Hobbies and Crafts

Oh dear Mel it sounds like Robbie had been in a real old scrap with something :-(
My Chaffinches would never be brave enough to come to my hand.You are so lucky.

Well I have got so fed up refilling the window feeder several times a day (because of the Squirrel ,I decided to just put seed in it this afternoon.I wonder how well that will go down :-D

Ann I am sure you will have seen signs to Eggbuckland on the way down to Cornwall .When you come down off the main dual carriage way from Exeter there is a massive roundabout with a big Sainsbur*.Then as you go on the road towards the Tamar bridge from there Eggbuckland is just off and up to the left.

Lesley ,I did tell him about the squirrel and the nuts......He said he was off to find his gun lol We now have a Baby Bunny :-S.I think the gun is now in the summerhouse ready for action :-| :-|

By the way Eggbuckland has one of the most precise ringing teams in Devon.

I have a pair of chaffinch's who visit and last year they only ended up with one baby after a visist from the sparrow hawk.

This year she is so cheeky she flies at me asking for mealworms. Now she will take them from my hand but dos'nt stay long. she takes one and then comes back for another but if I put them on the patio she will take about four at a time.

At the moment she is eating me out of house and home with these live worms.

The sad news is that I lost one of my Robins this week. He would come to the back door and he had a claw missing off his right foot and his little toe was bigger than the rest. then he arrived with this foot completely bent back and feathers missing around his eyes. I am not sure if it was a fight with the other Robins or the hawk again. He has'nt been now for about four days. He was the tamest of the six that visit.

Vera isn't it lovely watching all the young birds, my favourite this year so far is seeing a young mistle thrush trying to balance on my washing line, I don't know how it didn't topple off :-D

Maryanna you can still buy hemp seed for bird feed and I wouldn't be surprised if it is in mixed seed too, maybe we will all end up growing what looks like cannabis :-D

Enjoy your holiday Ann, hope you see all sorts of different wildlife :-D

Jane has you OH noticed the squirrels nuts yet ;-)

Very special ongoing thoughts for kandj <3 hope to see you posting soon.

Lesley x

We were away again this weekend so before I went on Friday I filled all the seed feeders etc. and put up another large suet cake. Got back yesterday evening to find everything except the peanuts gone. I know it's the greedy starlings as they appear the second we put anything out.

I was feeling a bit grumpy as I refilled everything and starlings immediately appeared but then I had an incredible 20 minutes or so watching a mother starling with four fat fluffy chicks. She kept taking a suet pellet from the ground feeder and feeding bits to her chicks, then flying up for a bit of suet cake and bringing that down. One time as she hopped into the ground feeder, which is caged, one of the babies followed her. When Mum popped out again he couldn't find his way and was fluttering about getting a bit distressed. I was just thinking I would have to go out and lift the cage up when Mum hopped back in, prodded him round till he was pointing at an opening and then sort of pushed and out he fell.

All grumps forgotten after that.

I will look forward to exchanging pieces from the books when I return home Maryanna. Neither of OHs parents were born there though.

The Bradridges married into the family in 1844 Ann. !!!!!!! I am sure your OH won't remember that far back. Lol. !!!!

I have got a couple of books about Buckfastleigh as well, I wonder I we have the same one.


M. :-D

Neither I or my OH (not surprising really lol) have heard of eggbuckland. :-D

Just tested OH with those names Maryanna knowing how small Buckfastleigh was, but also knowing how bad he is at names, needless to say he didn't recognise them. I have a book on Buckfastleigh at home I shall have to have a look when we go back. What years are we talking about? OH's parents were the from about 1934.

Jane that was a coincidence wasn't it?

Love the squirrel story, we won't breath a word. :-D

I had some bpvery interesting grasses come up in the border under one of the bird feeders last summer.

Many years ago when my brother in law was a keen young police cadet at Hendon he came home for a weekend visit.

My in laws used to have a very big aviary and lots of different and interesting things used to come up on the floor of the cage.

He came in from the garden and announced that he really ought to arrest his parents as they were growing cannibis !!!!

I don't think they put it in bird seed mixture any more, too many people got into trouble.

The Swifts have been flying very low today, right over the garden, think it must be to windy higher up for them.

Some of my Buckfastleigh relations were Bradridge and Foale, Ann.

M.

It really is Ann.I have a friend here who had an Uncle who lived in Plymouth .When she mentioned his name I thought I know that name.Turned out that he was a good friend of my Parents and as a child I would often go to his house on a Sunday afternoon for tea :-D

When I filled up the Peanut ball down the bottom of the garden this morning I dropped a load on the grass.The Squirrel has found them and has been busy picking them up and burying them in the lawn :-S..I haven't told OH lol

Certainly a small world isn't it?

Maryanna my OH was born in Buckfastleigh and grew up there. I spent many weeks there and in Buckfast in the late 50s, 60s and 70s.

I went to youth club in Plympton Maryanna,and my Aunty used to live in Eggbuckland.!!!!! I grew up in Wembury.

Ann, edit.... and Jane ( sorry ) my grandads family were from Buckfastleigh and Kingsbridge. That's on my Mums side.

My gt grandads family on my dad's side were from Plympton and EggBuckland.

Hope you are still not getting that wind. ( that sounds bad, must be the pasties !!!) very blustery here again today.

M.
:-)

Ann my Cousin David was on HMS Eagle in the 60's .I think he was a chef.What a coincidence :-D When he was in Port he always used to come to us.
Eating in the street was such a no no with Mum .I don't know where she got her airs and graces .I worked in that indoor market on Saturdays for a while when I was about 15 selling Bread ,Rolls and Doughnuts cream cakes etc.What a small world.

Are you sure your Mum and my Mum were not sisters Jane, 'eating in the street, very common'.

Yes Oh was born and grew up in Buckfast, when he was in the RN And on HMS Eagle
I used to drive down (1964) to stay with his Dad 3 year old in tow and drive to Plymouth to meet him off the ship, one of the ports of call was the indoor market for crab for his Dad, and the second Ivor D's for pasties for us.

Ivor Dewdney Pasties Ann(spelling might not be quite right there) .I had many an Ivor Dewdney pasty when I lived in Plymouth :-D :-D.The shop is still there down by the indoor market.It was there when I was a child so has been there for many a year.My Mum would never let me and my sister eat one in the street.(she thought it was common).But of course as I got older and spread my wings I became common :-D :-D

When Mum was still here and me and my Sister used to go down to Plymouth to see her we often popped in to Ivor Dewdney and say "Thank Goodness Mum can't see us "LOL

We used to go to Kynance a lot as kids, last time I remember going was one Easter when it was brilliant sunshine and snowing at the same time !!!

We get some good pasties in Somerset but there are two fantastic pasty shops over the Devon border.

One in Lynmouth the other in Woolacombe, Yum, Yum. Haven't had a pasty for a couple of months or more. We have got an Oggy Oggy pasty shop in town but they never seem to have the right size with the right filling ready at the right time.

It's been blowing a gale here all day, with some terrific downpours every time I have tried to venture out in the garden.

M. :-)

Ours were delicious Jane, real Cornish pasties, a bit salty though,we don't use a lot of salt. The best ones in Devon used to be Ivor somebody's in Plymouth.

This is a lovely accommodation but is on three floors, lounge, gallery kitchen and dining room and down to bedrooms, bathrooms. I can guarantee that wherever I am O H will be calling me from up or down some stairs with a question. i will be worn out after a week.

Yes the cliffs are pretty dangerous, we stayed back in the wind. :-)