Hobbies and Crafts

Still no takers on the new feeded Vera?

I managed at last to de-ice the bird bath so I gave it a good scrub out and refilled it with clean water. Do any of you know of anything I can clean the bird bath with, something that can't harm the birds? I can get rid of most of the gunge with plain water, a scrubbing brush and elbow grease but there are a lot of black splodges that look as though the birds have eaten berries that have gone in one end and out the other. I'll have to google.

Had a few bluetits and one great tit having a go at the peanuts and the suet balls and the sparrows are eating everything except the seeds.

Our River Dance Blackbird is our muckiest feeder LOL.He is always so desperate to get as much as he can ,half of it ends up in the ground,which is great for some of the little ones :-D.
Yes I am sure your birds will soon get used to the new feeder Vera.They just might be a little unsure of it at the moment .Checking it out :-D

I feel really bad as I forgot to thaw the bird bath :-S :-S..It was seeing your post Vera that has just made me realise I haven't done it today.it is solid too just like yours.That will be my first job in the morning :-)

:-D :-D We have a blackbird that depends on the other birds being mucky eaters!!

Yes Ann, I thought I might have to leave it up for a while for them to get used to it. The pigeons are looking very puzzled. 2 or 3 wait on the ground under the feeder to hoover up all the seeds the other birds throw out or drop. I keep seeing them look up as though they are wondering why there are no seeds coming their way.

Give them time to get used to it Vera. We added a new one over a month ago and they are only just tentatively approaching it.

My goodness, the birds round here are fussy. I bought a new seed feeder yesterday - quite a nice one. The seeds are well covered so they shouldn't get wet but there is easy access for the birds to get at them. I filled it with the same seeds I usually use and hung it up in the same tree. The sparrows usually clear the feeder of seeds in a day. They won't go near the new one. Instead they are lining up to take turns on the fat balls. I could have saved my money.

There have been a couple of bluetits on the peanuts today.

The bird bath was a solid lump of ice again this morning so I had to do a bit of defrosting. I had a look at our tiny pond while I was out there. That's more sheltered so only had a thin sheet of ice on the top and through the ice I could see 3 frogs and there could have been more in hiding. Humphrey has clearly invited all his friends to stay

:-D

Vera,Thomas is absolutely fine. You wouldn't know that he had had such a big op. He still hunts :-S and can run like the wind.The Vet had said that he could have a permament stiffness in that leg,but there seems no sign of that at all.
GO ON ,get another cat.You know you want to :-D.
I have had to find a new cattery for Thomas as the lovely place he went to has closed :-(.. This one is about 12 miles away ,but I went to have a look a couple of weeks ago and it is really good.They even have a purpose built play room !!! with all sorts of climbing equiptment in,and a walkway tunnel thing to a big tree where they have made a tree house !!!.Only one cat is allowed in the playroom at a time.(It is all outdoors).So the owners have put an awful lot of thought into the place.
I too have neighbours who I wouldn't ask to look after Thomas .So it has to be a Cattery.I think it is costing just under £9 per day.It is worth it though just so we can go away :-D. When I think back a couple of years ago and we had to have our lovely dog put to sleep,we said we wouldn't have any more pets..THEN THOMAS TURNED UP !!.Now I would hate to be without him. :-D
Lots of cats needing homes Vera ;-) :-D :-D

I have seen a nuthatch but not in the garden.

The sparrows are getting through the bird feed at a great rate but we are not seeing much else, apart from pigeons and the occasional blackbird.

Jane, how is Thomas doing these days? Did his accident leave him with any ill effects? We are still dithering whether to get another cat or not. OH isn't keen but says if I want one, we'll get one. I do miss having a cat around but we do go away quite a bit. We live in a little close and none of our neighbours have pets or seem particularly keen on animals, so our cats have always gone to the cattery when we are away. The one we preferred was quite a little way from us and travelling back and forth was a bit of a pain and over the year the cost did add up to quite a bit. Yet...........I do miss having a cat.

I am not sure if I have seen a Nuthatch . I must have a google and see what they look like. We do have a sweet little Wren that loves to forage around in the window box amongst the Pansies.
The food in the window feeder is still disappearing speedily.I looked in the food tin this morning and it was almost empty ,so I had to go out and restock.

Pretty certain we have not had a nuthatch in our garden Gwyn, how lovely.

Yesterday a collared dove was doing an amazing skating balancing act in the frozen bird bath.He /she looked really perplexed and kept pecking at the ice in hope of a drink. I went out and put in some warmed water to melt the ice. A lot of birds use the water for drinking or bathing.
A gloomy dark day of misty rain and very cold air today.
There have been few small birds feeding, but an enormous crow had taken charge of the feeding block this morning and eventually flew off.
I watched for a while, then later noticed a small bird emerge from behind the feeder and was delighted to see that it was a nuthatch, which clamoured up the wide branch of the tree before flying away.
I haven't seen one of these in the garden for years, so will have to watch out to see if it returns.

Enjoy your few days away Vera,whatever the weather :-D
We had snow this morning.It came down really hard and fast for a while but has now gone.The window feeder was a bit of a frenzy for a while.But like your birds ,I think they have all gone to find a bit of comfort and warmth in their nests.

