Hobbies and Crafts

Here's hoping that your two magpies have brought you a day of joy Kandj.

Enjoy your Suffolk trip Jane. It's a lovely area you are going to, as you know, provided you are happy with the peace and quiet there. No good for anyone who wants amusements and discos ;-). If you have time and you like horses the Suffolk Punch Trust at Hollesley is worth a visit though check first that it is open when you want to go.

We actually had a few glimpses of sun this morning. Didn't last long before it rained again :-(

Still only seeing a few bluetits. The sparrows that were here in flocks before we went away seem to have gone awol.

EDIT A few minutes after writing this post half a dozen sparrows flew in and have been on and off the seed feeder ever since. I am a happy bunny :-D

Vera I would love to see the Suffolk Punch horses.They are beautiful animals .I just need to try and persuade OH he wants to see them too LOL. We wouldn't get to see these amazing horses anywhere else.Thankyou for telling me about them :-D

Kandj oh was out in the garden today, cutting some of the overgrown shrubs down and mowing the lawn. I did a bit of dead heading.
Vera we have blue tits and great tits and a couple of sparrows but that is all not seen a goldfinch since we got back. Did see evidence of a visit from a hedgehog in the garden which is good.

Jane enjoy your trip away, many years since we visited Suffolk, it was easy when we lived in Bedfordshire but a long way to drive from here.

We go to daughter's in the Lake District on the 8th of October for two weeks, don't look forward to the drive up the M5/M6 :-(

Vera we are a bit naughty putting all our stuff in our own cases but that is because we pack our own cases, I do give OH a few things of mine as his case is always lighter than mine.

I too was cutting back shrubs yesterday afternoon, as our garden bin is collected alternate Mondays and I try to make sure that if possible, I have a spurt of activity in the week running up to that. The recent bursts of warm sunshine and alternate damp days has made everything grow so fast.
There have been very few birds around lately apart from the noisy seagulls, which stand on the roof tops and screech loudly to report to their fellow mates regarding any human activity in and out of the houses. Only hope the birds move back to the beaches soon.
This past week I've noticed the garden spiders out in force. I love their intricate webs, especially then they have dew on them. Daughters hate spiders and we have had some huge ones indoors ( how do they get in? ) Usually they are on living room walls, although it's the upstairs windows that I tend to open more. We now have a mini harvest of conkers strategically placed in the hope they will ward off 'intruders'.

Back home now from Suffolk. Had a lovely couple of days. Didn't get to see the Suffolk Punch Vera, but saw lots of PIGS :-D :-D.We left Suffolk at lunchtime in beautiful sunshine and arrived home to pouring rain :-S

Glad you had a nice break Jane. nasty morning here, thick drizzle so we won't be going far.

Hardly any birds visiting us at the moment, not sure if it was because we were away although there was still niger seed there when we got back. We have not seen one Goldfinch since we got back which is very strange. Maybe there are still seeds to be gleaned in the fields. We do still get the collard doves who manged to spill the seed from the feeder over the lawn yesterday. well it could, I suppose have been a wood pigeon although not seen them in the garden lately.

No Collared Doves here Ann,but plenty of Wood Pigeons.Lots of small birds on the window feeder including some very feisty young Blackbirds that puts the wind up the little ones who happen to land on the feeder at the same time :-S They are real bullies.
I have seen the Spotted Woodpecker on the feeder again :-D :-D

Yesterday we had a solitary Goldfinch on the seed, we were pleased to see him/her as we began to think they had all disappeared.

I put some dried hedgehog food out as we know there is a hedgehog around. Looked out of the window later and the cat from over the road (one of their 6 fostered cats) was sitting washing himself and looking very pleased. He had eaten half the hedgehog food. Cheeky monkey! :-D :-D

Kandj has not been on here for a while hope all is ok there. And Vera has not been here either?? :-( :-(

I am around Ann - life has just been a bit hectic lately. My brother had to undergo a major operation a week or so ago and it turned out to be more complex than expected. We have been to see him a couple of times. It's about an hour and a half driving in each direction and we have stayed up to 3 hours each visit so that has taken a chunk of our time. Thankfully he is making a good recovery and has been allowed home today, although he is still attached to various tubes and the nurse will be visiting every day for a while. It is likely to be several months before he is fully recovered but at least he is home.

I also had a day in Cambridge and another day or two with a bad migraine, so this week has rushed by.

Not a lot to report birdwise, just the usual sparrows and a few squabbling starlings.

Kandj is posting on the Christian thread but she has said on there that her husband's brother is very poorly so I expect she has other things on her mind right now.

Thanks Vera for news of Kandj. I am sorry to hear about your brother but pleased to hear he is home. Goodness that was a lot of travelling for you. But good that it didn't happen while you were in Russia.

I think all these birds have packed their little bags and gone off to look for the sun. :-D When I talk about birds like that I always think of the Robin family who used to be (I think) in the Daily Express when I was a child. Used to love those stories.

