is the two days it takes to get there, and back, At least Himself can enjoy the journey but my feet always swell up so.

M. :-)

Just packing and getting sorted now .Hopefully it will be a fairly early get away in the morning.
Back again next week :-D

Many thanks for the photoblog link. All very interesting Ann. Your gt grandson Luke is a little boy now, but still has his lovely smile bless him. Your garden is very colourful so lots of hard work there then. A pleasure to see. Thank you.

Hope Jane and daughter have a good journey to Devon tomorrow and enjoy their time away together over the BH weekend.

Maryanna, I hope that you and your husband will have a good time in Scotland too.