how sweet!

I've realised one of the most common phrases I use when by myself in the kitchen is 'how sweet!'  Now, this isn't because I'm cooking up sugary desserts (sorry), but rather because it's the best place to view the garden and the bird feeders. 

The coal tits flit to and fro from the seed feeder; the blackbird attempts to hang off the fat ball feeder - 'how sweet!' I say.

The great tits explore every nook and cranny of the garden with characteristic curiosity. A blue tit sits and preens itself quietly - 'how sweet!' I say.


Watching them have a splashy bath always provokes a comment.  Recently we've been having a male blackcap in the garden.  This morning he took a bath.  'How sweet!' I said.

The other day one of the goldfinches simply perched in one of the nearest bushes and trilled its little heart out.

'How sweet!'

a hint of the coming season

This morning, I heard spring.  I was placing a book on a shelf and heard the cheep of sparrows.  At the same time, a shaft of sunlight touched my cheek.  I don't what it was - the timbre of the sound, the softness of the air, but I felt a thrill of recognition.  Birds sing and cheep all through winter in our garden, but it felt different.  The bathroom window was wide open as I'd been cleaning; the breeze that drifted through held the promise of a whole new season.  It's only February, but today I heard spring.  I remembered what it felt like - the balm of the sunshine, the joy of the birds, the gentleness of the breeze.  I remembered that over the next few weeks, a change will take place.

On a somewhat more trivial level, it's still mucus manor in my neck of the woods, but I'm now on antibiotics.  Hopefully it will start clearing up in the next few days.  The congestion I can cope with, irritating as it is; it's that awful stinging pain that makes it so difficult.  Bending over to clean the bath this morning was excruciating.

I'm working on various bits of writing, at least as much as I can with my aching head and stinging face; this coming weekend I'm also leading the evening service (Communion & Healing) at church.  It's been a little while but I'm praying God will use my weakness (and weary sinuses!!) to be a blessing.

Yes I know it says 2009 on the photograph...the 2010 crocuses are yet to come!

avocet attack!

Avocets: beautiful, elegant...and a tiny bit temperamental, as we saw last week...
(images are heavily cropped due to only having standard lens, thus low resolution - but love the content!)

Watch him coming...

Moorhens aren't exempt...

Although it's definitely the ducks he's really after - her expression says it all:

Woomph! Good grief!

"I'm the King of the Scrape"

I've got my eye on you

Just to say I am taking a break from blogging for the next few days or so, but I will be back. Don't go away!

A brief shot of one of the fledgling blue tits which come to the fat cake feeder regularly. One of them, more yellow in the face than this one, will happily come down on it when I'm sitting a metre away. This one is taken from the kitchen window:

I've got my eye on you!

breaking the block...

I always find it rather hard to start writing when I haven't been doing so for a few days...I get out of the habit and suffer a kind of blogger's block, I suppose! The best way to break any kind of writer's block, in my experience, is to start by writing anything, even if it's complete rubbish. So, here I am. (Although having said that, my parents are coming to stay on Wednesday, so I'll probably be absent yet again for a while!)

Andy had last week off work, after the busy-ness of Easter, and it was good to just relax and spend time together. We had a couple of nice days out, which I may recount here, at some point. (For less regular readers, 'at some point' can mean anything from next week to never.)

I have been catching up a bit around the house and cleaning out Charlie's hutch, giving him a bottom dunking as well, what joy. Started making some more bird cake since they are just about to finish off their third fat tube. They certainly do love it.

Not entirely convinced the goldfinches are going to continue nesting in next doors' tree. Not much activity lately, and I spied the blue tits stealing nest material from it last week, which isn't very hopeful, goldfinch wise. However, they are still coming through and feeding, together with the blue tits and great tits and blackbirds all in 'courtship mode'.

My, isn't this entry exhilarating....

