Hobbies and Crafts

Still hardly any birds here again today, tomorrow and Tuesday is forecast heavy rain so I probably won't see many birds around tomorrow either.

Interesting to read about the Vapourer Moth Vera, I will Google this now.

Well Done to your daughter Jane, her Grandfather is sure to be pleased with her efforts. My Granddaughter Katie also took up the ice bucket challenge and is now aware of this debilitating disease and supporting this worthy charitable event.

Well done your Katie Kandj :-D.I am so pleased that this challenge is going to make more people aware of Motor Neurone Disease .When my Dad had it there was very little help and support and I know both him and my Mum who cared for him suffered more than they needed to.Thankfully time has moved on and now life can be made much easier for sufferers and carers living with this illness.

I got a bit of a shock just now.I heard a scrabbling noise and then spotted a Squirrel with its front paws scratching on the Patio Door !!!!Then its little face appeared lol
I wish I had got a photo of it as it looked s funny.As soon as I stood up from my seat it scarpered and ran off down the garden and up the big pine tree.No doubt it will be back again as I think it was after getting into the window feeder :-S

No really heavy rain here so far today.It is just steady light rain and miserable.My son got back from Chislehurst a little while ago after the weekend at his Girlfriends and he said there was an awful to of water on the roads and a lot of traffic.Luckily no hold ups.

Vera I think it is brilliant you have so many long tailed Tits :-D.It is not too busy bird wise here at the moment.Although I see the food has gone down a lot in the feeder since I filled it up first thing.They must have all been when I was out shopping.

Persistent, fairly heavy rain all day today. It is just starting to ease up. While we were having lunch one solitary long tailed tit flew on to a feeder, decided it was too wet and flew away again. Apart from that all I have seen today is one very bedraggled starling on the fat balls.

27/28 degrees here at the moment and quite humid :-D

Welcome home kandj :-D it is lovely to see you posting again and thank you for asking after our 8month old Princess who now crawls and pulls herself up for England..she'll be a goalkeeper yet ;-)

It is mostly tiredness and research that keep me away from the boards Ann and of course bird feeding, birdbath filling and gardening.

Jane the squirrels [tree rats] in our garden are driving me mad...yet again they are getting more of our walnuts than we are.

We too have had persistent rain Vera although the ground needed it I do wish it would only come at night

Maryann and Ann I hope you both have a wonderful holiday.

Lesley x

Thank you Lesley, always a pleasure to see you on here. :-)

Lesley,once again we have no Hazelnuts left on our tree.Every year we just find the HUSKS on the ground in a pile :-S.We have yet to taste one of our own Hazelnuts.
So you have an England female Goalie in the making then :-D :-D..Go little girl :-D :-D

Ann I take it you are somewhere HOT now.I hadn't realised you were off on your travels again .Is it Tenerife?.I must have missed a post saying where you were going.
I think we have had a high of about 15 today....scorching LOL

I put some broken up bits of seeded bread in the feeder today.The seeds have been picked out and the rest left behind :-S

You do have crafty squirrels and wiley birds Jane :-D yes North Tenerife. At the moment it is 26 degrees on our patio but it is cloudy with a breeze so quite pleasant as not humid. Teidi has not shown her face as she is behind cloud.

Well tomorrow looks like we might get 21degs :-DSo not too far below you Ann.I don't think it is going to last though :-S
I have bought a different bag of Bird seed today to mix in with the suet pellets.I think it is called Blue Tit mix but suitable for the other little birds.It will be interesting to see how well that goes down.Looking out now the feeder is VERY BUSY :-D

We still have hardly any birds here in Yorkshire. Only a couple of pigeons and one regular blackbird have been in our garden all week..... there are no birds in the sky or in neighbours gardens either. It is really very strange. Perhaps they are visiting your feeder Jane?

I must find time and make up the fat birdcake and hope this will bring them back.

Very strange isn't it Kandj? But it seems to be general so don't take it personally :-D

Yes they are all here Kandj :-D :-D.Honestly it is crazy the number of visitors to the feeder.Some days I can't even count them .You can see them lining up in the tree lol
I'm sure they will be back to yours though :-D
The don't seem to be squabbling with each other so much the last couple of days which is nice.I hate to see them being so aggressive .
It is so warm today.Summer tops out again :-D
Ann are you still on your Hols?

Yes Jane until the 22nd :-D

Oh thats nice Ann.A lovely long break :-D.Its been like summer here today and the Red Kites have been back :-D Well 2 of them,plus I noticed a Sparrow Hawk when there was a sudden flight of Pidgeons !!!(flying for their lives )

33degrees on the patio this afternoon but we have been sitting down by the beach under shades eating lunch. Then came back in a taxi, too hot to walk up.

Now you are rubbing it in Ann LOL....Mind you 33 deg is far too hot for me.
Humid and drizzle here today :-S

A mild dry and cooler day here in Yorkshire Ann. Enjoy your hot temperature while you can as it is sure to be very different when you come back home.

I have made the fat birdcake but the birds are still keeping away from the feeder.
I have no idea why that is happening. We only saw two pigeons on a neighbours roof this afternoon but no other birds around here right now...... very strange!

I guess just persevere Kandj, they seem to have minds of their own, naybe the weather or naybe farmers are harvesting and birds are gleaning. Very unpredictable our feathered friends. :-)

Kandj, as Ann said just persevere and hope the birds reappear. I had quite a little while when I thought they had completely deserted us but they started to come back. In fact I am full of smiles today :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

While we were having a sandwich in the conservatory at lunchtime the long tailed tits reappeared, then we watched a pigeon standing on the arm of a garden chair and feeding two dear little young ones, then we were delighted to see two goldfinches fly in and spend some time on the niger seeds. I've been putting these out for several months as we saw a couple of goldfinches next door when we first moved here but they've never been in the garden before as far as I know. I hope they will keep coming back now.

And to make the day complete my resident frog that was living by the shed and disappeared when OH took the shed down has reappeared behind the water butt. I've grown quite fond of him over the past few months even if he does startle me by leaping out from behind the plant pots when I bend to deadhead or water. OH, who pretends to be hard but is really made of marshmallow, has put out a large bowl of water for him in case he wants a swim or to cool down if it gets too hot!

Aaw bless, he'll be a happy frog if it is a really large biwl, try putting a rock in the middle of it for him.

And what a lovely lot of birds.bwell done Vera :-D