Love days like today, very warm and sunny.
Day on my own today to enjoy a walk along the Thames at Reading. Absolutely wonderful. After a pretty long walk I stopped by at the Whittington Tea Barge and enjoyed a cuppa with a baked spud. Sitting at the waters edge watching barges and boats sail by, swans and ducks doing ones best to nick any food going, clear blue sky - what more could you wish for.
Arrived home late afternoon and then enjoyed a pint in the garden while watching the young chaffinches and goldfinches being fed with sunflower hearts.
A brilliant day.
Pictures 1 - 4 - River Thames at Reading showing new third bridge.
" 5 - Foxy out last night.
A beautiful day, warm and sunny all day.
Not the day I had planned. Woke up to find a camera malfunctioning. Was the camera to the original mouse house I produced from a flower pot and log. Meant disturbing the home which was interesting, the amount of nesting material. On inspection I was to find the cable chewed right through. What a b*mmer.
Did have a spare new camera which I connected to a new home hidden in the same woodstack. Looking forward to further mouse action in due course.
Enjoyed a meal out with Lulu and Clive at the Shoulder of Mutton in Heckfield. This was a belated birthday meal due to Lulu's erratic working hours.
In amongst the veg Lyn brought over the other day were courgettes, clever Wifelet produced a walnut and courgette cake with them. Delicious it is as well.
Picture 1 - chewed camera cable.
" 2 - Making new mouse home.
" 3 - New home in place in the woodstack.
" 4 - Courgette cake, yummy.
Another warm and sunny day.
Enjoyed a day with Celie and Leilani, this afternoon we tried our artistic skills again at the Leaping Frog Ceramics workshop. Celie chose a shoe, Leilani a cup cake, Lorna a dip plate and I went for a plate to take my frogs I produced on previous occasions. Have to wait a week now while they are fired and glazed.
A new experience for us all was eating at the Homemade Burger restaurant in the Oracle. Good food but my, why does the music have to be so loud? Killed conversation at a stroke.
Finished the evening back home in the Leaping Frog.
Pictures 1 - 3 - Pottery before...
" 4 - 6 - Pottery after...
A pretty good day with again temp' reaching 21c this afternoon. Warm enough to sit out and admire the butterflies.
Nigel and Lyn popped over this morning with home grown veg that they were overrun with. One of the reasons I stopped growing veg, ended up giving it away.
They were impressed with the Lodge/Shed and the general transformation of that part of the garden.
Stayed for coffee and cake so a good relaxing morning.
Not a moth to be seen in or around the moth trap last night but this afternoon I was amazed at the number of moths flying in and out of the ivy hedge. Loads of them.
A very interesting evening last night watching a large snail creating a slime blanket in mouse house. Have been left with what looks like frogs spawn in the blanket. Am assuming these will be baby snails? Interesting days ahead.
Trail camera captured a fox cub last night, only the one so again assuming this was the cub suckling three weeks ago.
Picture 1 - One of the moths from the ivy hedge, loads of these.
" 2 & 3 - Snail and slime blanket in mouse house.
After a little overnight rain the day turned out pretty good, warm and sunny most of the day with temp' actually reaching 21c this afternoon. Pretty windy however.
On mooching about the garage this morning I came across a nest in a screw box lid. Must be years old as no holes in garage for birds to fly through, must be about 30 years old as about the time I re-roofed the garage.
Was aware of movement behind a photograph this afternoon, and what do I spy, a Peacock Butterfly. Lovely specimen.
Interesting happening in the mouse house. As you can see by the photograph a strange something has emerged. Appeared overnight. Might stay up tonight to see if any further movement.
Picture 1 - Birds nest in lid.
" 2 - Peacock Butterfly.
" 3 - What can this be in mouse house?
Not happy times at the moment, Lorna's dear sister Jean died last night. Can't believe we were only enjoying afternoon tea with her and Doug two weeks ago. Just can't take in the quickness of this. RIP Jean.
What a miserable day. Mild but rain most of the day. Pretty windy at times as well.
Sunflowers were taking a battering so had no option but to re-stake despite the awful conditions. Snails were also having a field day so a fair time was spent removing, determined to win this sunflower competition!
Two interesting moths appeared on the side gate overnight, still there as I type. I am assuming moths but I await confirmation from my moth mate - plume moths.
Picture 1 & 2 - Plume moths on side gate (thanks Boyo for identification).
" 3 - Snail on sunflower.
" 4 - Re-staked sunflowers.
Weather an improvement on yesterday. Warm and sunny most of the day.
Henry Street shopping this morning for bee loving lavender plants.
This afternoon planted them up in large pots as not much luck growing them in the garden.
Within half an hour of planting bees were already on the plants. Good sign.
Buff Tip Moth eggs have all but disappeared so will commence with connecting the trap again. Rain forecast tonight so will wait until finer weather again.
Interesting evening watching the monitor, or so I thought? This snowball looking thing appeared and it was some while until I was able to identify it as a snail! It kept me amused for a while...
Picture - Snail in mouse house.
Sad news re Lorna's dear sister Jean. Admitted to hospital yesterday after experiencing complications and subsequently suffered a heart attack during tests. At the moment not able to recognise anyone around the bed, not good news.
Another very warm and sunny day. Oh sorry, that was yesterday! What a contrast in weather conditions. Wet all day but by jove the gardens required it so not complaining. It also tested out the recently fitted guttering, worked so have gallons of water now for the next heatwave?
Well today was not the day that was planned. Woke to a very strong smell of gas downstairs. All doors and windows quickly opened and services called. The Gas 0111999 certainly works with a gasman on the doorstep pretty damn quick.
