Hobbies and Crafts

Good for you to hear your daughter has arrived safely Lesley. She will be tired but happy and has an interesting itinerary and wonderful month in front of her. Will it be quiet in your house without her around?

The wind and rain seem to have quietened down. I do hope that tomorrow will be a better day for all the flood victims.

Haven't looked outside so don't know if it has topped raining but i don't think the forcst is good.

Glad your dughter has arrived ok Lesley.

Lesley ,you will sleep well now knowing your Daughter has arrived safely.I know what I was like when my James went,just waiting for that message to say he was there.I think he was 19 then ...now 28 !!!!..I can't believe how long ago that was.Sheesh! where have those years gone :-S :-S
Still blowing a gale here.Think I will go and tuck myself up in bed for a read.OH is watching some film.

Dry and less windy here so far this morning but forecast to have a return of heavy rain and strong winds from Tuesday for the rest of the week.

Already had 3 visitors to the window feeder this morning. One blackbird...... don't think this is the same as previous because it looked slimmer and not as yellow beak.

The other 2 birds were Starlings ..grrrrr. I wonder if I changed the suet pellets to boring breadcrumbs if they would still be attracted??

Starlings seem to eat most things Kandj, all you can do is shoo them off like I do the pigeons when I think they have had enough. So far today I have see a robin, three collard doves and a large crow which has just come down for a piece of the crushed stale biscuit I put out. It is very very6 windy here, the doves were hanging on as the feeder blew all over the place with their weight and the wind. We have had one shower but it is quite mild thank good ness because our central heating boiler has packed up. :-(

I hope you can get your central heating boiler fixed pretty quick Ann, even though it is mild a house without heat soon feels cold :-(

Today I saw a goldcrest:-D not on a feeder but on a viburnum we have by the dining room window, I would love to get a photograph of this timid little bird.

Lesley x

The starlings keep coming back to the window feeder and I am not liking it at all.
The young blackbird hasn't been again and so I think the starlings have taken over!

Lesley I googled Goldcrest...... what a pretty little bird you have there. Please can you send some to Yorkshire or we could do a swop for starlings if you like that idea?
I am learning quite a bit on this thread...... thank you all.

Oh dear Ann. It's not a good time to have a boiler breaking down. I hope you can have it up and running quickly and that it won't prove to be too expensive either.

I have got four layers on and tights under trousers and am not too chilly. This evening we will have the electric fire on and can also put a fan heater on. It could be a lot worse.

One bird we have never seen in our garden in the Goldcrest although our next door neighbour said they had one once when we were away.

Do you tap the window to the starlings Kandje. When the suet bits have gone try putting just seed in there for a while and see if that deters them.

I've been trying on and off all day to get on line but our internet connection was out. I hope your heating is fixed soon Ann.

How lovely to have a goldcrest in your garden. We found two, about a week apart, in our old garden but sadly both were dead. They were on the patio area. I don't think they had been caught by cats as there were no feathers around and they appeared unmarked. I can only think they saw their reflections in our windows and flew into them. I had never seen such a tiny, colourful bird before and had to get the books out to look them up. They may even have been firecrests. I was never quite sure.

I haven't seen anything on our feeders today but something must have been there before we got up as the mesh feeder, that had a good handful of suet nibbles in it, was empty. I'm hoping to see a few more birds tomorrow.

Ann ,I hope you manage to keep warm until the boiler is fixed.Why do these things happen when the weather is so bad :-S :-S.
I'm not sure if I have had Goldfinch here.I do find it difficult sometimes to work out what some birds are.They don't stay long enough sometimes to get a good look.
I have had one of those days where I haven't spent time watching the window feeder.I did spot another Long Tailed Tit though :-D

My Niece says the car park at the end of her row of houses is partially flooded now.That is where she has to park :-D.She had to park in the middle.So it is still watch this space there.But the last time the car park was flooded her OH lost his work van with all his tools in .I remember watching the 6 o'clock news and seeing his van almost submerged .(that was the 2007 flood)

I bought some plastic food containers today to keep those suet pellets in as the bags keep splitting :-S.Each time I reached in the bag to fill the window feeder it split a bit more :-S

Yes we keep the pellets in plstic food containers too.