Andy at a meeting this evening, so watched a Primeval episode recorded on Saturday before coming up here to get some stuff together for Youth Housegroup tomorrow. Andy has given up on Primeval but I am still watching it for a pleasant bit of silliness. OK, so the underlying plot is somewhat convoluted and hard to follow - and you can't work out if that's because it is too complex, or not complex enough. Like Steven, Cutter is now dead (killed by sinister amoral former wife Helen) and Jenny seems to be suddenly more like Claudia Brown's personality in this series, which is somewhat ironic as Nick (Cutter) was the only person who remembered Claudia's existence in the first place. (Except perhaps Helen, but I doubt she cares). Of course, dying in Primeval can mean anything really, and watch out for the clones, of course. Connor is as always looking apologetic and perplexed, and he and Abby continue to adopt mini-dinosaur-type pets without batting an eyelid. The acting is...mixed. The special effects are good. There are quintessentially British moments - when a huge dinosaur head, Jurassic Park style, raises itself to peer into the window of a plane, one pilot says with mild fascination, "now there's something you don't see every day".

(Pause for breath.)

All right, so most of you haven't got a clue what I'm on about, but never mind.
I did warn you it might be rubbish.

Sort of.

bloggy business

Argh! Just wrote entire post then it disappeared, and auto-saved before I could get out! I shall try again, but may not be as cheerful as the first time (if I get through it at all).

I managed to win a free blog button designed by Mommy Designs Blogs courtesy of Angela over at Becoming Me, which was a surprise - so that will appear at some point! Thanks, guys.

Not sure whether anyone is so devoted to my blog that they would put my button in their sidebar! Well, perhaps one prospective blogger...you heard it here first, folks (unless you're one of the buns over at this blog, where I may have mentioned it in a comment!) - Charlie is in the process of setting up his own blog.

He's very fussy, as you may imagine, but hopefully it won't be too long before he enters the public blogosphere. I've told him firmly not to expect daily posts, since I get the impression I will have to do most of the work. After all, his typing skills are appalling, and just between you and me, his spelling is atrocious, too.

Went to our Chronic Fatigue Group meetup yesterday - not sure what to call us now that we're meeting up under our own steam...not that we have much steam between us! Good to see each other and have some laughs (especially when we forget where we are in conversation and lots of umming and er-ing ensues).

Am intending to write a Good Friday post tomorrow, all being well. Am going to Maundy Thursday communion tonight; not sure if I'll manage tomorrow's services but plan to be there am and pm on Easter Day. Lots of chilling on Bank Holiday Monday! Andy has taken some time off next week to have a bit of a rest, so hopefully it will be a nice relaxing time for us.

Now, for the second time, I am intending to go and tidy the bedroom. Beyond my side of the bed is what I call my Zone of Chaos (cue dramatic music) - need to get it under control for a little while. Before Chaos rules again...

Today: 3/10, medium high

BREAKING NEWS!

The goldfinches are nesting in next door's magnolia tree, which overhangs our garden. Cue breathless excitement and nauseating terror - in case next door go on a pruning spree. Please don't!!

pictures of March

Some photos taken during the past month, which have not previously been posted. Click on the 'photos' label to see older posts containing pictures.

beyond

the fence

hillside

shining through

trees

funky fungi

from below

magnolia blossom


"kiss me"
(anenome de caen in bud)

Was cleaning out rabbit hutch this morning, quite a time consuming task now Charlie has such a large hutch, and was very aware of being quietly observed. Well, not so quietly at all in fact. The blue tits scolding from the bushes, great tits hollering from the roof, and the goldfinches flying round and round, landing in the tree, considering me, and then flying back and forth again. So delightful to have them as regulars - something that has happened just in the past month, since the new Niger feeder was introduced. Two long tailed tits also passed through. Everything pairing up. Great tits are gathering nest materials...

