Hobbies and Crafts

They just DON'T listen to instructions do they Vera :-D :-D. I too have said to my OH about just pillow cases and sheet only to find the whole bed stripped.He then says he is quite capable of putting the King Size Duvet cover on :-S.. None of the corners are in place and half the Duvet is at the bottom and nothing much at the top. I give up sometimes LOL

9pm ..Late?? . No I think you are right and thing have changed these days. Hopefully it was still a very happy Honeymoon in Winchester :-D :-D

My window feeder is almost empty :-S. That has gone down really fast today. Maybe the cold weather is making them feed a bit more .

Our birds have been so busy today along with the Woodpecker its been a pleasure to watch them. We have two Robins and they've both been around today!
I would never ask my OH to do any household job apart from washing up!. I always have to redo as he hates doing whatever it is!! However, he is an excellent cook and gets supper most evenings, extremely practical, and has saved us a fortune over the years through not having to get a tradesperson in, and is very affectionate!! So I can't grumble! :-)

I haven't seen our Woodpecker for about a week now. But I hear it so know it is around somewhere.
Liz we tend to share a few household things now since OH retired. He does more to help now he is not spending so much time in the garden.He is not as practical as your OH when it comes to plumbing and all the hands on things he is so good at.I can't complain though :-) Some husbands do nothing to help.

I had to smile about Winchester being an unusual choice for a honeymoon venue.

'Back in the day' we didn't set our sights on foreign lands and we stayed near Arundel in Sussex. Lovely sunny autumn days helped us to enjoy the surrounding countryside, but one day we went to Chichester. The weather wasn't so good and we noticed that a tour was soon to start at 2 pm. so thinking that would keep us out of the rain, we joined in.

Not many people toured Shippams Paste Factory while on honeymoon.

It's been snowing here this morning but not settling!!!! Both Robins are around along with the bluetit gang!!! I've cleaned the birdbath spoken to son, hoovered round! OH has walked the dog, put our Exmoor pony out in the paddock, and is about to make a COC! So that's us done for the day!! :-)

Ooh Liz, no snow here, keep it your way please! Bitterly cold out there and very cold rain earlier although the sun is now shining. We have popped out to the community hub for breakfast and done a weekly shop in the local Tesco Metro. I did notice that some things are dearer there than in the Tesco Extra we usually shop in but then we saved on petrol so swings and roundabouts.

No birds here at the moment, I was hoping we'd see a few more when the weather got colder but it is still the usual collard doves and wood pigeons not many others at all. I think our birds come from the fields down the road, however there is a huge building site going over those fields so all the grass and hedges have been taken out, poor birds have nowhere to go.

No sign of any snow now Ann! In fact the sun has come out, but it is COLD!!
No sign of any birds either after this mornings rush,but I did see a couple of Wagtails on the roof of our logstore when I took our little dog for a walk! They seemed very busy or perhaps just keeping warm!!!

Lots of rain over the last couple of days but today is dry and very cold.

We have hardly seen any birds today but I filled the feeders this afternoon and put some fresh mealworms on the ground feeder and put the cage over. Within about a minute a robin appeared, had a few mealworms and went again. I'm really pleased because, although the food has been going, I haven't seen anything inside the cage till now. At least I now know the small birds are getting in to the food.

I was up late this morning, suffering with a pulled muscle or trapped nerve (not sure which0 in my back and overslept a bit. Not doing a lot as I allow my back to heal. The only bird I have seen in a magpie who hoovered up the mealy worms on the table outside the lounge window. They are such beautiful looking birds but so very greedy.

No news of Gill's birds lately.

I have put a couple of photos of the great grandsons on my photo blog for anyone interested, also one of our garden as it is now in November. So different from earlier on in the year.

Hope the pain in your back eases quickly Ann. Take care.

Good photos as usual. I can't believe Luke and Adam are so grown up. It seems only yesterday that they were being born.

Not much bird life around today but it is still very cold. I still need to get the bird bath and the little pond cleaned out so that's a couple of jobs for the weekend.

A local shop had small bags (100g) of mealworms on special offer for 99p. 500g bags were £6.99. I saw a lady pick up one of the £6.99 bags so I politely pointed out that she would save money if she bought 5 of the 100g bags instead. She looked at me as though I was mad, said "the big sizes always work out cheaper" and took her £6.99 bag to the till. I followed on with my 5 little bags and paid £4.95 :-D. Some people just have no common sense!

