The Birds

Every now and then either I have a stupid idea or somebody else does and I go along with it. This week Tessa decided she wanted to buy a Budgie - didn't seem like such a bad idea, we already have a canary in a big big cage so one more didn't seem to matter. BUT, I was concerned that the other kids might be a bit put out so I got another one that they could share..........that didn't work - I forgot how bad they are at sharing! So, now we have three budgies, all of whom are hand tame although I think its going to take some work to get them to stay that way especially as they are living as a flock now.

I'm not quite sure how the canary feels about sharing his home with three noisy, domineering budgies but he doesn't seem too upset yet.

So, a bit of a cop-out for HS:MS today but the darker blue budgie really is named patch because he has a big white patch on the back of his head.

HS:MS Catch-up

Not in the right order but here goes!

(Adorable) Freckles

this is Smartie, my friend's new puppy, he's just gorgeous and scrummy and smells wonderful (I just love puppy breath!)

Another word I missed was Flotsam - this is whats floating in the birdbath at the moment...

And yet another word ... Flora ... got a bit carried away with this one and couldn't decide which I liked best.

Fun with Bubbles

What happens if you combine one of these.....................



with one of these.....................

A CRAZY DOG MOMENT!!!

A Boy's Best Friend

This week I've been bribing Fletcher to walk the dogs with me by taking money for sweets en-route! Actually he's quite willing really, he does love Coco and unlike Darcy she is a pleasure to walk.

Today's word on HS:MS is Goofy and I must admit I'm quite tempted to start joining in again with these pictures! I'm assuming hoping) that in time Fletcher's face will catch up with his teeth eventually!!

Birthday Girl

Tessa turned 15 on Monday - how scary! Here she is on her Birthday, rarely captured on camera......

We had a BBQ with no rain but plenty of midges so that we were thigh-slapping like a crowd of Austrians at a beer festival and didn't stay outside for too long. Tessa got loads of dosh, clothes etc - usual 15yr old girl stuff - and actually smiled quite a lot in a very un-15yr old girl-ish sort of fashion ....... it didn't last longer than a day though!

The warmer weather has brought plenty of hot-tub usage. Fletcher will probably be growing fins soon the amount of time he's spent in there. They can't just be content with sitting quietly enjoying the warm water and bubbles - they have to act like complete hooligans, shouting and screeching so I'm just relieved we decided to position it on the side of the house furthest away from any neighbours. They have started playing with a plastic box in the tub - not sure what this game is...

but this one is some sort of box-surfing I think!

I had a go at using my spotting scope again this week but I'm having difficulty getting the hang of it - certainly harder than just using a big lens but I did get this shot of a Great Tit..

So, another week closer to the summer holidays - wishing my life away as usual.

Bye-Bye Blackbird

Sad day today. This morning when we were getting ready for School we noticed the Magpie was hanging around a lot. Three times we went out into the garden and chased it away but I had a bad feeling about what would happen after we left the house. So, I suppose I wasn't very surprised to come home and find yet another headless corpse in the garden..... it was the baby Blackbird that had been sheltering under the bushes since leaving the nest last Friday. I've never heard of a Magpie systematically hunting baby birds in this way before and can't imagine what he does with the heads of his victims but I wish there was a way of keeping him out of the garden.

But it wasn't all bad today. Tessa and I went to her parents evening and, as usual, all the teachers are really pleased with her and she's in line to do great in her GCSEs if she can keep up the good work, and apart from that she's a good student and they all really enjoy having her in their lessons so I'm really proud of her. I can't imagine where she gets it from, I was a nightmare at school and although Steven did really well I don't think his behaviour was all that great most of the time!

Anyway, if anybody out there comes across this and knows of a sure-fire way of getting rid of Magpies please let me know ....

What I hate about May

Mollie came out of school today ranting about something Archie had said/done etc .... I try not to pay too much attention as I have no doubt they will be friends again before long - but on the subject of enemies...

I didn't think I would be blogging today as I hadn't taken any photos and didn't really have much to say but then as I was going through the bedtime routine I came face to face with my very own nemesis and it reminded me of something that happened a few years ago..

Steven used to travel home from Plymouth every weekend and always left home late on a Sunday night to go back to work. One particular night he left at probably about midnight and half an hour later he got a phone call on his mobile from me.......hysterical. He pulled over to talk and (I like to think) in preparation for turning round to race home and rescue me from what he probably assumed must be a 7ft axe-welding maniac at the very least - until finally he managed to calm me down enough to discover the reason for my terror and panic was ..... a May Bug in the bedroom!!