Today: 4/10, medium - high

feeding the birds my way

You know you get those feeders which are supposed to hold fat balls for birds? (Perhaps it's a UK thing?!) Like this:


On the occasions I've gone out and bought the 'fat balls' and placed them in it, inevitably they get a little bit pecked at, but not much. Pretty soon, they go moldy. It seems to me that you need to hang them out individually, unless you have birds which are particularly keen.

Now, I occasionally make 'fat cake' for our birds, and hang it in upside down yoghurt pots, etc. They do seem to like it. So I was struck by an idea. I got an empty kitchen roll tube and made up some mix (no real recipe, I'm afraid, seed/oats, peanuts crushed in the food processor, shredded cheese, little bit of suet, enough lard to make it harden okay...). I pressed it into the cardboard tube, really firmly so i got as much as I could inside. Then I wrapped it in cling film and put it in the fridge:

About 36 hours later, I removed it from the fridge and sliced it open with a knife.




Got my feeder, and bingo! Perfect fit.

They loved it. Great tits and blue tits ignoring both seed and peanut feeders and focusing on the 'fat tube'.

The most recent photo shows it like this:

Although shortly afterwards it skewed, and Andy pronounced it 'structurally unsound!' Today it is in two halves, in the bottom of the feeder.

Today:4/10, medium

twittering, in various ways

Went to Craft Club at church this morning. A little low on numbers, but nobody seemed to mind. Took my cardmaking stuff (last time I took scrapbooking). Nice to be with others and have lots of delicious S-P-A-C-E. I am perpetually filling up my table in the spare room as it is very multi-purpose! I quite like listening to others chat when I'm feeling tired; very undemanding but still feeling part of things, which is important for me.

The goldfinches have made it to our new nyjer feeder in the garden which is lovely to see. The blue and great tits are frequently up and down the seed feeders and the peanut feeder, twittering away.

Speaking of which, I am now on Twitter, after having no particular desire for twittering (except verbally, which I do quite frequently!), impulsively signed up. Have discovered it may be beneficial with someone with as poor a short term memory as me! Still, I suspect there will be patches I forget all about it! If you want to follow me, you can find me here. You'll get to 'hear' my burbling about the silliest things, no doubt. It's also in my sidebar...

Made three cards this morning. Inspiration was a bit slow in coming, but never mind. It's nice to be creative with other people.

Various jobs this afternoon...must go have lunch. Always find lunch awkward. I feel empty, but can never think of something I feel like eating. End up spending ages hovering in the kitchen, frowning and muttering....

Today:4/10, medium

birds, and other things

You'd think I could come up with a more inventive title, couldn't you...

Uploading photos takes a bit longer these days. The computer moans 'how big?' and twiddles its thumbs irritably for a while despite there still being gallons of disc space. Blogger creaks and moans too, but comes through in the end (unlike Facebook, which promptly throws up and kicks you out entirely until resizing has taken place. Was that imagery a bit extreme?) One could, if one was in the mood, resize everything and then upload to blogger, but one is not, I'm afraid to say, in the mood. Anyway, not much happening garden-wise, but the snowdrops are sneaking through and will soon be blooming:


Bird wise we have some regulars - a pair of blue tits, a pair of great tits (they are hilarious), a pair of robins (that's a first - we didn't even have one regular until the last few months, which is probably why the dunnocks have mysteriously vamoosed). Also my friend the blackbird:


There is a female blackbird but she is much shyer. The robin, too, is rather on the shy side, despite its reputation:


We've had occasional visits from a pair of coal tits and, delightfully, a goldcrest has also visited. The smallest British bird, for the benefit of those unfamiliar with it - with, unsurprisingly, a teeny weeny golden crest on its teeny weeny head which merges with its teeny weeny round body.

Enough of the teeny weenies, I think, and back to some rather lovely-hued ivy on the edge of our front steps:


Church this morning - on being an inclusive community. May, at some point, post my own thoughts on the matter. If I get my head in gear. And we all know what an effort that takes. Still, I'll let it brew for a while - you may get your 'cup of tea' eventually.

