The garden is getting a makeover.

Tony has been very busy in the garden, he has built a wooden frame work for things to grow up and for us to put unusual items on. I have buckets in the greenhouse with things growing in them, yes you read that correctly, things growing in the greenhouse. I have some basil, a gooseberry sapling and a blueberry sapling. When they look a bit stronger they will be moved out doors. The mint has already moved outside and is taking over the bucket it is planted in. The ivy has been planted in the garden beside an old porcelain sink that Tony fasten to the wall at the bottom of the garden.
Tony's strimmer broke so we had to go and pick up another one which meant a trip to Bentham where his son lives. This was no hardship as it meant we were able to see his new granddaughter again, she is only 7 weeks old, and of course his 5 year old grandson, who calls Tony granddad beer,( work that one out for yourselves).
Tony is now building a border around part of the garden which he will then fill with pebbles, he is digging out in some places and filling in at other places to try and make it level. If anybody looked at it they would think he was professional and knew what he was doing!!!

While Tony has been doing all this what have I been doing you may ask. Well the answer to that is, mostly sleeping! I don't know why but it is all I seem to do at the moment. I even sleep more than a couple of hours on a night now but I also sleep at least 3 or 4 during the day, I think either my tablets are out of sync or I need the dose increasing. Or I could be anaemic again, that usually makes me tired.

Anyway enough about that.

Here come the pictures,

Lamb and Ewe in a field on the way home from Bentham.

Lamb in the road on the way home from Bentham. This silly lamb was standing just around a bend in the road, there were 3 of them, luckily they all ran back through the hedge when we stopped. they might not have been so lucky if a car had come at a faster speed.

The Red Letterbox.
Well you just have to don't you, it's the first thing you think when you see it. That would look good in black and white with the box red.
I like it anyway.

 The Greenfinches are regular callers again. Their favourite feeder is the ball on the shed, which is filled with sunflower seeds.
They often have to share it with Coal Tits and Blue Tits and are occasionally chased away when one of the squirrels want to eat from it.



















                                                                                                                                                                                     
The male Sparrows can be seen sitting around in the garden, I think they must be resting after chasing all the females round the garden. The Sparrows are making a lot of noise in the bushes, lots of twittering and tweeting, they nest in communal sites so I suppose it is like a bunch of women getting together they all talk at once.

The Magpies are still hanging round the garden, sneaking in for the suet and nuts when they think nobody is looking. We are going to have to watch them now to make sure there is no nest raiding or chick pinching when they start hatching. I think this Magpie was watching the Starling wondering if he could do the same thing!

 The Starlings really like the peanut butter, but I was amazed to see this one hovering at the side of the post so it could get the last of it out of the hole. I put the peanut butter in the hole on the post for the Woodpeckers that come into the garden, I knew the Squirrels took it but until I saw this I didn't know the Starling did.
The squirrels have not been seen much over the last couple of weeks, they must be sulking because Tony is in the garden.


Until the next time...

Nothing much to report...

The garden has been fairly quiet during the day except for the usual visitors. The squirrels are still around,

 sitting on the fence,

Eating nuts on the crossbar,

 climbing on the bird house,


















 looking for nuts on the window ledge,

 watching from the tree,

 Hiding donuts in the tree's ( the favourite snack of the moment)

Tony has been busy in the garden tidying up ready to lay some flagstones and pebbles. I asked him to prune the sparrowbush as it was getting very large and out of hand,

This is how the bush used to look,












This is how it looks now, if you look closely there is a stick standing in the centre of the picture. That is all that remains of the Sparrowbush!

I mustn't grumble tho' because Tony is putting up a small fence where the bush was at the side of the Greenhouse, so I can photograph anything I see up the side of the garden. I am enjoying my Greenhouse and believe it or not I have green things in there. I have some mint, basil, pepper, chilli, and some ivy plants in pots, I also managed to save some shoots from the sparrowbush which I have planted into pots in the hope they will begin to take root, then I can transfer them into the garden.

We have a male Blackbird in the garden that is trying to rule the roost. He tries his best to chase out every other bird that comes in. He even tries to chase out the squirrels but it doesn't work.

