Hobbies and Crafts

Lesley, is that Millie? She is a little cutie bless her, I hope all continues to be good at your home.

I also have had more than enough trouble with plumbers in the past, so I'm happy not to talk about them Jane.

Ann, it was the first siting of the Sparrow Hawk and I hope it will be the last, although it is an amazing bird but I don't want it here to attack any other garden birds. I would freak out if I saw a dead bird and lots of feathers in the garden (I admit to being a wuss)

One neighbour hadn't caught sight of the Sparrow Hawk but the other one had already told me that he had seen what looked like a buzzard at the bottom of his garden tearing a pigeon to pieces (ugh!), Bob went indoors to get his camera but sadly the flash frightened the large bird who flew off with the pigeon in its beak.

There have been gulls and Rooks or are they Crows?? I'm never sure, but there were 3 of them strutting up the and down our road like they owned it ha ha.
They are black and shiny and BIG!! No idea where these have appeared from??

Rain and more rain here which began around 1pm and it is still pouring it down and the drive is looking flooded but hopefully will dry our overnight. There was shocking TV coverage of flooding in Gloucester area last week Ann, I do hope that your home is nor affected by this dreadful wet weather?

Lesley ,it is a lovely theatre ,all wooden and just a great atmosphere ..it's just those darned uncomfortable seats :-S :-S..Maybe your MIL is a descendant of the Jane Seymour :-D :-D ;-) I expect little Emilie thinks Millie is like a little dolly now .Just wait until Millie start to invade Emilie's space when she starts getting into things lol .It might be a different picture then :-| :-|.Long may peace reign :-D

I must go and have a loo to se if any of our snowdrops are peeping through .They are normally quite early.
I went and bought more suet pellets and when I got home I looked at the window feeder and there wasn't a crumb left in it.I have never seen it totally empty. :-0
So it is now full to the brim again .I will probably have to top it up again by lunchtime tomorrow.

One day off tomorrow from ssh!(plumber).He is back on Friday.
Just changed the bed,hoovered and damp dusted so now we can go to bed.
We still have the big male Pheasant pottering about in the garden
:-D

It's good to read that the sparrowhawk has stayed from your gardens Ann and kandj:-)

Today has again been like spring here, I'm sure the sun and longer daylight hours is confusing the birds and plants......some of my snowdrops are flowering already:-S

Jane I've looked at google images and I see what you mean about the seating at The Swan Theatre, it certainly looks like a very impressive building though.....my mother in law was a Seymour but her name wasn't Jane:-D ;-)
I wont mention plumbers :-( :-0 :-|

Millie seems to be doing fine. (I'm superstitious and don't like tempting fate by saying everything is hunky dory). I can't believe how gentle our 16mnth granddaughter is with her, Emilie is normally like a tornado but with Millie she changes into a mill pond:-D will it last, I wonder :-0

Lesley x

Don't mention plumbers Kandj :-S :-S.Our shower unit came out earlier and I was called to go and look at the floor underneath.Was told we were lucky not to have gone through :-0 :-0.So all the boarding and my cushion floor has had to come up .The mess is dreadful and all the dust and muck has blown through into the bedroom so i will have to change all the bedding before we go to bed tonight !!
New taps in the big bathroom look great though and we have a good flow of the hot water now :-D :-D

Think I will leave OH here with the men this afternoon and I will go into town and get more food for the birds and take a couple of bits back to M&*

There are 2 Blue Tits peering through the window on the feeder lol Think they are watching OH eat his Cheese on Toast :-D
I bet your Sparrow Hawk is lurking somewhere nearby and scaring the feathers off all the birds around you :-(

Kandj, we haven't seen 'our sparrow Hawk either, which is large and I am sure is a female. Long may she stay away, and your too.

I have stopped putting washing out now with all this rain, I dry the washing indoors.

Goodness Jane, that would be impossible for some older people. Do they warn you how difficult it is to get on the seats?

Lesley, how is baby Millie? You will all have a tale to tell her of her arrival when she is older.

This is an interesting thread and many thanks to you all, I am learning a lot.