Today: 5/10, medium

Brownsea Island

We took a trip to Brownsea Island yesterday as that was what I wanted to do as my birthday outing with Andy...we took a boat from Poole Harbour. Poole Harbour is the second biggest natural harbour in the world...second to Sydney. But where Sydney is deep, Poole is shallow.

'We have to stay between the posts so we don't run aground,' our jovial guide informed us, adding, 'like yesterday.'
There were many comments like this.
'There are still pirates in Poole today. One of them is our boss.'
You get the picture.

I was desperate to see one of our native red squirrels, especially after failing to in Northumberland, and Brownsea Island, apart from the Isle of Wight, is the only remaining place in the South of England where you can find them. Basically the grey squirrels haven't managed to run them out of there because it's an island... Although apparently up North the Pine Marten, traditionally the red squirrel's arch enemy, is now helping them - the non-native grey squirrels are heavier so can't get out to the tips of the finest branches, and thus they are helping to control the grey squirrel population a little...can't remember how I know that. It was probably on Springwatch.

Anyway, we ended up seeing five, which was delightful, none close enough to take a good photo, but still we had a good view through binoculars - delightful. Here are my two 'spot the red squirrel' pictures:



Can you make it out??

They move very fast....

There is a nature reserve on Brownsea Island, which includes a lagoon with lots of birds...I wrote them down but can't find the piece of paper right now so will have to list from memory...kingfisher, avocet (dozens), black tailed godwits, bar tailed godwit, 3 greenshanks, redshanks, oystercatchers, cormorants, shoveler ducks, common sandpiper, grey plover, teal, moorhen, little egret, black headed gull, greater black backed gull, terns.

A lovely day, although I was exhausted last night (& dopey today). Yesterday was actually sunny in places, which is frankly astonishing at the moment. It was very well timed.

Wednesday: 5/10, medium low

Today: 4/10, medium

Pagham Harbour

Yesterday was Andy's day off, so we took a trip to Pagham Harbour. The weather was a little wild - the wind very high. We stopped at one place and walked a little way, then decided to go a little further down the harbour as the tide was out and this was not the best place to see birds in that instance. So we headed back to the car, where we were hit with a short sharp squall of rain. It took half a minute, with the wind blowing it straight towards us, and the front of my jeans were drenched from top to bottom, utterly soaked. The back was completely dry, which was a somewhat surreal sensation. It was as if the rain had said 'aha! Look what I can do in a mere 30 seconds!'
Well, whoop-de-doo for you mate. Trudged soggily back to the car.

Drove down to another vantage point. Got out of the car where the wind hit my soggy legs. Ugh. Trooped down a short path to the water side, where there was lots to see. Kept saying things like 'why isn't there a hide here? It's such a good vantage point!' Were standing there sometime gazing at the water and the birds on the mud flats when I glanced round and coughed sheepishly and pointed. There was a hide, hidden back in the bushes. 'They're probably watching us.' I said.So we got into the hide out of the rain and Andy went back to fetch his spotterscope - it would have been no good without shelter since we were afraid the rain would blow the tripod over.

Really good place for sightings. We saw: turnstones, curlews, little egrets, a common sandpiper, little ringed plovers (hilarious - running around getting all bolshy with the other birds despite their diminutive size), redshanks, oystercatchers, cormorants (& juveniles), a Great Crested Grebe further out in the water, a wheatear(pointed out by a fellow birdwatcher, although too far to identify with mere binoculars), swallows, house martins, grey heron sweeping in majestically, terns, black headed gulls, lesser black backed gulls, herring gulls. It was great watching them all so intent on finding food in the sand and mud. The little egrets were having some trouble in the wind with their long legs and kept stumbling about in the wind - on young one nearly toppled over completely. Another was practically blown along the shore, side stepping hurriedly as if to say 'I intend to do this, really.' I drank earl grey from my flask and felt content. My legs were drying out.