He follows the female Blackbird round the garden and when he decides she has been out long enough he chases her back into the bush where they have a nest. 

There has been a pair of Song Thrushes visiting the garden recently,  beautiful birds and so wonderful to hear.

The Greenfinches have been around quite often too,

The Blue Tit flies onto the suet feeder fill his beak and flies away, I think he is feeding his mate who may be staying in the nestbox. I have not seen her venture out for a few days,  have just seen her head looking out of the hole.

The Starlings love the peanut butter that I put in the little bush. They often seem to stand in a line waiting for their turn to feast on it. They pull it from the bush filling their beaks.

They are not the only birds that like the peanut butter, there are two Magpies that fly into the garden on an evening to see if there is any left for them to eat, sometimes they are lucky and they might find a small amount but more often than not the Starlings and Squirrels have made short work of it.

Until the next time...

 

 

Down in the garden

Down in the garden,

Squirrel was sitting on the fence, watching me putting out the seeds and nuts.

He knew it wouldn't be long before I went back into the shed. Then he could race down grab a hazelnut and shoot off without me seeing him.

This is it he thought, she has gone inside, nows my chance. Squirrel looked round quickly and jumped down from the fence.

He ran across the patio, then dashed to the nutbox, pulled out a monkey nut and back to the fence.

She never saw me move! The only trouble was he had eaten that nut and he was so hungry he wanted another.

He looked around no-one was to be seen, she must be still in the shed. So again squirrel ran down the fence.

He ran all the time watching out for movement from the shed. He didn't see any so he carried on down the fence and back towards the nutbox.

Then he stopped in his tracks! What the... how had she done it, When did she come out of the shed?

Squirrel was not impressed, he had not seen her move from the shed into the greenhouse, but move she had.

Squirrel went back to sitting on the fence, trying to work out how he had missed her moving.

 He really needed to pay more attention instead of just thinking about hazelnuts.

Oh and thats all we need squirrel thought that show off Mr Woodpecker with his bright red bum. The male Great Spotted Woodpecker is a beauty, he visits quite often but the female visits more. Neither of them stay long

                                                                   

                                                                        Time to fly.

What was that? 

The robin landed as the woodpecker left, he wasn't quite sure who had just flown past.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Robin just wanted to know when his next batch of live mealworms are coming, he has to impress the mrs somehow.

Until the next time...

Just keep the nuts coming...

The first to sit on the greenhouse,
I knew it had to be either a starling or a blackbird, the blackbird did it. There he was calling to me in the shed making sure I saw him, all swagger and smugness. He called and danced around up there as if to say "look can you see me? look where I am then, I'm on your greenhouse."

The blackbird can be heard singing very often, as well as shouting out a warning if something is in the garden that he doesn't like, such as next doors cat or the sparrowhawk.
Singing can be heard from all over the garden, birds can be spotted rushing by with beaks full of nesting material and some are grabbing beaks full of food to offer to their prospective mates to tempt them to a new home.

I saw a coal tit in the garden for the first time in quite a while, closely followed by a second one. They flew around the garden chasing each other stopping to eat some sunflower hearts now and again then flew away over the hedge into next doors garden. They nested in there last year hopefully they are going to nest in the same place again this year.

The wren has been busy bug hunting in the log pile, I think she has built a nest close by.

I have seen her most days going in and out of the pile then flying to the corner behind the greenhouse. There were quite a few birds that have nested in the bush just over the wall in the corner in the last few years. If they do it again this year I will be in a good spot in the greenhouse when the chicks start leaving the nest, to hopefully get some great close up shots of them.

The little male squirrel is becoming braver, he saw me sitting in the greenhouse, so he edged closer and closer along the wall.

Then he decided he was too close and moved back down the wall.

He decided to have a look at me from the nutbox instead,

Then he came a little closer, 

He spotted something different in the garden,

It was another blue dish, a big blue dish, it had lots of food in it.

Little squirrel liked this dish.

The little squirrel didn't really care where I sat or how many pictures I took so long as he had plenty of hazelnuts and sunflower seeds.

Until the next time...