Here I am Ann. Not a good time at our home just now. Hubbies brother has been in hospital 2-3 weeks and not responding to any of the antibiotics and all his vital organs are shutting down and so he has been moved into a single room and his three sons and partner are watching and waiting at his bedside day and night.

As if that wasn't enough, a phone call yesterday told us that his brother in law had sadly lost his fight with cancer. Naturally hubbies sister and adult children are devastated. All the family will miss Joe, he was such a gentle giant bless him.

Vera, I'm so happy that your brother is allowed home after his operation. That is good news and I hope that he makes a good recovery back in his own home.

Jane, you do have interesting birds in your garden. Just the usual ones here for us.

Gwyn, nice to have you with us. There does seem to be lots of spiders around. I don't mind spiders really, but I DON'T LIKE MICE, as the others know only too well.

Kandj ,it is a very sad and tough time for Hubby ,You and all your family right now. I am so sorry and send all my love to you <3

Vera,how is your Brother ?. Hopefully continuing to recover well from his sudden and major op.That is a very long round trip for you to visit him.Does he have someone at home with him?

Birds are as busy as ever on the window feeder . I don't think they have noticed that I have replaced a lot of the suet sticks with Sunflower Hearts :-D :-D. It does mean I don't have to spend so much money as it lasts a lot longer.Although I still have to refill the feeder everyday !!!! They are a greedy lot.

We found a Walnut Shell on the patio the other day.We don't have any Walnut trees.It has to be the Squirrel but why it brought the nut all the way to our patio I have no idea.
I have just seen it scurrying about at the bottom of the garden.

I haven't seen any sign of our Hedgehog now for months .Maybe it has moved gardens. I had to stop feeding as it was pooping ALL over the patio and making a terrible mess each night. We were having to get the hose out everyday !!! I didn't feed it on the patio but half way down the garden where I put the dish of food under the Yew Hedge.

Kandj, I am so sorry to hear about your Hubby's brother in law and also his brother. Such a sad time for him, the penalties of getting older as we lose those we love.

Vera, I hope your brother is getting better, I expect you are making more trips to see him.

Jane, a shame you had to stop feeding the hedgehog, they do make a mess. Whatw ere you feeding it? We haven't seen the one thatw as round here a couple of weeks ago, haven't put food out as don't want to feed the cat from over the road. we have had more birds visit us, yesterday there were about 12/15 starlings in the garden and we also had four goldfinch so they are returning, a coal tit, several great and blue tits and a lot of sparrows. The starling completely emptied the mealy worm feeder between them. So i have not refilled that at the moment.

We were on a canal boat trip yesterday and we saw a family of swans, Mum and Dad and eight (8) of this years cygnets. Fancy all those surviving.

Ann, I fed it proper Hedgehog food as I know there are things NOT to feed them. So I just wanted to make sure it had the right food. As I said the mess it made was bad.I suppose it might have been more than one Hedgehog but I only ever saw the one .Normally around the same time of night every night. I do miss seeing it around but don't miss the mess :-D

It's a long while since I have seen a hedgehog. I could do with a few around here to eat some of our slugs.

Nothing to report birdwise. It's just the usual starlings and sparrows.

Thank you for your good wishes for my brother. He is making an excellent recovery from his operation but has today learnt that there are other problems and he will be facing months of treatment. Not the news we wanted to hear but he is very calm about it all.

I bet you don't Jane, not seen 'ours' for a while, did see it one morning around 2am last week scuttling across the road,

We still have the goldfinches, we were pleased to see them return. Not many around today. There are a lot of trees around with berries on so maybe that is why we are not seeing many birsd at the moment.

Jane did Thomas eat the hedgehog food?

Oh dear Vera I am so sorry your brother has further problems to be treated. I think it is usually the family who worry more about these things. I hope he is able to overcome his problems and return to good health.

Vera, I hope your Brother continues to make a good recovery from his major op and will then be strong enough for the treatments needed over the next few months.

Ann, No Thomas didn't eat the Hedgehog food. I always put the food out late at night when Thomas was in for the night. I think if he had had the chance though he might have scoffed it LOL,as he was always very interested when I was putting the food in the dish.I must say it looked very tasty :-D

Still no Goldfinches here.Well not in my garden . Loads of other birds but I don't think I have seen any Robins for a while. There were so many about not so long ago.
I think Thomas must be sitting under the tree near the feeder as I can here the Birds kicking up a bit of a racket.He is a real tease LOL

We have hundreds of Ladybirds ! All on the house brickwork and in the house. I counted 10 on the inside of the window in the front bedroom just now, and there are more on other windows
:-S This lovely warm weather has a lot to answer for I think.

Haven't seen any ladybirds around here Jane. In fact there doesn't seem to be much of anything around at the moment. I filled a feeder with seeds yesterday afternoon and it is still three quarters full. Normally the sparrows empty it in a day.

We do seem to have plenty of spiders indoors at the moment. I keep picking them up and putting them outside. I also bent down to pick up something that had fallen behind some large pots and found myself eyeball to eyeball with one of the largest frogs I've ever seen.

I wonder if Kandj is still mouse free.