Welcome to family, friends and visitors. Here you will find interesting (hopefully) pictures of my part of the world, news of our household and probably, long ramblings about anything that catches my interest.

Thursday 28 January 2010

Birds.

This morning's weeding session saw the last bit of the pond path cleared of weeds. There is still some grass growing in the water to be pulled out but that will be it for now. In a few weeks I'll cut back the rest of last year's growth from the marginal plants. The alchemilla is a lovely plant but seeds easily so there have been quite a few seedlings to pull out. It always amazes me that a little plant only a cm across will have several inches of roots. I used to look around the local garden centres once in a while for unusual plants and I had to laugh once when I saw pots of alchemilla on sale at £4.50 each.2 eggs today, that's 100% increase in production. At least I should soon be able to stop buying eggs. I could never bring myself to buy battery eggs but free range eggs are not so expensive these days, probably due to increased demand. My hens are such gluttons. Even when their crops are full of corn they wait at the bottom corner of their run to see if I'm coming up with any scraps. When we first moved here I had a little flock that roamed free and they often hung around the front door waiting for us to come out. I have a photo of one hen happily laying an egg in a box just inside the porch.

Right now we are waging war on the jackdaws who plan on building nests in the chimney and loft. The first year it was only one nest, then some of them nested in the lofts (very noisy,) and this year there are at least 12 birds hanging around. One pair build a nest in this chimney (we'll have to warn future owners of this place to sweep the chimney if they plan on using the kitchen fireplace,) and the rest head into the loft. We will put some netting up to block the hole into the loft and we are also gaily taking potshots at them with the boys' air-rifles. We don't actually aim at the birds and it is only plastic pellets that ping off the trees but we hope that they will scare away the jackdaws. Jackdaws are quite clever and now they fly away as soon as we raise a gun to our shoulder. Hopefully they will get the message soon and find somewhere else.
On my way home from school this evening I had another frustrating time trying to get a good photo of a buzzard. I was taking photos through the car windscreen and trying to move a bit closer, first the buzzard flew down the fence and eventually it flew away.

So this was my final photo.

1 comment:

Julie said...

Ruta!!!! I am starting to get my feet wet back in the blogging world... I have been so incognito when we were in america!
I am so happy you got the small gift of love in the mail. Eli sleeps with your Huckles every night and I will always look at Huckles, and thank God for you and your generosity to my little guy. Thank you!!!! I am only sorry that it got to you so late. Zach was supposed to mail it while I was gone in America... but he forgot.
I wanted to let you know we are checking out a state montessori school for Eli next year. I am so excited about it... especially since he doesn't really speak Hungarian. This method can help him and he can get it without knowing all the Hungarian right away. So excited. Also, do you have any advice about teaching to read. Eli hates his hooked on phonics stuff. Love any insights.
Hugs and praying for you in your search for a job in NZ.