His words were J***s C****t, f*****g h**l, you did well to get out of this. Scary or what. Apparently solder and aluminium do not like one another so burns a hole in the aluminium. This happened due to the poor fitting when we had the gas re-run back in February. We were lucky, it could have been so much worse.
That was our day...
Picture 1 - Spider and mouse out last night.
" 2 - Foxy out last night. Ignore date details, not sure how this changed overnight.
Another fabulous day, warm and sunny all day and no breeze.
Ideal day to enjoy the spectacle of Swan Upping. Boarded the Caversham Princess built by a Hull ship/boat yard in 1982 (Built specifically for river cruising) at 9.30am from Caversham Bridge. The Swan Uppers had rowed up from Sonning and joined us at 10am for coffee and biscuits while giving a talk on the history of swan upping. Very interesting, these days I feel it is just keeping up with tradition.
We followed the Uppers to Scours Lane for the first catch and a toast for this catch of pair of adults and 5 cygnets. These were checked over, weighed/measured and tagged before being placed back in the Thames.
The Uppers then rowed to Mapledurham Lock where they came on board once again for a further talk and a good lunch.
Leaving at 2pm we followed to Pangbourne where we parted company as we turned and headed back to Reading arriving at 3.30pm after a most enjoyable trip on a stunning day with wonderful scenery and learning the history of Swan Upping.
Picture 1 - Uppers arriving.
" 2 - Chief Upper giving his talk over a coffee.
" 3 - Flotilla heading up-river to Scours Lane.
" 4 - Arriving at SL and surrounding a swan family for the first catch.
" 5 - Being checked over.
" 6 - Being placed back into the Thames.
" 7 - Off they go.
" 8 - Arriving back at Caversham.
A warm and sunny day with less of a breeze than of late.
Spent today gardening - re-potting some purple poppies I grew from seed (thanks Julie). staked once again the sunflowers, feeding them with tomorite is proving good this year. Transplanted plants I grew from seed collected from Brighton when visiting last year. Some weeding and watering of course.
Good day for Butterflies, holly blue, yellow brimstone, peacock, speckled wood, gatekeeper and a large white. Nice.
Sadly only managed to photograph two and that was because they flew into the observatory.
Enjoyed my quarterly night out with some Whitley Boys and good to meet a customer of mine while working at Lavers. He had not appreciated I had left!!
Picture 1 - Gatekeeper.
" 2 - Large White.
" 3 - 7 Spot Ladybird.
Another cracking day, warm and sunny all day. Still breezy however.
Today enjoyed producing two products from my new workshop. A bird feeder made from decking offcuts and empty coconut shells and another feeder again from deck board offcuts and using old unused feeders. Both fixed in the garden tonight so will be interesting tomorrow to note who is first to try?
Strange one about the foxes last night. Set three trail cameras and not one sighting (only cats). The eggs were empty so were about.
Swifts still about, two tonight flying high but in the area of 479 and 483. What is disappointing is the no show of dragonflies this year. June last year I had some brilliant photographs.
Pictures 1 - 3 - Shed/Workshop.
" 4 & 5 - Bird feeders.
A pretty good day, warm and sunny most of the day. A fair breeze still however.
Busy today, spent day creating a workshop within the new shed. Was not expecting to do this but there was space so why not? Means I stand a better chance of getting the car in the garage sometime soon.
Shed/workshop looking good with a decent view of the pond and new decked area.
Being in the shed most of the day I was not able to check on garden wildlife today. I can however confirm there are a pair of foxes roaming the garden at night. The Dad I'm not happy about as suffering from mange. Stick thin tail. The vixen is good and healthy which is a relief as still feeding the cub.
Hopefully photographs tomorrow of my new shed/workshop.
Another stunning day, warm and sunny all day.
Arrived home at 11am after an exhausting 48 hours but loved every minute. Were visiting Lee Valley Park but just felt a little tired!
Day then was spent relaxing in the garden and deleting hundreds of photographs from the concert. Just retained the quality photographs.
Good to see Leilani and Celie back together again after nearly three weeks apart. Leilani with her Spain holiday and voluntary work at a school in Moldova and Celie with her diving competition in Bulgaria bringing home two 2nd and one 3rd. What Girls.
Looking forward to the week ahead and catching up on garden wildlife.
Picture 1 - Celie and medals.
" 2 - Close up of said medals.
" 3 - Togetherness.
Hot day, blimey. Required sun lotion today but not complaining as ideal for outdoor pursuits as we were on today.
Made an early start to Hatfield House as wished to view the house and grounds before the prom concert this evening.
House and grounds were magnificent as you would expect of a house of this period. Lorna was engrossed in the history as I was engrossed in the workmanship. Still hard to believe that the wooden carvings were carried out by hand and not machines. Is a superb house still in private hands and well used. The original palace of the 1500 period is used mostly for corporate and wedding events.
Had seen what interested us by 3pm so time for afternoon tea before heading for the site of the proms that had support acts starting at 6.30pm with the gates opened at 4.30pm. Good job we arrived early, field was already 50% full at 5pm.
The Battle Proms this year was a celebration marking the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo - 1815 - 2015.
The concert commenced at 7.55pm with the arrival of the Grace Spitfire with a volley of shots from a vintage 13 pounder field gun. What a start to the evening and pretty emotional I must add.
It really was a fantastic evening finishing at 11pm by a firework display and a rendition of Auld Lang Syne and the close with God Save the Queen.
Taking over an hour to leave the site we pretty tired on reaching the hotel, would not have missed it such an occasion not forgetting it was Lorna's birthday treat of course!
