Hobbies and Crafts

Hope everyone is well today? Another dry bright day here in Yorkshire and the bedding and towels are blowing dry nicely on the clothesline.

A few more birds Jane but the greedy Starlings cleared the feeder of the fatcake that I had made and so I need a few spare minutes to make another batch again.

Hi Kandj
That is good news to hear you have a few more birds now.Sounds like your fat cake is tasty :-D
I have changed some of the food in the window feeder as all the seed was just being left.So I have ditched that and with the berry flavoured pellets I have added lots of black sunflower seeds and peanuts.Not whole peanuts though.I put them in plastic bag and bashed them up into tiny pieces.It is all going down a treat now ,and with no waste :-D

All my towels have been out too today plus a load of other washing.It is all dry so I need to get it in now before it all starts to get damp.It's been a great day weather wise and so warm :-D
I was kept awake last night by the sound of what I think must be deer calling.It went on for ages and I must say it is not a nice sound :-S.It started off sounding quite near and gradually faded as the deer moved further away.The problem is once I am awake I can't get back off again.The about 6 o'clock I heard Owls Hooting nearby again,plus a Cockerel down the lane at the stables.Night time seems to be a very busy and noisy time with all these creatures LOL ..

Jane, we had a wonderful holiday, thanks, just like old times but with more of us.

We three got in the car fine, even though youngest son turned up with a case about a quarter of the suze of the car itself, I had already packed the car at that point so a bit of a reshuffle was needed. Anyway we made it, the car didn't falter, except for a puncture, that was fun, getting a tyre changed in Spanish. Two of the sons speak pretty fluent Spanish, having done it up to degree level, one having lived in Spain for a couple of years as well but neither of them were with us at that point.

The boys all went off running and kayaking and to the gym and the girls mucked in and the only cooking I did was to put out bags of crisps in bowls and cut slices of bread.

We had lots of lovely swims in the sea and pool and visited lots of familiar places and restaurants.

They all want to go back again but as eldest son and daughter are both talking about having babies next year, ( I wish there was an " I am so excited and can't wait emoticon !!) ") and daughter is now moving to their own place in a month or so, then I think it will be the year after next.

Lots of things have changed st work this term, new curriculum, new head teacher :-( , building work on the school and part of the field has been sold off and new houses are going up, it's so noisy and I have lost my office until at least April, not looking forward to the next few months so am wondering whether to retire a bit earlier than July when I had planned originally. I would really have liked to do my 25 years though, not that I would get a badge or anything, not even more money !!

Still not much happening bird wise in the garden, just off to find some ducks to feed with grand daughter. Having said that ..... I was watching some very odd behaviour yesterday between a dopey dove and a wood pigeon. It seemed that time sharing the apple tree wasn't enough and there was a bit of wife swapping going on. Most peculiar.

M. :-)

I'm back from Turkey now and, boy, does it seem cold. After two weeks with temperatures in the 30s, 17 degrees does not seem very warm at all. Neither OH nor I are 100% yet but we are both feeling considerably better.

Needless to say the bird feeders are completely empty, apart from the one with niger seeds, and I haven't seen any birds around although I can hear a lot of twittering from nearby trees. I think the birds decided to leave this hotel when the food ran out. I'm just going to go and put some seeds and fat balls out and hope I can tempt some back.

Just before we went away I put out a fairly large shallow bowl of water with a couple of large pebbles in it for Henry our resident frog. I put it by the rainwater barrel where he had taken up residence after we moved our shed. OH has just come in to say he obviously didn't like my home made "pond" as he has moved to the other side of the garden. Ungrateful thing!

Hi all, a quickie amongst the thousand and one things needing doing now we are home (I am not sure how OH has managed to include 9 holes of golf in that list but that is where he is!!

We got home at 8.30pm last night after a long day travelling and sitting around waiting. The flights were all on time and had no problems which was a good thing. We left our accommodation at 9am so it was almost 12 hours of travel.

Feel very tired today but it is a lovely day here very sunny and doesn't feel too cold despite like Vera having had high temps for 4 weeks. I have even only got a T shirt on but that is probably because I am rushing around. Almost unpacked now, done one load of washing, picked in tomatoes OH cut the lawn, everything has grown as usual but we will soon get it back. Better go and finish unpacking now. :-)

Hello to Maryanna, Vera and Ann...... lovely to have you all back home safe and sound after your travels. You are sure to notice a change in the weather, so wrap up warm.

