Birds and squirrels

They're not all bird brains - the big fat pigeon still can't work it out... but Anthony and Cleo have got it sussed!

The starlings decide to eschew the tray feeder in favour of hanging from the fat-ball feeder... even though they're a bit big - Mr Blackbird just picks up the bits the others have dropped!

My little fat robin is taking advantage of the newly filled seed tray - little red tennis ball with wings! The squirrels, meanwhile, just carry on eating... regardless of just about any other visitors (including me!)

That time of year already

It's been a bit warmer this week - and that seems to have woken up the ladybugs who spent the winter hibernating in our house (and mostly in our bedroom). Today I have already encourage half a doze out of the window (I want them to get cracking on the aphids and whatnot)... but as it is supposed to be getting colder next week I'm sure they will just come straight back in.

Big Garden Bird Watch

This weekend was the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch so I spent some time in the garden on Saturday afternoon (when it wasn't too chilly) and a lot of time looking out of the window on Sunday afternoon (when it was too chilly). It wasn't my best birdwatching experience - I think the birds are roosting somewhere with their beaks under their wings - but I did see quite a bit of the big fat pigeons and the squirrells.

The big fat pigeons are moving into the ivy tree - a lot of desperate fluttering as birds far too large for the tiny twigs they land on strive to keep their balance - I think love might be in the air for the big fat pigeons!

The blackbird is sitting in the 'twittering tree' (usually full of the blue tits and great tits) keeping an eye on proceedings. Meanwhile Cleo (one of the 'regular' pigeons keeps an eye on things from the safety of the roof.

The squirrels seem to have taken over the far end of the garden. Not only the peanut feeder now, but the food tray as well - and the fat balls if all else fails!

The big fat pigeon hasn't figured out how to work these feeders yet - he sat there for half an hour thinking about it. A couple of his friends have worked out the ones in the shrubbery... on lands on the branches and bounces around and then they pick up the seeds that fall to the ground!

One of the squirrel gang (there are four or five of them) got fed up with fighting with his friends and came up the other end of the garden. How cute, I said looking out of the window - who me, asked the squirrel putting his paw to his chest!

These are my garden watching posts - I can enjoy the wildlife from the (relative) warmth of my kitchen... with the help of my zoom lens!

I can't wait for Spring to arrive and to be able to spend more time in the garden... and of course for all my amphibian friends to re-appear!

Little Bits of London (5)

An existential pedestrian crossing - taken at Bank.

Little Bits of London (4)

A pedestrian crossing on London Wall

All change please

Regular travellers who rely on the Jubilee Line from North Greenwich suffer a lot. Not just the fact that it is practically never working at weekends; but assorted delays and disruptions when it is running. Well the journey to and from work just got a little bit worse with the closure of the bus station for resurfacing workings for a hellish eight weeks.

This means that beautifully spaced and organised bus stops; where buses commence their journey based largely on route and ultimate destination is swept away to be replace by unmitigated chaos and the us of stops F & G. These are down on the main road in a lay-by. A lay-by frequently used by vehicular traffic prohibited from the bus station (that would be everything except for buses and black cabs) for drop off and pick up. The buses do have assigned stops - but when more than two arrive at the same time that doesn't mean much. And arrivals - well they've taken to abandoning passengers on the opposite site of the road!

Maybe they will finish ahead of schedule?!

Greedy little pests

Yes, they are cute and furry. They also have insatiable appetites; having claimed the nut feeder for their own they have now made a start on the seed tray too! One reason that the squirrels are a nuisance - the other being that they persist in digging up the lawn, the shrubbery, plant pots... anything which isn't paved really!

Raining Again

I think somebody lost their umbrella... but how?!

Great Thrift!

Opening the post earlier this week I noticed an amazing example of 'waste not want not'. As the half-penny ceased to be legal tender in this country in 1984 (twenty-five years ago!) these stamps had to pre-date that time. In fact they were part of the Christmas set (the first class stamp). I'm amazed that somebody managed to hold on to these for twenty-five years and then use two of them together to form current first class postage tariff!

Nature is amazing

Despite inches of snow and weeks of sub-zero temperatures and thick ice over just about everything the garden has bounced back.

The fish in the pond are venturing out (cautiously)  - I have just managed to fish the net ing out of the water now that all the ice has melted!




My herbs are miraculously still thriving along with most of the other plant life in the garden!

When the sun is out everything seems fresher, newer and more positive. Everything is full of possibilities and I seem to have more energy, and this isn't even Spring yet!



The sun shining through my back door and catching a mobile hanging in my kitchen window - I've had it since I was a baby and it has lived everywhere with me.

Week without weather

Well - that isn't actually true... there is always weather. The weather this week has, at last, been slightly less full of snow, although rather more full of rain. The pouring rain over several days has raised temperatures and washed away what was left of the snow. Even our garden pond is un-frozen now.

I decided, on Monday, to go through six months (yes, six months) worth of magazine subscriptions. This led to the decision to cancel two of the subscriptions. Somehow, even though I'm not a big magazine reader, I had managed to amass the most amazing pile of back-dated reading material. Some of them, as I mentioned, we buy (Windows Magazine, Empire and SFX); some of them come from various memberships (MS Matters, three different RICS publications); a few of them come from the supermarkets (both ASDA and Sainsbury have their own in-house magazines) and some I buy on a whim (Xbox 360 and Good Housekeeping). I used to buy a lot of different titles, until I discovered that I wasn't reading most of them. I am alarmed to discover that my womens' magazine of choice is now Good Housekeeping... I hadn't realised I was that old!

The most exciting thing to happen this week was the statement from my on-line savings account. This had a surprising amount of money in it - which led to the realisation of a long held dream that Rich and I have cherished. To replace our TV set. When we first lived together we rented a TV from Radio Rentals (remember them!?!) - after a while I decided that, even though we didn't have money to buy one outright (TVs were expensive back then) we could get one on the 'never-never' (hire purchase) and at least one day it would be ours. That was around 8 or 9 years ago. The TV we got, at the time, was state of the art. Although it was a traditional type TV it had a flattened screen (very rare back then) and surround sound speakers which were positioned around the room. It cost well into four figures... and because of this my mantra was always that it wouldn't be replaced until it broke down.

However, as flat screen LCD TV's become more common place and more affordable, and the connections in the back of our old TV increasingly obsolete I decided that it was time for us to join the 21st Century and get a new TV. So we did. Watching TV last night we had to keep turning to each other to exclaim on the superior picture quality of the new TV. Given that it has no additional speakers the sound quality isn't even that bad!



Whilst Rich was assembling the TV stand and hooking up all the peripherals (a process which I have found through years of experience it is best to leave him to) I was catching up on a week's worth of blog reading, emails and other assorted on-line activities.

Somehow I stumbled across this game from Armor Games - GemCraft. I would seriously not recommend getting started with this one unless you have a few hours to spare. It is a simple 'tower defence' game... at first glance. It requires a lot of strategy and there is a pretty steep learning curve in some levels. You get to the stage where you are determined to beat that level you are stuck on before giving up for the day. You have been warned.