Jane, the theatre trip sounded like an exercise session but at least your large bed was a big treat and sounds enjoyable. Have the plumbers finished at yours yet?

Lesley, I also googled the description of the mean looking bird and have read the info about the female Sparrow Hawk. Now if the male one came-a-calling and ate up the mice that would be ok BUT I don't want the female Sparrow Hawk to eat my garden birds even if they are a fussy lot ha ha. How is baby Millie and Mummy today

No sign of the Sparrow Hawk so far, but actually no sign of many of our usual birds either. It is dry and bright here in Yorkshire but that is how it began yesterday and I was fooled and put out bedding and towels and then the rain came and soaked the lot. I was not a happy bunny!!

Thanks Leslie .Yes It was nice to get away .We went to see 'Bring up the Bodies ' at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon…I have to say it was not really my kind of thing (OH Thoroughly enjoyed) …but biggest trouble was how uncomfortable the seats were.Down in the stalls the seats are fine but we were up in the first Gallery It is hard to explain but just 2 rows of seats.First row lower (us on the back one higher) To get on the seats you had to lift your leg up a good 15/18 inches to get on the floorboard bit and then hoist yourself into the actual seat.It was just like trying to get on a flipping horse.It was exhausting LOL .Hotel bed was huge …lovely as I didn't even know OH was in it :-D.I slept like a log :-D :-D

Got home to find the Feeder almost empty.My Son said he did refill this morning .I do believe he did as I checked how many suet pellets were in the bag when I left yesterday and they were well down.I have refilled again this afternoon and it is almost empty AGAIN !!!…I think they all must have the Munchies :-D

Kandj…The Sparrow Hawk might well be the reason you have no little ones visiting the feeder.They won't want to been seen hanging around if there is that big bird about !!!.Lets hope it moves off to different territory .It is amazing how birds know when there are birds of prey around.I know here when I see a sudden 'rush' of birds in the sky and noise that there will be ether a Red Kite,Buzzard or Sparrow Hawk about :-S

Oh dear kandj unfortunately we that feed birds do give sparrowhawks an easy hunting ground :-|

After Ann had her unwelcome visitor I read up on sparrowhawks, the female is up to 25% bigger than the male and she will often take starlings, thrushes even wood pigeons were as the male usually takes the smaller birds, they will both take mice, voles and young rabbits and when food is very scarce they will eat insects and beetles :-0

Lesley x

Edit...... Sorry Jane I meant to ask if you enjoyed your night away ;-)

The Sparrowhawk hasn't been back and we still have lots of the usual blackbirds, thrushes, collard doves, pigeons, starlings, magpies and gulls flying around today.
All are very hungry and lots of them, but still no tiny birds using the window feeder...... it may have to go up for sale, booted out or taken to the charity shop....nobody is interested here ha ha....... perhaps tomorrow we might get lucky?

You are right Lesley we do have some very fussy birds here in Yorkshire who turn their nose up at fresh cranberries but can't get enough wild bird seed in the tree feeders. It's been cold and wet as I filled up the feeders this afternoon but tomorrow is meant to be dry and calmer in our area. I hope they are correct.

Kandj no thank you, much as I think they are beautiful I wish theyw ould stay in the countryside and you may keep yours. That may well be why you are not seeing the little birds as it may be visiting early morning 'on patrol' so to speak. :-( :-(

Oh no!! Ann we have your Sparrowhawk in our garden!!!

I opened the kitchen window blind earlier and this bird was sat on our garden wall.... it frightened the life out of me as I am only used to seeing little sparrows or blackbirds there. Hubby and I haven't seen this bird close up before and it was in no hurry to move so we could keep having a look at it.

