Hobbies and Crafts

kandj that's a lovely story and at the end of the day if you have good health and happiness what more can you ask for :-)

Today I noticed ducks and moorhens that seemed quite happy resting/drifting on flooded fields :-D I also saw to many rabbits to count that were suffering with myxomatosis :-( :-( :-( what a cruel disease :-|

Jane I can't remember how long the midwife visited me :-S I still have our girls little pink record books that were issued at birth so tomorrow I will have a look at them and try to work out how long I had visits for :-D

Lesley x

Kandj .I think a loud hailer is needed to call the birds lol. I can't understand why none have been yet :-S
I couldn't get any Berry flavoured suet pellets today and had to get the plain ones(with insects) although I can't see any bugs in them :-D.I thought they would be just sniffed at and ignored but by gum they have disappeared fast.I did see one little Blue Tit going through them and chucking out the new ones until it came to the fruit flavoured ones LOL .

Leslie ,I'm glad everything is going well with little Millie.I was trying to remember how long I had the Midwife .I think it was 10 days back in 1985.But I might be wrong.I know someone came for 10 days .Gosh that seems so long ago now.

Lesley, I will chop the cranberries in half as they are quite big (almost like cherries) and pass on the New Year treat for our birds in the back and front gardens. These will have to do in place of the prawn crackers as we haven't had a Chinese meal for months.

Your daughters surprise birth reminded me of many years ago when a neighbour who had two sons in their early 20's had been feeling "off-colour" for only a couple of weeks and the GP sent Margaret for a scan on her abdomen and the dreaded cancer was mentioned.
Margaret was (and is) a strong character and went on her own for the scan and was shocked when she was told to look at her baby on the screen!!
She came home on the bus (not many had cars back then) and phoned for Tom to come home from his office and then told him he was going to be a Dad again.... huge shock to them both and their family..... and us village friends. We all rallied round and when baby Gillian was born she wanted for nothing as pram, cot, bedding, clothes, etc were all given freely. Gillian is in her last year at Uni now and is a beautiful young woman who has given and received lots of happiness and love to her parents and her two big brothers.

Margaret and Tom recovered quickly from their shock as a couple of weeks later they had a new baby to care for 24x7, but that was far more joyous than being given bad news of a cancerous growth. Margaret felt embarrassed though, being in her late 40's with two sons in their 20's and not recognizing she was pregnant, Tom on the other hand had a permanent grin on his face for months and Gillian was brought up and doted on as her brothers left for Uni's. Life can be strange!.

I'm off now to fill up the feeders and cut up the cranberries to treat the birds. Still no takers for the window feeder..........yet??!!

kandj I wouldn't hesitate at putting cranberries out for birds although I wouldn't put to many out at a time to start with.

Ann our other granddaughter is only 16months and her mum and dad had kept loads of her almost new and new clothes, Moses basket, steriliser, first car seat you name we had it all stored in our spare bedroom so the only thing we had to grab was nappies, by Christmas day M must of had an outfit for everyday of the week, now she has an obscene amount of clothes mostly birth to 3mnths, why do people always buy new born size:-S

Jane we have muddled through bathing etc the way I use to do things :-D leaving out the shampoo and soap as that's frowned upon for the first 3 weeks :-S a very nice midwife did call for 10 minutes the first 4 days and again today which was her last day, as from tomorrow it will a health visitor that calls.

Lesley x

Lesley, that is something we hadn't thought of doing but I will give it a try tomorrow.

I also love the name Millie, she is sure to bring lots of love and joy to you all when you have all gotten over her arrival. Bless her, a real blessing at Christmas time. I hope that your daughter is coping with your help. I'm not sure the Community services are as supportive as they were, but I hope I am wrong in my assumption.

The neighbour opposite has a huge bushy conifer which the birds shelter in Ann. We don't have any trees in our front garden (only the one tree in the back that the neighbour half massacred earlier this year!!) but we do have a thick border of hedging which the birds love to hide and nest in, so there is shelter around.

I have some fresh cranberries which I am finding quite bitter and so I wondered if it was safe to feed this punnet to my garden birds without harming them in any way?

Kandj .Do you have any trees near the window where the feeder is? I think this helps.As they spot the feeder .Then we get little fisty cuffs as to who is getting there first lol
I'm sure they will find it eventually :-D

Leslie ,hopefully the midwife will visit daily and help with teaching the basics of looking after a new baby.It must all be such a shock still :-0 :-0.
Love the name Millie :-D

But home for Christmas Lesley that was lovely. Did babe have enough clothes and nappies etc with the shops all closed?

kandj maybe you could try not putting your window lights on until after dark to see if that helps.

Mum and babe came home Christmas eve, if Millie had been born a.m. chances are they would have been discharged the same day, no staying in to be shown how to bath a babe or anything anymore :-0

Lesley x

Ann, the only thing that is bright just now is the Christmas lights decorating our lounge window but they will come down on 6th, so not very long to wait and we will see if the little birds come to use the window feeder then.

I took Jane's advice and put the feeder up in the lounge which is where we spend most of our time. Hubby and I had considered moving the feeder to another window but the birds will take even longer to use it if I do this and so I have decided that it will stay where it has been since 19th Dec and we will try hard to remain patient.........watch this space lol.

Pheasants at Jane's and little Egrets at Lesley's..... all exciting to see. We would be pleased with a little wren, a tit or a robin and so are remaining ever hopeful.

Have you got your new baby home yet Lesley? Lots of cuddles then I'm sure.