We were just packing up when a flock of redshanks took off. 'Lovely,' I said, gazing at them. 'Look to the sky!' Said Andy quickly, and I saw what he meant. All the smaller birds had taken off.'There! Flying low and fast!' he said, just as one of the others said 'there's a bird of prey.'Fastened my binoculars on it and we all identified it simultaneously. 'Peregrine..'So we watched the peregrine falcon zipping over the sands before walking back to the car.There was a little chapel next to the car park so we decided to take a peek. Quite a small, simple building but with amazing stained glass windows.

There were the more traditional sort, then one depicting nurses of World War II, and then one gorgeous one displaying the wildlife of the area (this was the most recent).

and closer up...

We drove on to Selsey and went up to park near the Bill. Hilarious as we parked facing out to see. The wind was coming straight off the sea towards and the car wobbled back and forth as we sat on it. In the end we braved it, but as we neared the edge we began to stagger with the force of the wind. Our coats and jeans inflated with the force of it. Trying to take photographs and remain upright was something of a challenge. You can't really tell how windy it was from the photo. Ohh... an inflatable man! Or is it Andy battling the wind??

On way home we were listening to Classic FM and the weather came on. 'Sunny spells with heavy showers,' they reported. 'Gales on the South Coast'.
'No kidding,' I commented, just as Andy said 'Really?!'

Today: 4-5/10, medium high

Day 14 - Newton-by-the-Sea

Went to Newton Links and walked on beach (Beadnell Bay); looked in rockpools. Saw two big crabs and a little hermit crab, shrimps. Birds: curlew, oystercatcher, heron, redshanks, eiders, cormorants, terns, various gulls.

Then we went to Low Newton-by-the-Sea and had lunch looking over beach with sparrows flitting around us.

Fish n' chips for tea. Packed. Kestrel over fields being mobbed by crows. Journeying home tomorrow.

Day 13 - Bamburgh & Budle Bay

Very lazy day. Starlings, sparrows, blackbirds in garden. Grey wagtail trotting on car roof this morning.

Drove over to Bamburgh, had look over Budle Bay (tide in - saw herons, eider ducks and young). Wandered around village. Looked over patch of water between Bamburgh and Seahouses, a sort of permanently flooded field, really - mute swans and cygnets, shelducks (& juveniles), small flock of lapwings. Terns sitting on posts, blackheaded gulls.

Returned in the evening - tufted ducks & ducklings, mallards & ducklings, swifts.

Went over St Aidan's dunes onto beach. Wished I'd brought a camera to capture the colours of sand and sky. Heron, eider ducks. Andy saw silhouette of a diver out at sea, sitting low in the water. Sandwich terns, various gulls, cormorants flying low over the sea.

Back at Budle Bay - tide out. Curlews, oystercatchers, redshanks, heron, various gulls. Lots of waders silhouetted on the sands, but too far in the steadily dimming light to identify.

Can hear owl and curlew calls from cottage.

Day 12 - Kielder

Drove to Kielder Forest and Water. Buzzards and kestrel spied on journey. Drove around Water stopping at various places. Lots of chaffinches, heard and caught glimpse of tiny goldcrests in the treetops - and another baby rabbit! Alas no red squirrel sightings.

Stopped off at Bakethin Reservoir to go to a bird hide. Tide was up so not as much to see as might have done, but saw a heron, several mallards, some tufted ducks, a little grebe, lots of fish jumping and one startled moorhen....startled because of the otter! Great views as it swam across the deep, still waters from one of the islands, effortlessly diving down and back up again, totally streamlined and delightful to watch.
'Have you ever seen an otter in the wild?' Andy mouthed at me (we weren't alone in the hide at the time). I shook my head gleefully. I'd been reading the leaflet which said otters might be spotted at dawn and dusk. It was 2.30 in the afternoon.
'You don't get to see otters very often,' the man next to us explained to his two young sons, all dressed up in their camouflage gear and carrying fantastic cameras(!!)