Tonight I went out, made sure the dogs did their business, put the green bin out on the road and it was only when I stepped back into the house that I spotted this monster right outside the back door....

if I had spotted him on my way out of the house it's likely that the dogs would have had to cross their legs all night and the bin would have stayed full! The picture is so bad because I wouldn't get close in case he was faking his stunned appearance (I think he'd probably flown into the window - ha!).

So, I'll be watching the dogs from the window for the next few nights until Steven is home to let them out for me.

Wet Monday

Usual Bank Holiday weather today..rain..rain..rain. I should have put my plants in on Saturday when the weather wasn't too bad but of course I didn't...... I left it until yesterday and it rained, so, I left it until today - and of course, it rained again. Never mind, I did manage to get a few of the plants into the ground in between showers although for part of the time I got distracted watching the bees on the flowers so it was pretty slow progress!

The good news is that our baby Blackbird is still surviving under the bushes. I was so relieved today to see the parents still going in and out with food for him and then at one point the baby actually made a brief appearance on the grass which was great.

The baby Robin is still around too .... he is just so cute!

Mollie had her nemesis Archie over to play yesterday. It's so funny because at school they seem to hate one another, she often comes out of school in a terrible rage and it's always a variation on the same theme ...... "Archie did such-and-such" .......... "Archie said so-and-so"...etc, etc. But yesterday they decided to meet up and had a great time and got on like a house on fire - weird!

So, that was my Bank Holiday Weekend, not very exciting but hey-ho - only four days at work this week so I'm not complaining!

Another Busy Week!

I fear the worst - it's going to be Christmas before we know it! I just can't believe how quickly the weeks are whizzing past. Work time seems to go much faster now that I am in the main office and not cut of from humanity so I guess that is making a difference too.

Having said that, I haven't really done much of note this week. Just the usual routine really....work, school run, dinner, tv, bed and so on. I did have Friday off though so a nice long weekend with the Bank Holiday. We went to the Garden Centre and bought some plants so that I can do some gardening this weekend but I didn't get around to it today so I still have that to do as well as catching up with a backlog of washing.

We had a bit of a tragedy on Friday too though. In the morning we found one of the baby blackbirds dead in the garden. It was pretty gory really, the head was missing and there was a gaping hole in what was left of the body (apologies if you're eating whilst reading this!). Then later on in the day we found another in exactly the same state. We thought at first that there must be cat getting into the garden but realised later that it was more likely to be a Magpie. Later on in the afternoon a third baby left the nest and landed in a very undignified manner on the grass before thankfully managing to hop to safety under the bushes. Within minutes the Magpie arrived but was chased away by the adult Blackbirds and I've seen them in and out of the bushes all day today with beaks full of food so it looks as though he is surviving for the time being.

Fletcher was particularly upset and worried about the baby Blackbird and insisted that when Steven got up at 4.30 this morning for his trip to the States (another little jolly) he woke him up so that he could stake out the garden in case the Magpie should turn up again!! So, he was up really early and then went to an ice-skating party this afternoon and has been playing Wii Fit all evening so I don't think we'll be hearing much from him tomorrow!

We love the Wii Fit! We got it on Friday. It's great fun and surprisingly hard work. I liked it even more when we first tried it as it said I only weighed about 8st 10 but then we realised that it wasn't working properly because we have a thick carpet so we stood it on a board and I went back up to my 10st.........obviously not doing so well with one of my New Year Resolutions. Actually more than one - I also haven't done very well with the finger chewing one, or the regular blogging or taking pictures. In fact I think it's only the not buying clothes one that I can claim any success with because I genuinely haven't bought any clothes whatsoever since the New Year.

So, no pictures for my blog today, I did try taking a couple of a baby Robin being fed today but I haven't looked at them yet to see how they turned out. Not a complete failure then because I did have my camera out.

Tessa turns 15 a week on Monday! This is what I mean about it being nearly Christmas already - it doesn't seem possible that she's 15 already. The two of us have been winding one another up a lot over the last few days, unfortunately I think our PMT may be in-sync and I'm feeling pretty narky due to my resentment over Steven's little holiday so I guess that's not helped matters. Note to self.........PATIENCE!!!!!!