Hobbies and Crafts

Thank you Ann. We are all packed, checked in,pots have had their last water (though a neighbour will come round the side and do the tomatoes), and bird feeders filled again. Nothing more to do but have something to eat and try to get some sleep.

I admire anyone who can mix and match a few pieces. I am not that organised and shoes are always a problem. I expect I have packed too much but luckily we are flying BA and they have a 23kg baggage allowance.

Kandj, I hope you don't see anymore mice now your nephew has blocked a hole.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ waves. Bye for now

Fingers crossed Kandj that their escape route has been blocked. Best not to feed the birds if it is so upsetting for you. Well done to your nephew for helping you.

I also have done the two colours mix and match, but I did get bored with it, and found I took more in number to compensate for boredom.

We have been working out how many euros we need, luckily we brought some back from Spain so don't need too many as the rate has gone down a lot.

Have a lovely holiday Vera and we will look forward to reading all about it when you get back. :-) :-)

I was busy on Wednesday as my nephew came after work and between us we cleared and swept out the garage. No mice nests in there HUGE RELIEF, but Damian found a hole in the brickwork behind the dryer which he filled in. We think this is where the mice have been getting in. We also found a plastic bag of grass seed that I don't remember buying. The mice have been feasting on this as there were loads of droppings around.... ughhhh. All cleaned now and hopefully this joint effort will have stopped the mice infestation now. Damian called yesterday and checked the poisoned bait boxes but no signs of any mice or any nibbling of the bait either, so that's good.

Ann, I also was concerned with the thought of finding random mice around poisoned and burst open but Jane has reassured me that it won't happen. I would freak out!!

It is very many years now since we went on holiday but I had got the packing down to a fine art. I would take clothes of just navy and cream colouring and mix and match them so my case was the smallest but on all photographs I never wore the same outfits twice. It was a tip I had read in a magazine and it worked so well.
Hubby on the other hand threw everything bar the kitchen sink into his huge case but he was younger and much fitter back then, so it wasn't a problem to handle it.

Not long to go now Vera........ oooooh, I'm sure you will both be a little excited!!
Have a safe journey, a wonderful time together and share it when you get back.

I do feel sad that my bird feeders and bird food have been taken to the charity shop,
I am not risking having mice around again. A month is too long and it has made me a nervous wreck being forced into getting rid of so many dead mice. I don't want to repeat it again. I'll leave all my birds to find there way into Jane's garden now.

Jane I am a packer more like you than Vera! I do try and limit shoes but men can get away with 2 pairs but women need more! I have had to get strict with myself as OH can't lift as much these days. I have a list like Vera and piles of clothes like you which I add to and subtract from.

Just one and a half sleeps to go then Vera :-D :-D. Can't wait to hear about your trip.
I bet the case is ready and open now for all the clothes to be packed.I wish I was a late packer like you. I tend to start piling clothes up at least a week beforehand ,but then just before packing I either add more or take things out LOL I am always glad when we shut the front door and get in the car as I then can't change my mind then :-D I always take far too much and only wear a quarter of the clothes I have taken. As for the number shoes !!! I won't mention them :-S . My OH nearly has a fit when he sees how many pairs I have packed .He just takes 2 pairs. We have our own suitcases and mine always weighs soooo much more than his.
Have a wonderful holiday xxx.... All your little Frogs will have a great time while you are away :-D :-D

Ann, I have always been a last minute packer. Taxi is booked for 4.30 am on Saturday so I will probably pack Friday afternoon. I do have ready a list of things I mustn't forget and I have checked that the clothes I want to take are washed and ironed, so it is just a case of gathering things together and putting them in the cases.

Kandj, I hope your OH's back isn't too painful after his fall. The bait boxes will hopefully put paid to any mice still around.

This afternoon the man of the house was pottering about outside and every time he moved a leaf aside or disturbed a plant a frog popped out. I don't mind frogs at all but they do make me jump when they suddenly leap from under a plant., But I am pleased that several of the tadpoles in our mini pond seem to have made it to adulthood. :-)

No not busy in the garden Kandj, I got so used to seeing an e mail alert when the thread was added to that, now it seems to have stopped, I keep forgetting to check the threads.

We were away at the weekend and photos are on the blog. Monday I was out most of the day, met friends for lunch and went to see Dunkirk at the cinema. Tuesday I had to see the Health assistant at the surgery as a start to my annual MOT with blood test etc, the internet was down for maintenance for nearly all day so I spent the time writing letters long overdue. This morning I had my hair cut and coloured, then we went for coffee to the local community hub, came home read the paper while having lunch and just got back on here. OH is out pottering in the garden.

Sooo many meeeces Kandj. Hope the poison solves it. But won't you still get the dead ones to deal with?

I am ok with mice or birds when dead, can dispose of them. OH will do it but he is not too keen.

Vera, how is the packing going? :-) :-) :-)

3 more dead mice again, I can't believe we have had 23 now..... just HORRIBLE!!
5 poisoned bait boxes are now in the garage since Monday ...... we wait and see??

I would cringe seeing a dead bird...... sometimes in the churchyard I see lots of
feathers and freeze, it turns my blood cold!! Well done to your OH for helping out.
I'm sure Vera that you are counting down the days now before your special hols.

Jane, I would have thought that your husband would have become used to seeing
death first hand in his medical career. Strange he doesn't cope well with it now?

I expect Ann is busy in the garden as usual.... in between the showers I bet.

The sky overhead is full of Swallows :-D A lovely sight to see :-D. Must be lots of insects .Maybe because of this muggy weather today.

