Hobbies and Crafts

Good to see you posting Maryanna. You do sound as though you are leading a busy life at the moment.

A lovely sunny day here but not warm enough to sit out - at least not warm enough for me. When I was in the garden hanging out some washing I could hear the birds singing away though I couldn't see them. All I am getting in the garden is a couple of collared doves and some fat old pigeons. They do seem to like the bird bath and make me laugh with their splashing about.

I am delighted to say that a large frog has taken up residence in the garden "pond". It's not really a pond but a round bowl about the size of a large washing up bowl. But I have a bit of rock in it and a couple of small water plants and plants around it so it doesn't look bad at all. I am not sure if the frog is Humphrey from last year, woken up from hibernation, or a new frog. But I have decided he can be Humphrey Mk 2 :-D

I am glad Thomas has turned up Jane. He sounds like a carbon copy of our old Molly who used to disappear regularly and would also catch anything that moved. As we had a big rabbit warren near us we regularly found half a rabbit on the patio.

Hi Maryanna
Sounds all go in your neck of the woods :-D :-D..Nice to see you posting again.
I have a feeling I might have had the Britains Garden thingy.Lots of plastic flowers/trees,grass,hedges , borders and fences.Each little bit has a little round bobble on the bottom that fitted into the base.....Is this the thing you are talking about?
I loved that and spent hours playing with it :-D :-D

Thought we had lost the cat today.I let him out at 3.30 am and he still hadn't come back by late afternoon.OH went on a search with a plastic bag (in case of a bad outcome)........Thankfully the wanderer has returned ,but then went straight out again and got a rabbit which he had for supper :-S :-S.

Hello Maryanna, nice to hear from you again. I am like Ann and must admit to never hearing about the Britain Floral Garden but I will Google and educate myself now.

A dry day here today, with usual starlings taking most of the food.
Mr blackbird, hedge sparrows, pigeons like little hens. Wonder how they ever fly?

Ah, strange I had not heard of them. I imagine might be useful for planning a real garden. Presumably you have to take it apart when you want to use the table Lol!!!

Hi Ann, the Britains Floral Garden was made by toy and model makers Britains, They also did a farm, zoo, soldiers, hospital and cowboys. They made lead models up to WW2 and then moved onto plastic. They were quite popular in the 1960s and 70s, then went out of fashion.

They were quite nice little scale models and I also had a farm and zoo. They do a limited range now, I think made in China but I don't think the detail is so good.

There is a fair bit available on ebay but I have to admit to have bought a lot of it !!!

It has been rather nice sitting at the dining room table planting various flower beds up with Summer " flowers " with the wind howling and sleet banging at the windows. No grass to cut, deadheading or hedges to trim either !! They are a wee bit on the fiddley side though.

M. :-)

Maryanna, how lovely to 'see' you, we have missed your posts. I am so pleased that you are well and that it is just life that has prevented you from posting. Nice to have so much to do that you just have not had time.

How nice also that people are following you South West. At least I assume theya re all moving to follow your example. I assume they visit you then decide that they would like to be there too. I envy you, and them as I would love to live more South West. However, for us it would not be practical as it would take us even further from most of our family, bad enough getting to the Lake District from here without making it worse.

Not sure what the 'British garden' whatever that you were working on in the winter is, I don't think i have come across one of those. Sounds like it takes up a lot of space, I am assuming it is some sort of a model. Live plants/flowers?

What birds are you seeing in the garden down there? different to Sussex?

Please do keep in touch and let us know how things are. A pity your cushions got wet but an excuse for new ones and a reason for doing the hideaway roof i suspect. I can't say that I envy you all the building work going on around you.

Sitting in the garden and getting hot!!! You certainly are in a diffeent part of the country to me, it is dull, grey and cold here. I have been in the garden but came in as I was cold.

Keep in touch :-D :-D :-D

Hi everyone, long time no post, just to assure you I am still in the Land of the Living !!

We have had a busy few months since Christmas, what with the new babies, both of whom are thriving and both love blowing raspberries. Big sister / cousin is most definitely in charge although I am not too sure how long that will last, the little ones both have a lot to say for themselves and both seem to know exactly what they want already. As a result we have spent a long time driving up the A303 !!

There is also a mass exodus Westward, the brother of Himself and his wife have just moved to Somerset, as have a cousin and her husband, also two sets of friends and families. Can't get away from them. My sister in law and husband are looking as are two lots of neighbours. Youngest son, having split up with yet another, lovely, beautiful girlfriend is thinking of leaving London and going back to Exeter, where he was at Uni. To top it all our son in law is hell bent on leaving Surrey and wants to go West as well. That would only leave Middle son in the house in Surrey with us going to and fro as usual. Might make the final move and up sticks for once and for all if there is nobody left, except my sister. She has had a few bad weeks and is causing a bit of concern.

Meanwhile, eldest son, who lives in Somerset is thinking of taking a job in Scotland.

I have just had to come in from the garden after sitting out there for a couple of hours sewing as I was getting too hot !!! I have been making new covers for the seats in my hidey hole / Summerhouse. Himself assured me it was watertight in the Autumn and what with everything going on I didn't check. I also thought all the cushions were in bags anyway. They weren't and neither was it watertight so they all got wet and mouldy. Anyway, I got some very pretty fabric, much nicer than before and am recovering everything.

