Wednesday - all sorts

First off, my normal weather report! Well hoo-bloody-ray at last we had something like a summer's day today. However, it's not all good news. Last night the temperature fell to 3c and we ALMOST had a frost on the grass. WTF? In the beginning of August? I went outside at 11.15 pm to watch the ISS going overhead (The International Space Station) and it was freezing out there. Wonderful thing to see, how cool is that - something you can see with the naked eye, whizzing across the sky at 17,000 miles per hour? One minute it's overhead here, and in 10 minutes it was over the Indian Ocean. Fantastic.

Anyway, two hoggies again last night, Colin went off, then came back, then went off, and then Front Spot (who I think is the lady in the trio) came to feed, the Colin came back, and there was all sorts of shy stomping going on. Then Colin went away again and left her to it. Awwww.

And on to today, went shopping this morning, as I shall be busy until Sunday now and no time. