Hobbies and Crafts

Any news on your friends Cat Vera? I do hope it is recovering well.

Ann,I don't think there are any problems here with Red Kites attacking people for their food.I hope not as those talons are huge !!!!..Bad enough if you have a Seagull swooping down ,,but a Red Kite !!!!!!!!!!! That would be a bit scary :-S

The window feeder food is lasting a bit longer these days :-).I just fill it once a day now.
The Woodpigeons are so noisy.There is one with a very deep voice lol.He sounds very grand :-D
It is just so hot and sticky again today .The humidity is a killer :-S

Jane lucky you with the red kites, although I did see in the paper where they are becoming pests in some areas even attacking people with their claws for food.

Kandj, yes the garden is colourful but we have failed in trying to make it low maintenance I fear, there always seems to be dead heading to be done. I was out there for an hour this afternoon just pulling up hardy geraniums that have flowered and gone to seed to stop them spreading, if allowed they will take over the garden. But, success, today there was one Red Admiral and one Small tortoiseshell on the Budleia.

Just read back and had a look at the photos of your garden Ann. It's very colourful
and lots of interesting things going on there. I prefer it to a neat/tidy garden I think.

Oh dear Vera, what an awful thing to happen to your friend and her cat!!!
It's good to know that the cat is operated on and on the mend. I bet your friend
was a nervous wreck and I know that I would have been.

Seeing the red kites must have been amazing Jane. We only have our usual birds
here. I'm keeping both bird baths topped up and it's being used a lot today.

Just had 6 Red Kites above our garden :-D

We had a good weekend in Milton Keynes, good to see them again after quite a while. Son took us out for a meal Saturday which was nice as both grandchildren came too.
We came home today and driving along the A40 near North Leacha deer, (quite a big one) ran across the road in front of us , luckily we were not going that fast and didn't have to brake, I would hate to have hit it.

Indoors for just 2 weeks!!! that seems a very short time .But then I suppose the vets know what they are talking about.I think the reason Thomas has had to be confined for so long is because of all the ligaments/muscles /tendons that had to be cut through ,and the fact his femur is not attached to the hip joint now .
That must be great news for your friend Anne :-D.. It was my idea to use a harness for Thomas and I must say it has been a really good thing.I can give Thomas a bit of excerise without the worry of him disappearing :-D It does sound as though your friends cat is doing really well :-D :-D

My friend was able to collect her cat from the vet today, and she is doing remarkably well. Cat has to be kept indoors for 2 weeks and the vet has lent my friend a crate for her. She has to be confined so that she doesn't attempt to jump. Vet hasn't mentioned taking her out later on a harness like Thomas. Perhaps he's saving that little surprise or maybe the cat's injuries are such that she won't need the harness. Fingers crossed that she continues to recover well.

Oh Vera,what a thing to happen.Your poor friend must be distraught.Sadly these accidents happen more often than we realise.The same thing happened with our friend who ran over their cat.It wasn't a good outcome as Bella had to be put to sleep.
But the fact your friend's vet was happy to operate must mean there is a good chance of the cat recovering.14 sounds old for a cat but if it is healthy and fit it may live for many years more.
Thomas is doing fine.Still need to keep him on the harness in the garden for a few more weeks.He has been a right pain in the you know what today. Wind up his bum and trying to hare around like a loony.He must be feeling well on the mend.The problem is he shouldn't be running around and jumping yet.He has reminded me of little boys who run and then drop on their knees and skid along the ground when they get super excited.I am hoping he has worn himself out and I can get some sanity back now LOL..He just has to go back to the Vets in a couple of weeks for X-rays and then should be signed off :-D

It has been a lovely day here today - such a change from the endless heavy showers and thunderstorms we have been having. Nothing much about today except for a couple of sparrows.

How is Thomas doing Jane? I was telling his story to a friend a couple of days ago to try to reassure her that her cat might survive just as well. Sadly the friend backed out of her garage and knocked down her own cat. As you can imagine she was distraught. She rushed the cat to the vet where she (the cat) has been ever since. She apparently has a broken pelvis and is being operated on to put a plate in place. Apparently the vet was very pleased yesterday as the cat had eaten some dry food, had had a wee, and was purring and the vet thought her internal organs were undamaged. The cat is 14 so may not bounce back as quickly as a younger animal but we all have our fingers crossed.

No Ann,it is too dark to actually see them.My Son said he saw them briefly but they fly off so quickly and silently he just got a glimpse .I did hear one again last night but just for a few minutes about 1.30am..Few more deposits left on the Patio table :-|
Goldfinches seem to love our TV aerial and sit there singing their hearts out :-D.They never seem to come down to ground level though.

Do you ever see the owls Jane, might be worth the mess if you did. We have a few more birds here, goldfinches, Great tits, young starlings, blackbird.

How lovely Vera to have all the Long T Tits :-D.None around here .I think they are such lovely little birds.

No thanks Kandj.I will pass on the offer of your Wood Pigeons and Starlings.We have too many Wood Pigeons already,and no Starlings.I definitely don't want Starlings.

We were kept awake the night before last with an Owl or 2.My goodness what a noise.It was just outside the back of the house beneath our bedroom .It started before 1am and was still going on at 3.30 !!. and the mess that they left !!!!.The Patio table and chairs were covered in poop :-S :-S Last night was peaceful and I hope tonight will be too. :-)

Most of our feeders are still not going down and we have had so much rain again over the last couple of days that everything will be going mouldy. I shall have to clean everything out again :-(

I was sitting in the conservatory this afternoon and a flock of long tailed tits flew in. Several of them had a go at the fat balls and they were flitting around the garden for about half an hour before they flew off. It was quite a large group and it was good to see them. The couple of sparrows that have been nibbling the fat balls sat on the fence and watched them and looked quite cross about the intruders on "their" fat balls, but didn't attempt to fly near them.

Jane, I can send some starlings and wood pigeons your way if you would like that?

I was preparing veg today and looked out of the kitchen window and the
little robin was on the wall and seemed to be looking right at me.... awww,
I thought he had gone somewhere else and was so pleased to see him close up.

It is so quiet here on the bird front.I filled the feeder about 11am and it looks hardly touched.Very strange :-S

We have had the wood pigeons lining up on the garden wall waiting for a late breakfast this morning!

Still hardly any birds around here, just the occasional goldfinch, and a couple of collard doves not even many sparrows or starlings

There must be a lot of foxes around here at the moment.Sadly I have seen two young ones dead on the road in the last couple of weeks :-(.My neighbour two doors down said that yesterday there were 2 foxes playing in her garden.Plus 12 rabbits !!.She wanted to know how long it will be before Thomas is out and about again as he keeps the number of rabbits down.I had to say it is still going to be many weeks !! She was gutted LOL
The food in the window feeder has gone down a lot slower today which is very unusual.I still haven't seen the Jay for a few days either.

I hope you have more luck than me with the birds Tess. We have been here nearly 3 years now and I am still struggling to get them to come in the garden. I have put out wild bird seed, niger seeds, suet pellets, peanuts and fat balls and the only things going down at all are the fat balls and it is sparrows eating those here as well. Nice to see the sparrows but I do miss the variety of birds we used to get in our old garden.

Our planting seems to be working well as we are getting plenty of bees and other insects and a few dragonflies. Haven't seen Humphrey the frog for a while but I think he is probably still around.

Magpies are a menace Tess. Maybe the small birds will return now you have put out fat balls.