Hobbies and Crafts

You mean it didn't get held up in the post? :-D

Well, we had a wonderful day yesterday. We drove down to Combe St. Nicholas and looked round the very pretty village and church and took lots of photos.

Once again we found no graves, despite having a photo taken by my husband's grand father in the 1950s of one. There were however some photos inside the church of local men who had died in WW1, including a young man who would have been a cousin of husbands grand dad. There were also three who had died in WW2.

We went on to Cricket St. Thomas and had a lovely tea, ( little sandwiches and pastries and cakes, two enormous scones each, stuffed with jam and lots and lots of cream then strawberries and cream and as much tea as we could manage ) sitting on the Veranda overlooking a very large parkland. It was so hot that this morning I have got a quite distinct tan line where my watch was.

We tried to walk it off as best we could then went back to Combe for another look and then back to our son and daughter in Laws. We then went off to their local and we both had a starter whilst the kids tucked into steaks.

So, as I got the job of driving home as usual when Exmoor Ale is on the menu and Himself cannot resist, I was on Coke. He went straight to bed when we got back home at midnight, I was buzzing with all that sugar so stayed up until 2 am looking up the records for those names we found. The lad who died in WW1 is well documented and all his service records are online so can print them off. Could find no records, not even births of the other three, most odd.

So a good day. Just waiting for son to come round, he "wants to do something " which usually involves yomping up on the moor, not sure if I am up to that on a bad nights sleep but it might wake me up. Can be sure we would see a good few Buzzards up there though.

Have a good day. M. :-)

What a lovely day you had Maryanna. But Ooh although it sounds lovely, I am not sure I could eat all that tea. One scone would be enough for me with cream. Sounds right up my OH's street though. :-D

I wonder why you can't find any details on the other three people? Have you asked for help on the find ancestors board?

Have just spent an hour or so on it and it looks like they all went by their second names. so John on the memorial was Albert John on the birth entry and Albert on the census but John when he married. They were all like that.

Sounds more like my side of the family, none of them were known by their proper names !!.

Off to a party this evening, a neighbour's surprise 60th. Its all go..... a 50th party next week and then a 70th and the week after that a Ruby Wedding. We then launch into our anniversary, son and Daughter in law's anniversary and eldest son, daughter in law and my birthdays, all in the same couple of weeks.

Your photos are lovely Ann, thanks for sharing. Like the new patio, I hope ours looks half as good when it is finally done.

M. :-)

Glad you were able to get on the blog maryanna.

I'm a bit worried about our collared doves. There are a lot of twigs on the ground underneath the nest and the nest appears empty. The dove has been sitting on the nest for several days now so I'm wondering what has happened to her. I keep going outside to see if she is back but there is no sign of her or the male :-(

Maybe she was disturbed by a magpie or something Vera. Or could a cat get there?

We have had sparrows feeding again which is good, and also sparrows back drinking from the water feature.

I have been really lucky this week Lol!! I have been to B&Q twice and then this morning............ to American golf where I got to stand and watch OH deliberate over which golf driver he 'needed' to buy. I know how to live.

Actually we had money back from CPP from the card safe insurance we were mis sold way back. OH was finding he wasn't able to use his old driver as well as he had because he is not as strong now so I suggested he use half the money for that. In the end he bought two clubs so it was a bit over half. Still it is a long time since he had new clubs, apparently the last lot second grandson went with him to buy and he must have been in his early teens. Still not to be beaten I managed to find a ladies golf T shirt in a sale for £8 down from about £45.

And we had coffee and shared a scone in Dunelm so not really a wasted morning.

Lovely day here so I might do my baskets this afternoon and hang them in the conservatory

The only thing that could get near the nest is another bird so I had wondered about magpies. The only thing is I haven't seen a single magpie in the six months we have been here.

There was a single sparrow on the seeds this morning but apart from that I've only seen starlings today. I've been surprised that the peanuts are being ignored as in our old house I was forever topping them up but they are not being touched here.

Our birds don't seem to eat peanuts either Vera.

I have been noticing quite a number of Magpies around just lately :-S :-S.So it could be one that had disturbed your Doves.That is such a shame if they have had to move on elsewhere.
I have a Peanut Ball and the birds that like that are the Blue Tits and Gt Tits...not forgetting the Squirrel too.

A Red Kite has been circling over head for most of the day and often just at our roof height.There has been a fair bit of calling going on too.

Someone had mentioned Sparrows.Well I have been noticing more of them around the garden recently.Especially around the bottom of our huge Yew hedge.I think they are sweet little birds :-D I haven't seen them scrapping like the Robins and Finches.