Mainly we still have the Starlings fighting and being aggressive on the window feeder and a couple of hedge sparrows and pigeons are also here using the ground feeder but nothing at all like the variety of birds and wild life that others see regularly elsewhere.

Well, having filled the bird feeders wehave our large family of sparrows back if nothing else. :-)

It's exhausting travelling isn't it Ann and then getting back into the swing of things once back home.I like the fact the your OH got his golf in today LOL Dare I say Typical man ;-)

Maryanna from what you say I would be retiring before July !!!.It sounds like it is all going to be a bit stressful and you have to think Do you need that !!!!
I don't think there will be any babies arriving in the near future here.I think I will be too old and past it by the time I have any Grand Children :-(.I will probably been known as Ga Ga Grandma Jane lol

Vera hopefully now you are home you will both pick up and be back to full health soon.
How rude of your Frog not to appreciate your thoughtfulness :-S.Nice to hear he is still about though :-D

Kandj hopefully as the weather starts to get colder and the birds need to look for more food they will realise what they have been missing at your house :-DYour Fat Cakes will seem very appealing :-D :-D

Glad you had good holidays Maryanna and Ann.

Kandj, I hope your birds return soon. I hope mine do too. Since we came back I have cleaned out the bird water bowl and feeders and have put out suet pellets, fat balls, mixed seeds and niger seeds and we haven't seen a single bird in the garden, although we can hear some in the trees nearby.

I was reading an article yesterday that said the birds had been deserting the gardens this year as the mild winter and wet spring meant there was plenty of natural food around for them. I suppose that is good really but I hope they return to the garden soon.

Just put a few Tenerife photos on the photo blog if anyone wants a look.

Will have a look at your pics Ann :-D
I have noticed a lot of Robins around today :-D.It has been a while since I have seen more than just one or 2.

We just had one robin plus numdrous starlings amnd sparrows, one Gt Tit, sevdral blue tits, one chaffinch
Sorry about typos stupid ipad won't let me correct them.

Movement on here is about as much or less than on my bird feeders :-D Hope everyone is ok. <3

We're OK thanks Ann.

Haven't put anything on here for a couple of days because there's been nothing to report :-(

None of the food seems to have gone from the feeders I refilled and we haven't seen a single bird in the garden, though there was one blackbird sitting on the fence.

I did sweep out the conservatory this morning and removed several dead flies, a couple of large lively spiders and an earwig. Do they count? :-D

Just filled my feeder AGAIN.Thats twice today.I think just about the only birds missing here are the Long Tailed Tits.
OH watched a Squirrel this morning about 6.30 run along our drive with a big Conker or Walnut or something in it's mouth.It ran down the side of the house ,across the back garden ,down behind a long flower bed and then up and over the fence into next door.
He then saw it a little while later doing exactly the same thing :-D

Obviously building up a store for the winter Jane. You are lucky with all your birds aren't you?

Vera. no doubt when the cold weather strikes the birds will return. Quite a menagerie in the conservatory then. Ugh earwigs, horrid things make me jump when I pick dahlias for indoors, and Rudbeckia, yesterday I picked some of the latter and one crawled oud as I was putting it in a vase, even though I had shaken the flower outside.

At least no mice, Ghekos or lizards crawling up indoor walls here.

I am the same as Vera...... no birds are wanting to come to visit Yorkshire. I think they are all at Jane's house. We do have more spiders and earwigs as well, but they don't freak me out like the mice do.

Ann...... who is the cheeky chappie on your Avator? He is adorable and looks a real little bundle of fun, bless him.

We have lots of herons around here at the moment. A heron was nesting on the canal bank near where I live recently. I didn't see how many chicks she had; and it's hard to keep track when they start moving about.

Something keeps digging holes around here. They're not very deep; but quite long. I wonder what's doing that. :-S

Kandj, that is my 13 month old Great Grandson Luke.

Graham, you are so lucky to see Herons, I love to see them. Can't think what is digging your holes. Sounds like something digging for grubs of some sort?

Could it be Squirrels digging holes? I know that is what they are doing on our lawn :-S