It was deep brown head and back feathers and a hooked beak. It looked like a bird of prey but we couldn't name it until I put details on Google and several photo's of the Sparrowhawk came up.
It was definitely this species as it had the mottled breast and fluffy legs. Now that's a surprise that we weren't expecting. It sat on the wall about 10 mins and I watched as it turned its head around looking up the drive. I thought its head was on a swivel ha ha. I was waiting for it to fly off so I could see its wing span but after a while it dropped into next doors garden.
I was brave and went armed with some bread to feed this bird (before I knew it was a Sparrowhawk!) but I couldn't see it. That's all I need flying around when I am hoping for tiny birds to come and use our window feeder. We both agreed that it was a beautiful bird but had mean-looking eyes and hooked beak........ not nice for little birds at all. If this is your Sparrowhawk bird Ann, do you want it back?!!

kandj still no birds visiting your new feeder and cranberries going uneaten :-S you've got some fussy birds in Yorkshire :-D

My little part of Essex has been spring like today with temperatures reaching 12c :-0

Lesley x

Ann I had trouble sending email pic to you last night.I will try again ,but am just off now for rest of the day and night and won't be back until tomorrow sometime.
Plumber just arriving.!!

Still very wild here although as yet not raining.

We did have blue tits and chaffinches this morning in the garde, so an improvement.

Ooops! Sorry of course it is Jane and not you Ann (Senior moment ha ha).
Lovely warm sweater and love the colour which really suits you.

A much calmer and dryer day here in Yorkshire today thank goodness Fingers crossed and counting down the time when our little feathered friends will come and peep through our lounge window.......watch this space!

Jane with plumbing work I am pleased to say, good luck with that jane. The blue is actually a fleece sweater and yes taken last January standing in the conservatory door with the garden behind me. :-)

Ann, the birds are finding their way back into your garden again. Let's hope that the sparrowhawk stays far away. I like your cardigan. A lovely colour and with all the snow in the background I'm guessing that the photograph was taken last year?

All the Xmas decorations put away and we are all tidy again and just waiting now for the little birds to come to feed from our window feeder.

Best of luck with your plumbing work tomorrow Ann. I hope everything goes as planned

We were really pleased this morning when 5 long tailed tits were in our apple tree and then they moved really close to the house. they seemed to be finding bugs to eat on a hazel tree. they didn't stay long but they were there.

Oh Myxomatosis is a dreadful thing.I know in the past I have had a couple of rabbits in the garden with it,and they suffer so much.The first one we had I rang a chap down the road and he very kindly came and did the deed for me.Poor little thing hadn't moved for hours so was easy to get hold of.The other one I had had been around for some days and was gradually getting worse.I rang my vet and they said if I could get it I could take it in and they would put it down.So I got an old towel and popped it over it and put it in a cardboard box and drove to the vets quickly as it had lots of blow flies on it :-S :-S keeping my fingers crossed the flies stayed under the towel !!.It is giving me goosebumps now just remembering it.

Ann I think i have managed to get a pic of the Blackbird on the feeder,but I need to find the lead to my camera so I can send it to your blog.Everything seems to have been mislaid over Christmas.
All Decorations and Tree have gone now and for the first time in a few weeks my lounge is all nice and clean and tidy :-D…..Not that it will stay that way for long lol.
All kicks off again on Monday when the Plumber comes to replace new shower ,screens,and tray in the ensuite,new loo and sink downstairs ,new taps in bathroom and some fancy pump to help with better hot water flow to taps upstairs .Lots of new pipe work in the loft I think too :-S :-S.We only got straight just before Christmas after a new Woodburner and re decs in lounge and diner.OH is ready for a melt down .He thought retirement was going to be peaceful .(I don't think so somehow )

The starlings, blackbirds, thrushes, magpies, collared doves and pigeons are leaving the chopped cranberries......what a fussy lot of birds we have around here!

We turned off the fairy lights yesterday Lesley but the little birds still haven't come to use the window feeder. Hubby wondered if they came very early morning before we opened the blinds but that's not been happening because the berry pellets are still there untouched???

We are still very optimistic that at some point the tiny birds will come along and it will be exciting to see them.......watch this space ha ha. Good job I am a patient person or I would have binned the feeder after 16 days with no visitors at all.

It is a dark, wet and windy cold day here in Yorkshire and I can't blame the tiny birds for staying in the hedges and out of the bad weather. It is forecast to be the same over the next 2-3 days, roll on Springtime.