A pretty good day. Warm and sunny most of the day.
Relaxing day today, enjoyed a good steak and a pint at the Oracle with Colin and Janet. Caught up with news from our respective recent holidays.
Before returning home we spent time looking at the River Thames through Berkshire exhibition currently being shown at Reading Museum. Well worth a visit. Exhibition until October.
Can confirm for sure eight Blue Tit eggs so fingers crossed we have a few young. Last year from eight births, four survived.
The tiniest of Mice is fun to watch of a night in the wood stack. He is a job to see as so small.
Some good news tonight, heard the garden TV program will be aired on the 13th May at 9pm on BBC2. Really excited now.
Picture 1 - Nesting Blue Tit.
" 2 - Mouse.
Sunny, dry but on the chilly side with temp' only reaching 11c this afternoon.
Day spent taking down the remaining side and end of the garage shed. Just the door to remove now then it is a question of clearing site, leveling and marking out with site pegs. A job for next week now.
Picture 1 - Not much left now.
" 2 - Side and end now demolished.
" 3 - Better lock the door tonight....
Another dry, sunny day but again temp' down on previous days due to the wind factor. Icy blast at Newark.
Cold but at least dry while visiting the cabin sunroom factory/showroom. Very impressed with the quality and wonder and almost question how on earth they can produce so cheaply? Clearly a very good well run company with a history going back to the 1800s. Took some deciding but finally chose from three designs.
The room will now be a sunroom / shed with the studio now staying as is. Lorna more than happy with this option.
Arrived home late afternoon feeling pretty positive as we did question why we chose to travel such a distance when there are many local showrooms. Came down to price.
What a welcome home with so many Greenfinches I lost count after five and equal number of Goldfinches. Male Great Spotted also appeared in the bird bath. Nice to go away at times but always so pleased to be home.
Picture 1 & 2 - Chosen cabin/shed and joint detail.
" 3 & 4 - Green & Gold Finches.
" 5 - Male Great Spotted in bird bath.
" 6 - Blue Tit being fed peanut butter.
" 7 - Blue Tit on nest, still nine eggs.
Dry and sunny but temp' remained low due to the strong wind. Up North it was almost gale force.
Spent morning clearing out the inside of the almost demolished garage. Can begin to see now how big the plot will be.
Drove to Newark this afternoon en-route to the factory where I would like to purchase the sunroom/studio from providing quality is ok. Looking forward to tomorrow, hope it will be productive.
Picture - Showing inside of partly demolished garage.
A much cooler day. Temp' only reached 12c this afternoon.
Spent most of the day at the Reading Contemporary Art Festival. So pleased it was so well supported again. Although my interest is in landscape / wildlife photography I do enjoy looking at all other forms of art. Good to meet Tom Way again and to see he has made a success of his photography business. Has come a long way since I last met him at his first exhibition.
Eight eggs have now appeared in the Blue Tit nest. Will she make it nine to match last year?
Picture 1 - 3 - Reading Art Festival.
" 4 - Eight Blue Tit eggs.
" 5 - Qcumbers doing well.
Mild, sunny, breezy with showers early morning and late afternoon. Temp' still managed a high of 19c this afternoon & 2.2mm of rain registered as at 6.30pm.
Day spent working on project 2015, moving seat and a start on demolishing rest of garage.
Good to see the first Damsel of the season and a Small White Butterfly. Another Blue Tit egg laid, now seven.
Swifts now in the area so Swift Call now playing during the day. Fingers crossed.
Picture 1 - Damselfly.
" 2 - Small White Butterfly.
" 3 - Seven Blue Tit eggs.
" 4 - Swift Call.
" 5 - Seat in new position.
" 6 - Start on demolishing the garage shed.
" 7 - One side down, a good start.
A little breezy but still a warm sunny day with temp' again reaching 20c this afternoon.
A very successful Fobney meeting last night with a change of positions within the Councils Parks department. A site meeting has been scheduled for next week when we will have the chance to discuss the future of Fobney in a positive way. The rubbish issue will be top of the agenda, they were all pretty shocked at my iPad presentation and also complimentary at my photographic record of Fobney.
This morning unfixed the seat and arch ready to move tomorrow to its new position. Ran out of time as were meeting Lyn and Nigel lunchtime for a Millar & Carter meal and catch up. Good to meet up again.
Good to see six eggs in the blue tit nest. Going to be another exciting period watching progress. Hoping now for some success with the Swifts this year.
Picture 1 - Seat & arch removed ready to move to its new position.
" 2 - Mouse in log stack.
" 3 - Six blue tit eggs.
" 4 - Moth on a hydrangea leaf.
Another beautiful day with temp' reaching 20c this afternoon.
Not such an enjoyable walk at Fobney this morning. Was astounded to see so much rubbish about so ended up doing a clearing job. There is a Friends of Fobney meeting tonight (will report tomorrow) so will be discussing the rubbish issue. Happy to clear up on occasions but who takes the collected rubbish away?
Rest of the day was spent on the next phase of project 2015. This meant moving the iron railings to another position to the side of the current studio. The seat and arch construction in the Square also has to be moved before I can start demolishing.
Was a great day for butterflies, managed a few photographs. Blue Tit still sitting although did panic a little tonight when I noticed the nest covered with material and no sign of the bird. Thankfully she appeared and settled down again for the evening.
Pictures 1 - 3 - Fobney.
" 4 - Blackbird searching for nesting material in amongst seed trays.
" 5 - Iron railings removed.
" 6 - Small White Butterfly.
" 7 - Speckled Wood Butterfly.
" 8 - This beauty flew into the conservatory. At moment unidentified.
" 9 - Blue Tit on nest.
Another warm and sunny day, bit breezy at times which brought the temp' down a tad. Reached a high of 18c this afternoon.
Bin & Gone Ltd did a great job of clearing away my rubbish. Easier and cheaper than a skip and they did all the shifting. Thanks lads.
Next stage of the project will be to remove the outer garage skin without upsetting the Robins. Will just take down a side and an end for now.
The really good news today is seeing eggs in the blue tit nest box. The sad news is that the starlings appear to have moved on elsewhere. Watched them collecting nesting material but flew two gardens down. Starling not even roosting now.
Garden looking good now the cherry blossom is at full bloom. Just hope the wind does not increase over the next few days.
Picture 1 - After only four days the sunflowers have germinated.
" 2 - Bin & Gone.
" 3 - Starling with nesting material.
" 4 - Blue Tit eggs.
" 5 - Mouse in the wood stack.
" 6 - Rubbish cleared showing the outer skin clearly now.
" 7 - Just liked this view of the back garden.
" 8 - Cherry Blossom.
What a scorcher of a day. Temp' reaching 23c this afternoon.
Despite the heat I made a start on demolishing the inner metal/plastic garage. Although hot, sticky, dirty and dusty I managed the job and also removed the roof. Suffering now though so will rest now for a week.
Project delayed in any event as a Robin started nesting in a box fixed to the outer garage. This box has never been used in the 15 years it has been there and just the day I move in so does Robin.
Pictures 1 - 3 - Demolishing the inner garage.
" 4 - New room will look similar to this.
" 5 - 7 - Robin nesting.
