Llanwrthwl, Crych Du & Hurricane Gonzalo.

The garden is very quiet again, I suppose Tony finding a mauled Collar Dove behind the shed this morning did not help.

There is a small black cat that appears in the garden most days, it sits on the shed roof or the fence waiting for the small squirrels, (grrr!) when none of them appear it seems to make do with anything that does. The cat never attempts to eat anything, just kills it for the fun of it.

The birds in the garden are very nervous now so are the squirrels, the black cat is not put off by mint imperials or aniseed balls so we are going to have to think of some other way that will stop the cat but not the squirrels, hedgehog or fox.

We had a week away recently we went to Wales. The cottage we stayed in was the best we have stayed in for a long time. It was very secluded, peaceful and relaxing. 

If you want a look at this link,

   http://www.sykescottages.co.uk/cottage/Mid-Wales-Cardigan-Bay-Llanwrthwl/Crych-Du-2940.html

We spent a lot of time in the conservatory. We had the tail end of “Hurricane Gonzalo”, that day the rain was torrential, the wind was blowing about 100 miles an hour,and the  hailstones were the size of hazelnuts,so we sat watching the river rising at the bottom of the garden, from the safety and warmth of the conservatory. 

One morning while we were there it was just like being at home, there were 5 squirrels running around burying acorns. It did make me wonder how my squirrels were doing at home they must have thought I had abandoned them.

There is a bird table just outside the door to the conservatory at the cottage, it was visited every day by nuthatches, I was amazed at the beginning of the week but by the end of the week it was just “oh look another nuthatch”. 

We walked along the river and we saw a Dipper, I have wanted to see a dipper for as long as I can remember, of course you know how my luck runs, I had the wrong lens with me, Tony had the right one, he managed to get a photo, I didn’t. Well maybe next time because we will be going back.

There were some chickens and a couple of roosters at the cottage. I have never seen any like them before, they came around every day to see if they could find anything to eat. One of the roosters liked to dance.

I think one of the highlights of the holiday was The Red Kite Feeding Centre at Gigrin Farm. That was an amazing sight to see. However I will tell you more about that the next time.

Until then...

How many nuts can a squirrel get in it's mouth?

The young squirrels are running amok in the garden, they have discovered how to open the nutboxes, they can hang upside down on the feeders to take the sunflower seeds and to empty the log of peanut butter. One of them was amazed to see me in the Greenhouse it took him a while to figure out what was wrong,

 he kept coming to look at me to see if I was still there, so when I moved back into the shed he just didn't know what was happening.

 We bought some hazelnuts when we went shopping the squirrels like them and the supermarkets have them in now it's getting near christmas,(oh no not that again).

While I was in the Greenhouse the squirrels had a look in the blue dish on the window ledge to see if I had left any hazelnuts in there but they were too late "Greyflanks" had beaten them to the nuts he had already taken them all.

One of the youngsters was quite happy to sit on the fence and eat the peanut from out of the nutbox now they knew how to get them out.

As for Mrs Squirrel she was just seeing how many nuts she could get into her mouth in one go, at this point she had 2 hazelnuts and was trying her best to get an almond in as well.

Until the next time...

A quick jab in the arm.

Tony had a letter from the doctors inviting him to go for his flu jab this week. Away he went saying he thought I should have one as well, "whats the point in me having it if you don't" he grumbled under his breath as he walked away from the car. I sat in the car waiting for him knowing he wouldn't be long. The next thing I knew Tony was standing there with my door open looking very pleased with himself. "Come on, you are having a flu jab the nurse say's you should have one as well." Hmm I suppose they were right so I ended up having one after all.

The rest of the day I spent reading, writing on my new chrome book and sleeping. I am still not 100% fit so I am taking it a little bit easy until I am back to normal. Plus it is getting cold, I am going to find my hot water bottle I think I might need it very soon.


I have found a very short clip of two of the squirrels enjoy!

Until the next time...

Newbies in the garden

Poor Mrs Squirrel is being run ragged again, she has introduced three new youngsters into the garden. As usual there is one that is into everything, never in one place for more than a second or two before moving on to the next.

While two of the youngsters run around exploring,

the smallest one stayed on the fence with Mum.

The youngsters all explored the garden during the morning, leaving after a while, then two of them came back alone.  Mum could not have been keen on this idea just yet because it wasn't long before she came and chased them both out of the garden again. (hopefully I will have some film of this to show you soon).


The young squirrels soon found out where the sunflower seeds were.

They also knew the "it wasn't me" pose very well,

These two were happy to share when they tried to get the last of the peanut butter out of the little bush.

This one even knew how to use a tail for an umbrella when it began to rain.

It's good to see new squirrels in the garden, we lost one a couple of weeks ago, it didn't make it across   the road. The only squirrels that had been visiting on a regular basis were Mrs Squirrel and a younger male we named "Grey flanks". So now I am happy to have three more babies, I am not going to name them just yet, I have not really been able to spot any real markings to distinguish which is which. I know one of them is a boy but I have not managed to see what the other two are yet.



The weather for the last couple of days has not been very good.
Today it rained most of the day, I didn't really mind I wasn't going anywhere, I was in bed feeling sorry for myself, feeling a bit under the weather (ha ha, no pun intended).

The sun did eventually manage to break through even if the rain was still pouring down, so I was able to take a picture of a rainbow in the sky outside the bedroom window.

At least that put a bit of colour into a grey day.


Until the next time...