Well the a swifts at here in Somerset. We were sitting in the pub garden a couple of hours ago, I had no sooner said that I wondered when they would arrive when about six of them came screaming overhead. No sign of them over the house as yet.

Vera, the doves do seem to make a horrible mess under their nest, I quite often think it has been trashed and then find that there is someone sitting on what looks like just a pile of twigs.

They do tend to nest more than once a year as well. We had some sitting on the nest in the tree all through January one year.. Poor adult bird sitting there going coo whilst the other one pottered about occasionally remembering to come home. They aren't terribly bright. Then suddenly you see a little bald head and there is a baby, who also seems to be left home alone for quite a long time with parents feeding it every so often. Once they have left the nest they tend to keep coming back for a while . We had two last summer who ventured out for an hour or so at a time, sitting on a branch then got back in the nest. The babies don't have the rings round their necks like the adults.

It's been beautiful here today not a cloud in the sky but a bit of wind which is now getting chilly.

M.

Well, a short while ago I was doing some watering in the garden and a collared dove flew over my head so I watched what it did. It flew to the satellite dish (the nest is on the arm of the dish) and kept peering in to the nest but made no attempt to sit on it. It flew off and came back to look in the nest several times, then the second one appeared and they pottered about the grass before flying out of the garden.

Unfortunately they have built the nest in a good spot for them but a terrible one for us as we can't see it unless we climb up a long ladder, so I don't know if there are eggs there or not.

Jane, the couple of blue tits that are coming in to the garden are ignoring the peanuts and concentrating on the suet cake or fat balls. I'd like them to bring in all their friends for a feast on the greenfly on our roses.

The Swifts are here over the house as well, I have just been watching several of them swooping about.

Summer is on its way !!!!

M..

:-D

Oh Vera ,I wonder if the eggs have been taken :-(.That fact neither bird went into the nest :-S :-S.You never know though things may still be ok :-D

No Swifts here yet Maryanna.I don't know much about them.Do they arrive in the South first before appearing further up the country ?I am in the East Midlands.

Ann ,I just had a look on the blog and your photos Batsford are stunning :-D.So too is your garden .I love all the different parts.It makes it so interesting .A lot of love and hard work has gone in there :-D :-D

Jane, I think they come from Africa. They usually seem to appear down here in Somerset before they do in Surrey.

I usually start looking out for them mid April and they are generally here by May Ist and in Surrey the first week of May.

The sound of them just means summer to me, it always reminds me of holidays in Spain and France.

M.

So summer is on its way. Good oh!

Thank you Jane, the garden was just lawn when we moved here 22 years ago so we are quite oroud of it small though it is. :-)

Slight improvement, we've had a few sparrows as well as the doves feeding today.

A little flock of starlings were around this morning, eating everything in sight. One or two sparrows have been on the seeds. They seem very fussy, picking which seeds they fancy and throwing the rest out.

My doves seem to have abandoned their nest., They are still around, sitting together in next door's tree or on the fence between us. I thought I would try and see if there is anything in the nest but there is only one window on that part of the house and that is in an en-suite in one of the bedrooms. So there I was, balanced on a tall stool, leaning right out of a velux window in the sloping roof and desperately trying not to fall in the loo! And I still couldn't see in to the nest :-|

Today we went up onto Exmoor and took a picnic with us. Our favourite spot is by an ancient bridge over a lovely stream that runs through the valley with the open moor going steeply up on one side and Beech woods on the other.

Last time we went we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a. Kingfisher, not so lucky today but there were some children paddling in the stream a bit further along and they were making a bit of noise.

There were a lot of Pheasants around though, the plumage on the males was particularly bright and they certainly had a lot to say for themselves.

The plant life is much less forward than it is off the moor, the trees are only just starting to show signs of colour. Daffs in full flower and some very pretty little Winter Aconites in the stone walls. It was so hot though with not a cloud in a very deep blue sky.

One interesting thing we did see though was an Adder crossing a lane. They must be starting to wake up a bit with this heat. It was quite a big one about three foot long, lucky nobody had run him over.

Am now going to sit outside to see how many Swifts. I can spot.

M.

:-D :-D Vera, a loo with a view (or not in your case). I expect the doves will build another nest, they are quite dopey birds and scatty when they build nests in stupid places.

We had a lovely peacock butterfly in the garden today. It was a bit sleepy so I am wondering if it was not long out of the Chrysalis . still another hint that summer is not far away thank goodness.