Hobbies and Crafts

I found a lot of feathers in the garden this morning, mainly white with some quite large feathers as well as small fluffy ones. No body though. I wonder if there is anaked collard dove around somewhere.

saw something sad this morning, going down a slip road to the old A1,

was a young blackbird on the verge looking at what I believe was mum, in the road

hopefully dad wasn't far away.........

Bob

Oh Bob :-(....I am assuming Mum was 'gone'..Hopefully the little one was big enough to survive on it's own even if Dad wasn't around.

Good morning everyone

Awake early as our family are coming here for the day..... all exciting stuff ha ha.

Maryanne, your balloons are lovely to see. No getting away from your age now then
I bet your friend looked like Mary Poppins with all your other balloons too.

Ann, I hope your dove escaped unharmed apart from the feathers!

Jane...... ooh Thomas isn't quite the lovely pusscat that you thought then. Good idea to have a bell around his neck and I hope that the birds get out of his way fast.

Bob, that is a sad sight to see. I hope the blackbird has Dad near at hand.

It is a bright sunny day and forecast to be warm today so Summer is here tra la la.
Just filled up the feeders and washed the bird baths.... plenty activity here already.

I hope everyone enjoys their Sunday whatever you have planned.

Bob, oh that was sad. Let's hope Mum had got baby to a point where it could feed itself. Actually Dad blackbirds often take over the feeding of the young.

Kandj no collard doves around at all and there were a ginormous amount of feathers that I cleared up yesterday.

Well, back out into the garden, more plants to put in.

I think the Sparrowhawk got something a bit bigger than a Sparrow earlier.The Jackdaws and Magpies were having one of their usual battles, then it all went quiet and I could hear a Jackdaw squawking that went on over into the field at the back.They have all stopped scrapping for a while

My birthday celebrations seem to have finally come to an end.We went to my sister's yesterday for lunch. She had invited all the family as well as some old friends.We had an amazing meal and lots of fizz, then she produced a cake that looked more like something you might wear on your head to Ascot than eat.

It was such a beautiful hot day, luckily she has a big garden and lots of lovely wicker garden furniture so we could all either sit in the sun or under the huge parasoles she has on the patio or at the end of the garden by the river.. I even got some more lovely presents. That is it,all over now. :-D :-(

M.

I always find it quite eery when all the birds go silent Maryann.You just know something is about :-S
Well you certainly won't forget this years celebrations.Yet another lovely meal /party.It sounded wonderful .You will be wanting to be 60 all over again next year lol

My birds are still at the feeder (surprisingly with the cat around spying on them)One good thing for me is that the bird food is lasting longer now :-D So instead of topping it up 3 times a day it seems to be just 2 now.I will save on bird food BUT now spend it on Cat Food :-S

:-D can't win Jane.

Maryanna, sounds wondeful to be able to sit by the river in your own garden. I envy your sister. Glad you enjoyed your meal,ma birthday to remember. Can just about remember my 60th

The river was lovely yesterday Ann but not so much fun when they were nearly flooded out when it got so high the Winter before last. The floods were very close but didn't get to them.

They have had to build a flood defence to try and keep it back if it happens again. They have been there a few years and never had it so close before, you never know these days, do you ?

As it turned out we got more flooded than them with the water pouring off the fields behind us. We have never in 30 years had it that bad.

Horrible here now,it got really cold this afternoon and came over very black but we only had a little bit of rain. I have been sitting under a blanket to try and keep warm.. ( No way the heating will go back on now- it's JUNE !!!!! )

Whatever happened to yesterdays' lovely sunshine ?

M.

:-(

We haven't had any rain but it was bitterly cold in the wind yesterday evening. This morning it is very cloudy with a cold wind and occasional bursts of sunshine. On the feeders this morning we had two small juveniles. A tiny goldfinch and a chubby robin, both exploring the feeders to see what suited best. :-) :-)

Sorry Ann, I read that three times wondering how a Goldfish was on your feeders !!!

Windy still here and by no means even warm but the sun does seem to be trying. Just not hard enough.

A man just came to measure up for our hall stairs and landing, we aren't after carpet that costs too much but the hall and landing are both very big, room size and it seems we are looking at £2,500. :-S. Better go back and find something a bit cheaper.

M.

Good heavens Maryanns, that is a lot for a carpet. However, if you go too cheap with where it is it may not be cost effective as it is an area that gets a lot of wear. Have you looked at corded carpet?

