A warm sunny day but a dreadful evening. Wet and chilly.
Builder laid blocks on footings. Just the floor infill now then hopefully next week fitters will arrive to erect the room.
Completed the edging project, just the slate to infill now, delivery due on Monday.
Bees very busy in the afternoon sun, good to see. Missing this year however are the leaf cutters.
Pictures 1 - 3 - Moths in trap last night.
" 4 - 8 - Busy Bees.
" 9 - Footings complete.
A stunning day, very warm. Almost hot.
Birdlife lost out today due to all the builder activity. Great to hear and see the Swifts busy again. Certainly spending more time flying over 479 this year.
Not experienced a year like it for Crows. Two young with parents are making the most incredible noise.
Builders made a good start on base of the Observatory. The most incredible amount of rubble was found. A coal seam was exposed, asbestos and all amounts of Victorian brickwork, china and tiles.
Pictures 1 & 2 - Arrival of concrete.
" 3 - Pouring concrete into the footings.
" 4 & 5 - Squirrel on sunflower hearts feeder.
A beautiful day. Dry, warm and sun most of the day.
Out of the blue and without warning builders arrived at 11am to take down Useful Room. Talk about communication.
Spent day laying more lengths of edging. Ground rock hard making the job difficult.
Swifts busy again, spending more time flying over 479 so hoping for nesting results next year.
Picture 1 - Young Starling in the Swift nesting box.
" 2 - 4 - Moths from last nights trap.
" 5 - Bug spotted on a rose plant.
" 6 - Edging project.
Dry day with a little sun. Breezy, not really summer weather.
Day spent laying more lengths of lawn/border edging. About a quarter way through this project now.
Good evening for Moths but still nothing like previous years. The yellow Brimstone is a regular visitor.
Brilliant to see a stag beetle in the wildlife area this afternoon. Was only reading up on beetles last night.
Young birds still busy feeding. Appears to be another brood of Starlings. The young Crows are causing a stir this year. At least three young being fed creating the most incredible noise.
Swifts not so busy today, just spotted two flying about at 6.30pm tonight.
What excitement this afternoon. In excess of 20 male/female coppers, 7 police vehicles, side gates and front doors being bashed open, peoples being handcuffed - no idea what it was about.
Picture 1 - Young Crow learning to fly.
" 2 - 4 - Moths in last nights trap.
" 5 - Stag Beetle.
A slightly better day, breezy, showers, bit of sun but mostly over
Enjoyed a rooster breakfast at Lockay Farm with the family. Children enjoyed a round of farmyard crazy golf leaving us adults to catch up on family news.
Afternoon spent laying a few more lengths of lawn/border edging, really pleased how this is working out.
Wet, cold and miserable.
Day spent in the workshop creating a cupboard unit to take all my photograph albums from my Brownie 127 days in the late fifties early sixties. Took longer than expected as could not help but look through these old albums. My word, my photographic record of London in that era is something else. From top of the Post Office Tower to outside No.10. It is all recorded.
Another beautiful day. In view of the forecast for this week I am surprised we managed to eat outside all week.
Trip to Henry Street this morning to collect my pre-ordered lawn/border edging.
Afternoon made a start on fixing the lawn edging. Amazed how hard the soil is, goodness we need some rain. Have I really said that?
Amazed, received a call from the builders at 4.45 pm telling me the revised start date is 26th June. This being the fifth revised start date, can I believe them?
Pictures 1 & 2 - Moths in last nights trap.
" 3 - 6 - Fungi that appeared today.
" 7 - Making a start on the lawn/border edging.
Another beautiful day.
Swifts were busy all day, counted seven in total with on group of three staying together all day. Swooping around 479 - 483. Hopefully next year a pair will nest in one of my two Swift boxes.
Young Jays, Sparrows, Goldfinches, Blackbirds, Starlings, Crows all busy being fed from the feeders or ground feeding.
A beautiful sunny, very warm day.
Phone calls not returned, emails not answered, Surveyor sacked, Reading showroom now closed. Where do I go from here, good job the Swifts were about to cheer me up.
Can't believe I ordered the conservatory back in February and still I await builders to turn up. Never thought I could get so distressed.
Fed up, end of my tether, spitting feathers, angry, don't care what the weather is like - never in my life have I felt like this. Never again will I employ builders unless I am project managing.
Picture 1 - What happens when a surveyor is unable to measure correctly.
" 2 - We should be sitting in a new conservatory.
Mild, dry, sunny day. Blustery by evening.
At least Hillary's Blind representative turned up, more than I can say for the builders. Perhaps one day I will announce that the builders have turned up. All I have at the moment is 4 windows out of 13 and no conservatory. Should have expected this after 75% of my working life spent in the building industry.
That aside, what a brilliant day - enjoying a mid morning coffee I was entertained for some twenty minutes by a large number of Swifts. So many I was unable to count. Think every bird was singing, it was just the most beautiful sight & sound. The birds circled 479/481 the whole time.
Tonight at 6pm I was aware of Swifts singing again, this time not so many, 6 in total but this time circled 3 - 4 houses up from 479.
Picture of a couple of young Goldfinches feeding from the sunflower feeder.
Dry, mild with a little sun.
Lazy day spent reading up on Bee information collected at Fridays GWL exhibition.
Tree Bees very busy in the football and on the Ceonothis at the other end of the garden. Good to see other Bees in the garden.
Pictures 1 - 3 - Bug & Spider seen in the conservatory.
" 4 - Bee (unsure of type).
" 5 & 6 - Tree Bumblebee.
" 7 - Young Great Tit?