So Saturday is the day you are off then Vera :-D. I bet you are starting to get the packing ready now :-)
Sorry to hear about the dead little Blackbird. OH's come in handy sometimes .. Not mine though when it comes to dead things. I find it very odd how he finds it yuc as when he was a medical student he was disecting Human Bodies !!!! I can't imagine much worse than that!!!.

Kandj, you will soon be mouse free once the poison is in place . It has been a dreadful time for you these last few weeks and you being so scared of mice I jut can't imagine how awful it has been for you <3

What a shame that you are having to stop using your bird feeders Kandj, but I can understand how you feel. Like most wild things, mice will go where there is available food.

All I've seen today is a young robin and one collared dove. Where are all the birds? Probably all at Jane's, lol.

I was doing a bit of tidying in the garden ready for going away on Saturday and leant over a couple of pots to cut some flower stalks down. As I did so I could see feathers and a lot of flies between the pots. Called OH and went indoors while he sorted it out and apparently it was a young, very dead, blackbird. Ugh! I know I moan about OH's efforts in the garden but, bless him, this was one time I was very happy to let him take over :-D

two more dead mice yesterday and it is 20 in total now...... 20 too many!!! Ughhhhhhh

Poison will be put down in our garage today or tomorrow the war has begun in ernest!!!

I definitely would prefer Jane's goldfinch here..... I would prefer ANYTHING pretty to
these horrible mice Ann. I am guessing they are field mice, they are brown, I didn't know that there are any others? Definitely are NOT white pet mice that's for sure

There are farmers fields at one end of the village and a golf course then a wood at the opposite end of the village and we are probably in the middle. Our first house when we married was on the outskirts of the village and we used to have occasional field mouse at harvest time but nothing at all like the 18 we have had in a month.

Time to use poison now, I'll be phoning the Council and asking for advice tomorrow.
I have taken the tree feeders, ground feeder and all the bird seed/pellets to the charity shop as I have decided not to use these any more. Sad, but necessary!!

I am sure Kandj would rather have your Goldfinch than her mice Jane. Kandj do you have countryside round you? Are they fieldmice? I wonder if the trap or rather the bait in the trap is attracting them and if you didn't set it they would all go away?

Just counted 10 Goldfinch on our aerial !!!!!! Never seen that number before. I was sitting at the patio table when I saw them,but the minute I got up to come in to get the camera they were off :-S

Kandj You are welcome here anytime :-D :-D. Shame we are just so far from each other. So the number is still increasing !!!!! They obviously love your garage. At least you are catching them which has to be a positive . But not what you want or need.I do feel for you knowing how scared you are of mice. It maybe should be crunch time and use poison.We had to do that eventually when we had a problem and it did work.I didn't want to resort to poison but it was in the end Needs Must .

Major feeding time on the window feeder now. All kinds of little visitors :-D Mainly Blue Tits and Chaffinch with the odd Robin or two.

2 MORE DEAD MICE in the garage yesterday.... I think this brings the total to 17 but
my hubby says it is 18 now... he could be correct, I have lost count to be honest!!!

I am thinking of leaving home, Uuggghhhhhhh...... anyone want a lodger????

I haven't seen our Hedgehog for a while now. In one way I am quite pleased as it always pooed all over the patio and I had to hose it down every morning !!! But on the other hand I used to like seeing it scuttling along in the dark . Maybe it has moved next door :-D
As for Thomas , he is back to normal but in my bad books. The vet put a drip up to give him extra fluids and did his bloods twice. The Potassium levels were too high the first time (probably because he hadn't been eating or drinking), but the second lot of bloods showed it had come down a lot but still just slightly up. I was supposed to keep him in unti lFriday when he goes back for a check up but by 5.30 yesterday morning I just couldn't stand any more meowing and clawing at the doors to get out so I let him go. He came back about 9.30 for a sleep and then out again about 11.30 . At 12 I heard this dreadful squealing /screaming and he had brought a Baby Rabbit in the lounge !!. The noise was just dreadful. I managed to get it off Thomas and pushed Thomas out into the hall and shut the door. I got a Teatowel and picked the bunny up with it s little legs kicking and twitching. What to do with it I wasn't sure so I went to take it down the garden to put it on top of one of the compost piles so that it might recover safely there. But it died before I got there. :-( I can tell you I was in a right old state.

Glad you had a lovely day with your Daughter Ann.. October isn't too far away really before you see her again.

My Daughter and her Partner have just arrived back from a fortnight in Montenegro and Dubrovnik . Hopefully I will hear from her tonight and hear all about it.From her photos it just looked amazing especially Kotor in Montenegro .

Kandj how is the meece situation today? Thomas has eaten 2 today :-S.Could be more but I just saw the 2. He would soon have polished off your lot LOL

How lovely to have a hedgehog. With luck he'll keep the slug population down.

Poor Kandj. You will get the better of the mice sooner or later.

Jane, how is Thomas? Has the vet sorted him out?

We have a hedgehog in our and our neighbours gardens. Sorry you are still seeing mice Kandj, surely they must be at an end soon.

We had a lovely time with daughter and her partner over the weekend and had a good meal on Sunday. It will be October before we see them again now, seems ages.

Another dead mouse in the garage....... I'm not very happy about that at all..... grrrrr!!

It was good to have your daughter and partner to share in your birthday meal Ann
You are sure to have had a lovely time together the four of you.

Sorry that Thomas isn't well Jane. Hopefully, the Vet will be able to make him better.

I think you will need to sit together and decide what your priorities are for your
Russian holiday Vera.... it isn't somewhere you can go back to again in a hurry.

I saw a large hedgehog scurrying across the patio a couple of nights ago. At first glance I thought that it was a RAT. (that's all I need), but it was a hedgehog pheww.