Where did you see goldfish? I didn't write that did I? Were your eyes playing tricks?

Still windy here, not much sun and not a lot of warmth.

Ann, I am so glad I paid all that money for my new glasses.

You actually wrote Goldfinch not Goldfish !!!!

I think we are going to give up the idea of replacing the wool carpet like for like and getting man made instead. £20 per square meter as opposed to £40 ( plus underlay )

M. :-0

I think we paid between £800/900 for our bedroom carpet.I have a feeling that was about £27 per metre .That nearly floored me lol.Trouble is when the room is an odd shape and you have to buy more than needed and then get left with some :-S
We seem to have a number of Goldfinch(not fish :-D) around at the moment.Their sound is quite distinctive .I saw one today drinking from the birdbath,and have never seen that before.
Thomas (cat) seems to be on bird patrol all the time now and has found himself a couple of hiding places to keep watch :-S.But I am keeping fingers that the little bell on his collar gives enough warning :-D

Jane, I think that is what rankles the most, it's the wastage.

We have what was left over the last time in the garage, it would probably carpet a modest sized room if you chopped it up and stuck it back together again like a jigsaw.

M.

As usual I seem to be running Starling Hotel. I know they have to eat too but I wish they would leave a bit of food to attract the other birds. A couple of days ago we did see two bluetits and one goldfinch but these sightings are few and far between. Even our little dunnock seems to have disappeared.

What's more I can't even put an emoticon to express my annoyance because the system seems to have gone haywire and everytime I click on an emoticon everything I have written disappears!

We have underfloor heating in this house (wouldn't have it from choice) and I have discovered one advantage to it. We are advised not to put a thick, quality carpet on the floors so we were able to get away with quite a cheap one in our sitting room and I won't feel too bad if I want a change a couple of years down the line. Most of the rest of the downstairs is tiled. I hope you find a carpet you like at a sensible price

Something has been throwing the seed out of one of the feeders, a wood pigeon I expect. All over the lawn, I guess he tipped it when he landed. Saw one picking up seed from the lawn so maybe it is easier to eat that way.

Today Is not a good day for my poor golf, she failed the MOT and is having work done. (I blame all the potholes!). Spring missing, some pipe or other corroded, failed emission test, something else (can't remember and she was speaking on the car phone speaker), oh and windscreen wipers. So they are working on it and it will be ready tomorrow. Probably need to take out a mortgage to pay!!!
:-( :-( :-(

Oh Gawd Ann.I hope it isn't going to be too costly.That is the trouble with cars .Nothing is cheap is it :-S

We have had a Moorhen in the garden today.The first time for a couple of months now.
It was taking it's life in its hands though as the cat spotted it and gave chase :-| :-|
I wonder if it will be back.
I also saw a Red Kite today and haven't seen one of those for several weeks now.
Maryanna we have a big roll of carpet left over from the bedroom.I know we will never use it.It just seems such a waste.

Vera why would you not have chosen underfloor heating? I always imagined that it would be nice to have it.I guess though if something goes wrong it means the floor having to come up :-S
Window feeder needs refilling.I try and do it when Puss is not looking lol

Oh dear Ann, I hope the work on your car doesn't prove too expensive. Cars are wonderful when everything is going right but the old bank balance certainly gets hammered if anything goes wrong.

Jane, there's nothing really wrong with underfloor heating but it's not very flexible. It takes a long while for the whole floor to warm up and a long while for it to cool down. Our neighbour has his timer set for going on and off during the day but it is never a comfortable temperature in his house. We've found by experimenting that the best thing is to turn it on in the autumn and leave it on till spring. We have room thermostats and our heating is in different zones so we can set the main living room, the kitchen/dining room, the hall and the downstairs bedroom to different temperatures and in theory the room temperatures should stay as set. The problem is in the changeover periods in spring and autumn when you might want heating on for an hour or so in the morning and evening.
We had to invest in some fan heaters for those times.

Still, I'm not really complaining. At least I can afford heating when many can't and the gas we use in this house is a lot cheaper than the oil we were using in our last place.

I've been out most of the day and came back to find the seed feeders had suddenly been emptied and all the fat balls had gone, so something has been around....probably those dratted starlings again!

Ouch, I think they have rebuilt it underneath. £438 including parts and MOT. still it seems to be running better for the oild change at least. I just wish they would get the potholes fixed.