The House Husband

It was a very busy day in the garden today. Not with me but with the birdlife. The morning was all bright and blue as I topped up the feed and set the tripod up. I then stood in the kitchen and waited.

At one stage a whole gang of starlings attacked the floating table, kicking out all other species. There was also a rather possessive collared dove who wanted everything for himself, fighting off all the wood pigeons.

At one stage there was a group of wood pigeons wandering around beneath the floating table, picking up discarded scraps while the collared dove wandered around picking and choosing what to eat. Though it was only wood pigeons he didn’t like. All the smaller birds were quite welcome to join in.

The blackbird even put in an appearance at the table. I managed to snap him on a branch above it. It’s slightly out of focus, which is annoying, but still…

Mr Blackbird

And then it rained. I quickly dragged the camera inside and set up in the kitchen, shooting out the big window. A rather cheeky robin kept glancing out from behind things. I managed to get one shot of him.

Robin sneaking a peek

At one stage, while the camera was set up in the garden, I snapped a shot of myself (using the wireless remote) as I walked by the floating table. I thought it came out quite well though at a rather odd angle and I think I need a shave.

Glancing askance

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Tonight I watched Kirstie Allsopp (she is so cutsie it’s impossible) learn how to make pork pies, braun and sausages for entry in the handmade section of a Yorkshire show. She has never done any of these things before. She’s oddly entertaining.

There’s something terribly game and wholesome about her desire to try odd things. It was the last episode of her entering things in country competitions – flower arranging, cushion making, pig walking, all manner of things. It’s also the only episode I’ve seen.

I now feel confident that I could make pork pies and sausages by hand. I’m not that keen on buying a pig’s head and turning it into braun so I don’t think I’ll be doing that.

Kirstie is quite infectious and the results are exciting. I’m not going to give away how she goes but she deserves what she gets.

Rather than staying the house all day watching Carmen, I put her bucket on her head and went up to Farnham for a Starbucks. I’m really not made for being housebound.

The highlight of my Starbucks visit was when the barista told me about the stray King Charles spaniel that was in his house last night.

He lives at home and, last night his sister came excitedly into his room and told him there was a strange dog in the house. They’re the proud owners of a couple of shih tzus so they’re doggie people anyway but this was a great treat.

Apparently their neighbours had turned up with it, saying it had strayed into their garden and they’d been trying to contact the owner without success. They had to go out and wondered, given they had dogs anyway that one more wouldn’t be a problem.

According to the barista, they had a great night with the King Charles. All good things, though, must come to an end. They finally managed to con tact the owner who picked it up this morning, obviously deliriously happy.

That’s it. Just a nice lost dog story.

Our dog is progressing far too well. It’s a constant battle to stop her jumping on the furniture, especially when Day-z has a bark out the front window. Carmen always has to add her (slightly deeper) bark to the mix. And, of course, she can’t do it from the lounge.

It’s almost comical seeing her stand on her wobbly legs, trying to balance enough to launch herself through the air. Fortunately the slight delay gives me time to stop her.

She is getting better. Her scar is very slight, with only the stitches giving any clear indication there’s anything wrong. Well, if you ignore the big shaved area.

Carmen's stitches

This morning I fed the birds then set the camera up in the kitchen, hoping for some action on the seed tubes. I wasn’t disappointed.

Now clear off!

The green finches are quite aggressive, pushing any other birds off and threatening them with GBH.

We also had visit from a local gang of house sparrows who stopped their eating for a brief dip in the bird bath. For a while, one would stand guard on the rim while the other splashed around in the water. But then it was all too enjoyable and they were soon both in the water.

Sparrows in the bird bath

We had quite a lot of sun and blue sky today. After the wind blew away the clouds, anyway. The light was great for getting shots of the birds, including this lovely great tit.

Great tit on guard duty

I have quite a cunning plan for my bird shots tomorrow so, fingers crossed for more sun and more bird species.

Today I was determined to blip a gold finch (which I did) but in the process I managed to capture a shot of a great tit. Here he is:

Great tit feeding

I thought I’d posted about the Montgolfiers before but I can’t find more than a casual mention. And so, for my mother’s edification…

The Story of the Montgolfiers
The first person to fly in a hot air balloon was Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier and, along with his brother Joseph-Michel, they built and developed the first ones. The first test flight of a full size model was made on 14 December 1782.