Ann it is only fairly recently that we have seen a goldcrest in our garden :-D

I think Vera that the firecrest is brighter and more colourful than the goldcrest:-S

Hope everyone stays is warm and dry.

Lesley x

No further sign of the bluetit I'm afraid but the solitary blackbird has been back this morning. The starlings have also found us, there was a little group of four out there today. Not my favourite bird.

Well we have a rabbit now in the garden :-S..That is not good.Luckily there are no veg or new plants yet to scoff.

My Niece says her 2 dogs are now able to SWIM in the back garden.So the water is getting deeper :-S :-S.They are large dogs too.One is a big black Labrador and the other is a Char Pe (not sure if that is how you spell it)..He is one of those dogs with the very wrinkly faces .I aways think they look like little hippos.

Not a breath of wind here this morning.In fact the air feels strange .Something Brewing??,and not a cup of tea :-S

Mostly great and blue tits and sparrows while I have been watching this morning. boiler fixed and getting warmer here now. (£140 for a new pressure switch)

Jane not good news then, although the fields thatw ere flooded near us on Friday have dried out now and the golf course is open. OH didn't go to golf as he usually does on Mondays because he says it will still be very wet under foot.

Glad that you have the boiler fixed and are warm again Ann. Sounds like the area around you is drying which is good news too.

Jane, the rabbit may come with his family and move into your garden!! They do look cute but can be very hungry and troublesome creatures.

Ann I have emptied the feeder of suet pellets and filled with seeds as you suggested. The starlings are still our only visitors as yet, but less often thank goodness. They are not as good as landing on the gripper as the young blackbird and thud the window but by the time I have got up to shoo them off, they quickly fly away, my old bones slow me down lol.

What we have found interesting today is seeing the young blackbird using the ground feeder and then hopping across the lawn and disappearing into the thick shrubbery where Mr and Mrs Blackbird and the thrushes have lived for several years. Initially Mrs Blackbird would shoo the new young blackbird away. That also was funny for hubby and me to watch. It looks as if our older blackbirds/thrush has taken pity and allowed this new one into their den.

The lone bluetit has been back a few times this afternoon. He flies in over the fence, stops on the witch hazel while he has a look around and then hops on to the suet cake. I am pleased at how many birds are finding us already.

We do have a mystery bird or birds though. I have again put a big handful of suet nibbles on the mesh tray on the feeder and they have all gone again, but I haven't seen a single bird on it, and my big bag of nibbles is going down fast!

I hope your niece is OK Jane. It's been dryish here today but about half an hour ago we had several rumbles of thunder and now it is pouring again. Before we moved here we looked at a house that was on the edge of the water meadows which are the flood plain for the river. Am I glad that we didn't move there.

Ann,you must be so pleased your boiler is sorted now :-D.Nice and warm again :-D

Well it's not good news from Tewkesbury.My Niece has the water lapping at the house now.The TV crew from ITV are in her road too.I think it the local South West crew .
My Sister has just said that Tewkesbury is now just about shut off :-( :-(

Yes there was something on TV from Gloucestershire but I just missed it. Oh dear I feel so sorry for them all, apparently we are expecting more water to come down into the Severn from Wales where the source is.

Morning.
I was up very early this morning and it was just half light .Standing waiting for the kettle to boil for my first cuppa something caught my eye ,and it was the Squirrel ,on the iron hook that the peanut ball hangs on.It was hanging upside down by its back feet ,tail blowing in the wind having a good old feast :-D It didn't scarper either when it spotted me.Just watched me watching him/her lol.
Then it ran across the patio and climbed up to feed on the coconut !!.It then watched me watching again :-D :-D
Lots of activity on the window feeder to ,so it has been all go so far this morning.
It's windy and raining :-S