The garden is doing well, although I still need to do some cutting back I never got round to in the Autumn and the birds are eating me out of house and home. We had a big old messy hedge removed from the front of the house and replaced it with a fence which has given me a new flowerbed which I have started to plant up with cottage plants, Lupins, Hollyhocks, Delphiiums etc.

During the worst of the Winter I did some " Indoor Gardening " getting my old Britains Floral Garden out of the loft, where it had been untouched since we got married 40 years ago and have " restocked " it, buying new flowers and more bits on ebay, I have had a great time. It now fills the dining room table and has cost me a fortune !!!! Shhhhh.

Next doors building work stopped at long last a couple of days before Christmas.At the beginning of this month work started on the house next door but one, this will be an even bigger job than next door and already the noise is sometime deafening. A week later the people over the road started on their loft conversion and then the house two doors down the other way decided to have a new roof. Next week extension work starts on the house two doors down from the one having the loft done. We have constant lorries and builders vans and men shouting from scaffolding. It's like living on a building site and I am so au fait with the building terms, I could start up a firm of my own.

Anyway, that's enough from me, glad to see you are all well and having nice holidays, congratulations Ann on your new gt grand son. I have been looking in from time to time.

Will try to post a bit more regularly ..............

M.

Kandj and Jane, I have tried all sorts of suet pellets. The ones I have now have dried mealworms in them.

I also have a ground feeder which came from the RSPB and has a cover that is supposed to let small birds in and keep large birds out. After a year or so I dismantled it as the only birds who went in it were starlings who have quite slim bodies and were just able to get through.

I shall just persevere and hope that eventually we get some birds back.

Vera, I suggest you try the suet pellets that Jane has recommended and it might become popular with the birds and bring them back into your garden. They can be
very fussy. When we first put up the window feeder we had no birds interested for almost 2 months. We had practically given up looking and then slowly but surely the birds came regularly. I hope this works for you too, don't give up hope. Good luck.

Vera,have you tried the Suet Pellets? .Maybe you could sprinkle a few on the ground and see if that entice the birds.It is very strange that you are getting nothing wanting a good bite of your lovely food :-S
I think the reason I get so many birds is just the fact we are surrounded by lots of trees and hedges.
I noticed today that OH was watching little Hoppy my one legged Sparrow .He hasn't seen it before and I think he was quite fascinated
:-D

I think you just have to persevere Vera, hopefully they will come one day. :-)

The feeders are fairly close to the house but that is because it is only a small garden. When we did the garden last year we put away the "feeding station" we had and hung the feeders from a couple of new trees we put in. Because we wanted an instant garden we paid a lot to get fairly mature trees, rather than little saplings and they are tall trees. I thought the birds might prefer the feeders in the trees so they can perch on the branches and hide a bit in the leaves. I can't think what else to do apart from cross my fingers and hope!

Very strange Vera. We have found that our lot won't eat whole peanuts but love the crushed ones which they eat and also throw around with abandon. Just now four very large wood pigeons were underneath the peanut feeder hoovering up the debris joined by a lone chaffinch. I don't know what to suggest, are the feeders too near the house do you think? :-S

We have changed the seed from the first type we bought, but there are also Niger seeds, suet pellets with dried mealworms and fat balls, plus sometimes there are home made fat cakes. I've also had peanuts out at various times and thrown them away when they started to go mouldy.

Today I put out a chunk of a seedy, wholemeal loaf. This would have disappeared completely in minutes in our old house. Three hours on it is still untouched - not the tiniest peck.

They're a fussy lot round here :-|

Vera have you tried buying a different seed. We had one lot that the birds wouldn't touch. We quite often get a single starling on the peanuts and coconut. We are regularly seeing the greenfinches now and the blackap.

I am regularly filling my feeders Jane but only because the seeds etc in them are clumping together or beginning to look a bit mouldy. You wouldn't believe how much I have binned. Today I have seen two fat pigeons in the bird bath and one starling. Usually if the starlings come they come mob handed - I've not seen one on its own in the garden before.

It's very depressing but I'll carry on putting food out and hoping for the best.

I just love that pic of Adam..Yes a bit Mischievous me thinks LOL He looks like he knows something we don't !!!

I wonder why the birds have deserted you Vera.I still can't keep up with my lot on the window feeder.I am still filling it twice a day.
I am happy to report though that I have seen a GOLDFINCH...Just the one so far.It was on the wood shed :-D :-D

I think we are being ostracised by the local bird community; even the fat balls don't seem to be attracting them now :-(

We tried to find a frost free freezer when we got this one two or three years sgo. But we were in a hurry as our other one had gone wrong. We couldn't find one.

Adam has a qirky look, I think he is going to be mischievous. :-(

Lovely photo Ann. Adam has a very "knowing" look and a gorgeous head of hair.

Jane, I think it is Ann who has the iced up freezer. Like you we have a frost free one.

The collared doves and the pigeons do seem to like to drink from the bird bath but we're still not seeing any other birds :-(