There’s a smaller model of their invention at the Science Museum.

Model

On one of our trips to France, we spotted two cute little hot air balloons, hanging from the ceiling in a shop. Mirinda was very keen on buying them so she went up to the counter and, in her best French said she wanted to buy the two hot air balloons (“Ballons à air chaud“).

The woman behind the counter looked at her like she was an idiot. She rattled something about not having any balloons. Mirinda repeated the request while pointing and mentioning the colours as well. The woman just stared, without a clue as to what Mirinda was referring to.

Of course, by this time, Mirinda was not happy and was accusing the French woman of not knowing her own language. She angrily trounced over to where the balloons were and gesticulated wildly repeating “Ballons à air chaud!“.

The woman looked quizzical and said “Mongolfier?” And everything was fine. You see, the French word for hot air balloon is Montgolfier, after the brothers who invented them.

Every since, we have called them Montgolfier as well just because it sounds nicer and means we can easily remember the name of the first guys who went up in a hot air balloon.

There was a lot of blue tit action in the garden this morning so I managed to get the inevitable photos of Barry. Here he is holding on to the smallest little piece of plastic in order to feed without a perch.

Blue tit death grip

I was going to pop into Woking today and buy some much needed jeans and runners but yesterday left me drained and tomorrow is my first time as a presenter at the Talking Newspaper so I just worked in the garden instead. I’m also back at the Science Museum on Friday. It’s been a busy week.

Last year we planted our usual sweet peas around the obelisks but, for some reason (bad batch, maybe) they didn’t actually grow. This year we couldn’t find any (already sold out, maybe) so Mirinda thought it would be nice to plant black eyed Susans around the obelisk instead. It’s true, we’ve had very good luck with them in the past. And they are lovely and bright and proficient. So I planted four of them around the obelisk in the hot border.

I then re-weeded the new bed in front of the compost bins which was previously a nettle bed and now contains some healthy plants, inserted not that long ago. This took a while. When you leave a bed to the nettles, they form a huge tangle of roots which just keep returning. I’m pretty sure I posted about it at the time but just to reiterate…it’s a PAIN!

Mirinda announced on Monday that she’d planted everything. I pointedly glanced at the patio table which contained a whole host of plants. She followed my glance and laughing her light tinkling laughter, replied: “Oh, they’re for you to plant.” This was the black eyed Susans and a whole bunch of snap dragons.

My next job was to clear a space where we planted last years snap dragons and put them in it at the intervals suggested on the plastic information things. There was a lot but I managed with the help of the dogs who have a habit of inspecting any gardening work once it’s completed. Very closely inspected. With paw and nose.

Mirinda potted up three dahlias (we love dahlias) which I had to transport to the front garden. She suggested I use the wheelbarrow which was an excellent idea had the car not been in the driveway, blocking any egress. I carried them. It worked for the Egyptians and worked for me too.

Suitably exhausted, I called it a day.

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
This evening, dusk-ish in fact, I was standing at the back door watching Day-z, trying to figure out what she was doing, when I heard a lot of high pitched clicking. Sort of like those clicker things we had as kids that sounded like crickets. This, however, was very, very fast. It seemed to be coming from the holly tree. Odd, I thought, we don’t have crickets. I quietly and carefully approached and suddenly could also hear some high pitched chirping.

A robin then flew out of the holly tree and I realised what it was. The adults where doing the clicking and the baby robins were doing the chirping. I stood listening for a while and listened as the chirping ceased every time the adult returned to the nest with some insect goodness and, almost immediately started up again when they left for the shops to get more.

I don’t mind doing the gardening, feeding the birds and encouraging insects to the garden when I can go out and witness that.

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
The park was looking very green today when I walked the dogs, so I took this photo, just to make everyone jealous:

Very green Farnham Park

Hankley looked lovely today. It was clear and, at first, deserted. The gorse is starting to appear and small heather buds are beginning to sprout amid the brown of last year. And we heard a skylark! I’ve never heard one before and Mirinda assured me it was what we were listening to. You can hear one here. Apparently it’s endangered. I was quite surprised. Mirinda knows her birds but I wasn’t aware she could actually recognise an accent.