Hobbies and Crafts

Kandj, I actually love watching starlings, they spend as much time squabbling among themselves as they do eating. They are like noisy toddlers.

Yes I have enjoyed spending the money so far, but still have some left as M&S didn't have anything much in on Saturday that wasn't in their sale. All stuff thatw as very tired.

Jane how sad for the family, just before their holiday too. I hope they will be able to go on and enjoy the holiday. The perils of living on a busy road.

It feels very autumnal here this morning so maybe we have seen the end of summer....... such as it was. Maybe the birds will return soon then. :-) :-)

On the feeders this evening, a crow on the mixed feed and a collard dove on the niger seed. And a wood pigeon on the floor hoovering up spillage :-D

Jane your OH's Painting of Wadenhoe church is on the craft blog, it is beautiful thank you.

Raining quite hard here today. It will do the gardens good and one less job for me having to water everywhere. It is much cooler too. Not what we want for August.

Ann I like your description of the Starlings...... it describes them perfectly ha ha.

The garden wall was filled with hedge sparrows when I drew the bedroom curtains this morning my first job was to feed them all, I hadn't realized there were so many around.

It's been raining quite hard here since the middle of the night but has recently stopped. I think the rain has bought all the insects to the surface as we suddenly have a garden full of birds. There is a family of blackbirds, mum and four fairly well grown young ones, a young looking robin, a great tit and a wren. First wren I have seen here. I've just been laughing at a couple of the blackbirds who have been having a bath in the little circular pond (a bit like a large washing up bowl) that we put in for Humphrey the frog. With the amount of rain we have had I shouldn't think they need a bath but they seem to be having a whale of a time.

Noisy Toddlers here today too. :-D.All landing in a noisy flurry on the lawn ,eating loads of 'something' and then taking off again a few minutes later.I haven't seen them since.The Green Woodpecker was on the lawn when they arrived but it took no notice and just kept pecking lol

Thanks Ann.I think OH was quite pleased with that painting.hence the reason he said it was ok to send :-D.He has done some really nice ones recently but he just doesn't think he is that good.(silly man)

Yesterday we went to Gloucester. This was the second round of searching the Scrumpty sculpture trail. all is explained on the photos blog. The explanation is right at the bottom of the photos listed on the latest blog.

Who turned the sun off ????

This time last week we were in ( Ahem ) Monte Carlo and it was 36 degrees. Today I would have put the heating on if Himself hadn't been here.

We have come back to a jungle and a baby Wood Pigeon, who, like his parents, is too fat to get off the ground.

Ann, I missed your birthday, a belated Happy Birthday. Glad you had a nice one.

M.

Thanks Maryanna, are you up here or sown there now? Glad you had a good holiday but which garden is the jungle (or both?)

We are up at the moment Ann, back to Somerset on Sunday,and probably to another jungle !!! .Although it will be a smaller and easier to manage one.

Leaving one of the boys here in charge of watering and picking..Hahaha.!!!!

M.

Did you have a bit of a flutter at the Casino Maryanna ? :-D.....38 degs far to hot for me.I would have wilted completely .
Just hope it is sensible temps when we go to Lake Como in a few weeks.Mid twenties will be hot enough for me.

Jane, no money spent at all in Monte !!! No danger of US breaking the bank !!

I am so jealous, I love the Italian Lakes, especially Como and Garda. Well actually, I love all of Italy.

M.

I would love to go to a Casino Maryanna ,just for the experience But not spend any money :-D.Fly on the wall :-D
Yes the Italian Lakes are just so beautiful .We have been to both Garda and Como ,but decided to go back to Como again.We are staying in Bellagio .Hotel du Lac.

We have had a young Green Woodpecker around today.It didn't look to good as one of it's wings was drooping.I followed it around and it didn't fly off but just ran.
Then a bit later I caught the cat chasing it :-S.I don't think he got it but don't know where it went.

Hope Thomas didn't catch it Jane.

We loved looking on in the casinos in Vegas. Couldn't believe the old ladies who were there late at night and still there 5 oclock in the morning.

Ah now Ann, Las Vegas that's somewhere different all together.

I really didn't want to go there but was hooked withing ten minutes of arriving. I just loved it, the tackier the better !!! I couldn't believe that we could spentd a week just wandering around different Casinos and the fact that it cooled down to only 105 degrees at 10pm !!!

Oooh, I want to go back, but Himself won't do long haul again.

Before I ask on another board, do you know if any French records are available on Ancestry ? I had a quick look and I could see few but wondered if I got a Wordwide membership I could see more. Going to the South of France has wound me up again to find out more about my Dad's family, especially as we actually drove along the road he lived in, pre war. I would like to try and find my cousins and only know a few basic facts about them. Need BMD.

M.

I wish Martanna. My Great Grandfather was (according to census) born in France (British subject) but I have never been able to trace his birth. I don't know if there are any records on Ancestry though, I am not a member now and was never world wide. I would ask on either chat or find ancestors.

Yes, tacky and great fun, we have been three times but never for a week. did long haul this year for the first time for a long time and managed it, it was not as bad as we anticipated. But, as we were not paying, we travelled with virgin Atlantic and manged to move into wide leg seats as the plane was empty which made the journey bearable.

Well, today for all of five minutes we had one Red Admiral on the Buddleia. Just thought I would tell you that. Just watching Alan Titchmarsh love your wildlife garden recording. Did you know female butterflies are attracted to green so they planted butterfly attracing flowers in green containers. You live and learn.

I didn't know that Ann.As you say We live and Learn :-D
I am glad to say that the little Baby Green Woodpecker has been around today :-D
Hopefully it is the same one :-D..But it just doesn't seem to fly.It just runs and then disappears under the undergrowth.(The cat hasn't spotted it today :-D :-D)

Hello All

Las Vegas..... we went there many years ago and its brought back happy memories.

I don't watch the Alan Titchmarch programme any more, just too upsetting seeing families with serious health issues.

Oooh Jane, I hope Thomas won't see this lovely bird. It might be a gonna

The pigeons have brought the window feeder crashing down twice just lately. First time I cleared up the mess and washed and refilled the dish and stuck the feeder on to the window pane and then couple of hours later I put the feeder on to it.... all well and good (or so I thought).

I wasn't happy to see a very wonky window feeder left by a very fat pigeon early this morning.....now it's all refilled and back in place. Let's see what tomorrow brings

Good Morning All

Bright sunny day so far, but rain is forecast so we will see if it happens or not.

The window feeder is wonky again. I am blaming the pigeons that for some unknown reason now try to climb inside the window feeder. They are a real nuisance as I have had to sweep the seed/pellets up as don't want any little m*ce around here!!

HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY ANN AND HUBBY. Have a lovely day together.