Lol Vera And I think some people always think they know best. I hope that lady takes time to work it out later and realises. But well done for spotting a bargain.

glad you liked the photos, I don't have a recent one of Inara to hand otherwise I'd have put that on too but she towers over Adam and is 4 months younger than him!!

Hi everyone I've been very busy lately so haven't been on here for a while.

We haven't got any birds at the moment as the new neighbours next door are having lots of work done before they move in, including an extension. So with all the people and noise the birds haven't been anywhere near, much to Sandra's disappointment. The builders didn't turn up yesterday as they were waiting for the concrete footings to dry before starting the brick work today, so Sandra did see a few starlings but not many and they didn't stick around for long. Hopefully the extension won't take long to do then hopefully the birds will return.

In the meantime we are sorting out Christmas, wrapping up the last of the Christmas presents and writing the shopping list for the food. I've still got my cards to write out so that'll be done soon.

Just watching the end of the F1 it's the last race of the season, then we're going to watch a Christmas film I've recorded, the second one from one we watched the other week, then Sandra is going to watch her favourite Christmas film later "Deck the Halls" while I do a bit more on my family tree. I've just been given lots of information on my Australian relatives, so that's keeping me busy at the moment.

There don’t seem to be many birds around at the moment Gill. It’s disappointing for Sandra but I am sure they will be back. As the weather gets harsher the birds will go where they are sure of finding food.

I put a lot of mealworms out on the ground feeder and topped up the seed feeder late yesterday afternoon and when I got up this morning the seeds had gone down by about half and the mealworms had all gone, so I think the birds must be feeding early in the morning and then going into hiding for the rest of the day. I’ve only seen pigeons today.

I managed to give the bird bath a really good clean out. It was not very nice, full of pigeon poo and soggy leaves that had blown in. It took a lot of hard scrubbing but it looks much healthier now. Next job is to tackle the mini pond. I’m not looking forward to that much either. Perhaps I should turn on the charm and get OH to do it :-D

Oh no Vera he might lose the frogs!

Ann :-D :-D :-D

So windy here today the little Bluetits were struggling to hang on the the window feeder. We have Magpies and big Crows (I think Crows) .Never had them in the garden before :-S. I would rather they all went elsewhere and not my garden.

Have been to my Daughters Hen Do in London at the weekend. I think I am still recovering LOL It was a wonderful time and her girlfriends certainly made it a day to remember!!. :-0 :-D I was on the go for 18hours . Up at 6 train to London and then partying from 11 until nearly midnight .Soho is such a busy and lively and noisy place .But great fun. I'm just too old for all this now ,dicky hip didn't help either. The girls carried on clubbing until 4am!It was lovely to be included as was her Husband to be's Mum and my Sister. We were the 3 oldies :-D Wedding just over 2 weeks away now.

Ooh Jane getting exciting as the big day approaches. Yes I read all about your exploits on Mel’s thread. Sounded a wonderful day and a hoot. I guess the tube is still recovering or rather the passengers on the tube :-D

Just sent you some pics Ann :-D :-D

Thanks a Jane they are great, looked like everyone was having a good time.

Sounds as though you had quite a wild time at your daughter's hen do Jane. Not long now till the wedding. I hope you are going to tell us all about it.

How's Thomas doing these days. You haven't mentioned him recently - does that mean he is being a good boy now?

Over the last 2 or 3 months I have noticed a small, very pretty tabby and white cat coming through our garden. Today I saw it in the garden with a big wood pigeon in its mouth. This little cat could barely manage to carry the bird which was nearly as big as itself. I'm no lover of pigeons but I couldn't just ignore it so I banged hard on the window. The cat nearly jumped out of its skin and dropped the pigeon which flew away so hopefully it was OK, though there are a lot of feathers in our garden.

I have no idea who this cat belongs to but I am wondering if it is people next door to us who moved here in early September. I might find out tonight as we have been invited in there for a St Andrews day get together. I don't know if there will be lots of people there or if it is just the neighbours from our little cul-de-sac of 6 houses. I didn't want to go empty handed and I wanted to take something a bit Scottish but I know the hosts are providing some Scottish type foods and drink, so I got a pot of heather, put it inside a nice china pot and tied it up with a ribbon. I hope that will be acceptable. It should be a good evening :-D