Kandj, stand and look at your window from the birds' eye view. Is there anything reflecting that would put them off, anything moving inside the window. They do really take a long time to adapt. I wouldn't change the food, it won't be that, it will just be that the feeder is different.

It's wet and windy here in Essex too and we have a couple of shallow ponds in the garden that we didn't have yesterday :-0

kandj I hope everyday I am going to read your new feeder has attracted some birds :-(

Jane the cock pheasant we get in the garden roosts in one of our trees, if your pheasant returns to your garden at dusk watch him very patiently and you will possibly see where yours roosts :-)

Boys will be boys Ann :-D

MOG said he saw a pair of little egrets on the reservoir today, wish I had been with him.

Lesley x

Happy viewing Ann when your OH gets all your TV sets up and running....sounds fun!

It is cold. wet and windy and very dark. We have had lots of starlings and gulls, a few blackbirds and a couple of thrushes. All eating heartily and all looking very wet
poor things. Still nothing venturing near the window feeder, despite me braving the bad weather and refilling the container with new berry pellets. Maybe if I just used something more ordinary the little birds would come visiting??? Watch this space!

That pheasant must have been light on his feet Jane. Birds and animals don't like the reflected light from the lens which is why they fly off when you point the camera. you have to get lucky. We have had a blackbird sitting in our apple tree where the feeders are the last couple of days so gradually the birds are returning.

It is horrible hear still, wet windy and gloomy.

And our son has a lot to answer for. We now have a 40inch smart TV (HD/3D) because the sport looked good on his!!! Thankfully we can't fit in a 50 inch!!! Well I say we have got one. it is still in its box while OH sorts out the old one etc, so we had to move the tree. And no he just couldn't wait until the decorations are down!!!

Then...... Then, my office has to be 'adjusted' so the one from downstairs can go in here. And the one from in here can go in the front room and the one in the front room can go to the tip. It is all go. (and nothing to do with birds!!)

Ours have got theirs on today Ann……It is horrible weather :-S.
I have been sitting in my chair on and off for hours trying to get a pic of my big blackbird on the window feeder.She just doesn't give me chance to turn the camera on before she's off.I did get one just now but it is not a good one so I will persevere.
Yesterday I spotted the big Male Pheasant prancing around on the top of my neighbours hedge (2 doors down).He looked so unsteady up there and ridiculous lol
I don't think I have seen a Pheasant quite that high up before as they normally mooch around on the ground .

I hope everyone is enjoying the first day of the New Year.Even with the grotty weather.

I am expecting any day soon to look out of the window and see the birds wearing flippers. Sooo much rain here and very windy again.

Thanks to Ann for that write up, like Jane. I am also unsure what to feed the birds that will treat them and not harm them at all.
No Chinese food at Christmas or New Year Lesley so can't share the crackers with my feathered friends. I will refresh the berry pellets this morning, see what happens then?

Hope all is well with your daughter and granddaughter Lesley and you all have got over the surprise delivery...... one special Christmas you will all remember I'm sure.

Wishing everyone Good Health and much Happiness in 2014. xx

Happy new year to all of you

Wishing you all a Happy and Peaceful New Year.

Lesley x

Thanks for that info Ann.I am never actually sure what I can or can't feed the birds.
I don't think I will put any of our Xmas Cake crumbs out for them as there is so much Brandy in it the little birds will be toppling off their branches LOL

I would like to wish everyone now a HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2014 as I am off out to neighbours for a few hours.

Just posting this as a reminder.

Cooked turkey fat is completely unsuitable for birds for several reasons.

It remains soft even when cooled, meaning it could smear onto birds' feathers and ruin their water-proofing and insulating qualities.
Birds need clean, dry feathers to survive the cold and a layer of grease would make this virtually impossible.
The softness of turkey fat once cooked also means it is impractical to make popular ‘bird cake' where you mix fat with bird seeds, as it will not harden enough to hold its shape.
The fat in roasting tins cannot be separated from other leftover elements such as meat juices. This concoction can go rancid very quickly, especially if left in a warm kitchen for a while before being put outside, and form an ideal breeding ground for salmonella and other food poisoning bacteria.
Birds are prone to bacterial infections at this time of year as their defences are low and their energy levels depleted with the cold.
Also, many people add other ingredients to a joint of meat before roasting including rubbing it liberally with salt in order to crisp the skin. High levels of salt are toxic to garden birds.

Kirsi Peck, RSPB Wildlife Adviser, says: "Using fat from roasting tins to feed to garden birds is one big no-no.

"Roasting tin fat will probably be mixed with lots of other juices which will go off very quickly and cause disease on bird tables. It could also damage birds' feathers which are so important for keeping them healthy and warm. And any salt added to meat can have a devastating effect of its own. Christmas time always brings out the suggestion that it's a good idea and people want to do all they can to help wildlife, but in reality, they could be killing them with kindness."

Good leftovers - Cake crumbs, Cheese, rice, spuds
But the RSPB suggests many other leftover Christmas scraps which would be beneficial to garden birds including Christmas cake crumbs, mince pie pastry crumbs and biscuit crumbs. Other suitable leftovers include mild grated cheese, cooked or uncooked rice, breakfast cereals, cooked potatoes and fruit.

The charity says that additional feeding at this time of year can be the difference between life and death, particularly for some of the smaller garden birds.

Natural food will be in short supply as trees and bushes are covered in snow and frost and the ground is hard.

All meats fats are bad
The cooking juices from all other meats as well as turkey are equally as unsuitable for feeding to garden birds.