We are away from tomorrow morning till Monday afternoon so I have just been out to refill feeders before it gets too dark. I've filled them to the brim with seeds, peanuts and fat balls but I expect they will be empty when we get back.

Not many birds about today. I think they are all tucked up in the warm somewhere, though OH saw a wren this morning. The snow we had earlier has disappeared but, by golly, there's a bitter wind out there. We had planned to go to Eltham Palace on Sunday but the forecast is for heavy rain all day. If we go I certainly won't be doing the gardens. I suppose we can't really complain if we get wintry weather in the middle of winter but somehow it always comes as a shock.

Kandj there would have been another Magpie there somewhere :-D for sure. I always count them too when I see them.
I think the birds must have exhausted themselves yesterday after all the fighting.It has been fairly quite today.Mind you the rain might have had something to do with that.

We too are lucky to have 3 loos in the house.One downstairs ,which I call the garden loo. It is just inside the back door and so is mainly used when anyone wants to use it when outdoors.I don't like guests using it as there is often a bit of mud and grime.But it is very handy. Then we have the main bathroom and our ensuite upstairs.
I remember as a child and my parents bought a New Build detached house and we had a downstairs loo. Everyone thought we were 'posh'
:-D

That is great Humphrey is still around Vera :-D.. He is obviously a permanent resident :-D :-D.

I've hardly seen any magpies since we moved here, though I am sure they must be around. Not much birdlife at all today but it has been pretty wet all day so they are probably all sheltering somewhere.

I'm pleased to say that Humphrey the frog is still in residence in our washing up bowl pond. I saw him today. I think he is the original frog as they apparently live quite a few years.

Kandj, sorry to hear that hubby is still so poorly. Fingers crossed that things will improve very soon. Thank you for asking after my back. It's fine now, just an odd twinge now and again.

I haven't heard what is happening about granddaughter's car but I think any repairs/replacements will be funded by the bank of mum and dad so her father will have the final say.

You were talking about en-suites. I am very lucky in that we have a family bathroom, two bedrooms with en-suite facilities and a downstairs cloakroom. It's great when the family come to stay, particularly as the teenage granddaughters seem to take forever to get ready. At least we are not all queuing outside with crossed legs. I know I am very fortunate. There is a downside though - 4 loos to clean :-(. :-D

Kandj, nice to have ensuite facilities for family visits. We have to share the bathroom when ours come and we don't have ensuite for us either. We do have a downstairs cloakroom thank goodness.

I was running up and down with the decs because OH was at golf. However I would probably have done it even if he was here as he is very slow at walking, I can do it faster myself!!

Strangely we haven't seen any magpies for a while.

Yesterday we had a lone magpie here. We kept looking around for others but there
was only the one....... I tried not to think of the rhyme One for Sorrow etc???

Ann we altered our bungalow many years ago and have en suite bedroom loft conversion for our family when they visit. Hubby is disabled and can't help with taking Xmas decorations up the stairs and into the storage space. I do walk up the stairs usually once a day to check things but the 5-6 times in a short space wore me out!! Very well done clearing the clutter, why do we keep these useless things lol.

Although I hoovered and tidied all around I can now see a tiny bit of glitter on the floor. It's nice to have a little bit of sparkle so I'll keep that for now.

I hope Vera's back is improving and Jane, have you found the duster/polish yet?

Yes it was a shock when the window went. Sreangely we have heard the noise befoe as we were out in the garden one day when one of the windows on our neighbour's conservatory 'exploded'/ He swore at first that it was a stone from our garden, but the glazier convinced him it wasn't. It only needs a small dlaw and maybe a strange shift in temperature for it to happen.

Kandj, exhausting isn't it going up and down stairs, supposed to be a good work out :-D Still, it sounds as if all our decs are put away and once Jane has dusted we will all be straight again.

Has your Granddaughter sorted out what she is going to do about the car Vera?

I am feeling virtuous today I have cleared out the cupboard under the double oven. I am sure we all have one like it, full of baking trays, cake tins, rolls of foil, saucepan lids etc etc. I have filled a carrier bag for the dump with rusty baking trays and saucepan lids that I have no saucepan to match!

And then I tackled that other nightmare (well so far partly tackled it). the drawer that has bills and receipts, bits of paper with phone numbers for tradesmen, home delivery pamphlets, booklets for long gone items, like defunct irons etc. I have filled 4 bags with shredding and have a crate filled with recycling that I can't get in the bin until it is emptied tomorrow after 4 weeks recycling waiting for collection.
:-) :-)

Yikes Ann, that was a bit scary with the window !!!!!. I too have never heard of that happening before. Good job it was the outer bit that went.

Vera it sounds a very expensive job on your Grandaughters car. I haven't heard that expression 'sold a lemon ' for a very long time LOL

Getting the Christmas decs down and put away is always more exhausting than putting them up..Ours went back in the loft yesterday .Don't mention DUST ! :-S.
I am looking at it now. Dusters and polish out tomorrow.

Kandj you must have been worn out wit hall those trips up and down the stairs and not feeling good <3

The Birds have been squabbling so badly on and around the window feeder today.It has been a bit like a war zone :-S :-S.Lots of dive bombing to knock other birds off the feeder.It has just not been very nice to see...They should all be put in detention and write lines . :-D