Stopped at Kielder Castle and went to tea room where we had warm bakewell tart with custard! Walked around grounds in one last ditch attempt to see red squirrel...nope. Still, we'd seen an otter!

Drove across dam but couldn't see over wall! Oystercatcher on the side of the road. Drove back to cottage and went down the road to eat at the Lodge bar and restaurant.

Day 11: Alnmouth to Amble

Went down to Alnmouth - had lunch looking over the beach. Greenfinches, chaffinches, house martins, sparrows, curlews, terns, lapwing.

Proceeded on to Warkworth Castle, in (you'll never guess) Warkworth. Good value, as we got a two for one ticket from English Heritage from the first cottage. The keep was very intact and good to explore - great sense of atmosphere, with ground and first floor. Pied wagtails, carrion crows.

Drove beside River Coquet to Amble where we walked around the harbourside. Lots of gulls and crows. Sandwich terns shrieking and fishing.



Note: there is a house martins nest in the doorway of cottage. Young must have fledged but keep returning and flying back and forth.

Day 10: the Farne Islands

Walked down to Seahouses and ate lunch in harbour (young eiders, terns). Boat trip around islands - grey seals, gannets, puffins, occasional guillemot or razorbill, shags, cormorants, kittiwakes on rocks, various gulls. One rather impressive Arctic Skua which the pilot and guide didn't notice, although the little boy beside me piped up 'big brown bird!!' - he must have an eye for ornithology. Very distinctive tail with the telltale prong (typed 'pong' accidentally, had to go back and correct it!), with sharp pale front. Various terns.

Landing on Inner Farne: puffins, a few guillemots, cormorants and young, kittiwakes and young, terns and chicks - identified Arctic , Common, Sandwich and Roseate terns. Air thick with birds - hard to describe both proximity and density of birds around us. We came before in 2006, so more prepared this time - and less compelled to take pictures of absolutely everything.

Back to Seahouse for fudge chunk ice cream. Went out for evening meal at the Craster Arms in Beadnell. Back at cottage, looked at moon through Andy's spotterscope - could make out craters on the shadow side - awesome. Bats, too, and owl shrieking somewhere. Curlews calling across fields.

Day 9: Craster to Dunstanburgh

Walked to Dunstanburgh Castle from Craster. House sparrows, linnets, eiders and ducklings, fulmars, kittiwakes and young nesting on cliffs in castle grounds, swallows, kestrel.

Walked around the castle, largely ruined. Mainly sunny. Climbed the spiral stairway in the tower. Am not very good at that these days; I get wobbly and fear I'll lose my footing. It's not simply vertigo; it seems I am afraid of falling down steps. How odd (and annoying - I even feel nervous on escalators these days).

Bought some famous Craster kippers. Lazy evening - watched Lost in Translation.

Day 7: Ford and Etal

Visited Etal Castle this morning. Greenfinches, swallows, house martins, bullfinch, crows, blackbirds, rabbit (!)


Walked around Etal and then went on to Ford Village.

Ford Village has very pretty buildings - including Horseshoe Forge! Enormous amounts of birds - house sparrows and swallows absolutely everywhere, plus chaffinches, juvenile robins and juvenile blue tits.



Lunch at the Barn at Beal. House martins there too. Lazy afternoon.

Day 5: Holy Island

Lazy morning. Afternoon on Holy Island - walked the dunes and shoreline of the north coast. Saw swallow fledglings - sweet! Linnets, pipits, grey and pied wagtails. Eiders on sea, gannets flying across. Stonechats, skylarks, reed bunting.

Gorgeous poppies in fields - took pictures on my SLR (not digital I'm afraid!) High brown frittilary butterflies. Moths - lots of burnets (not sure of type) emerging from pupae on grasses and drying off their wings.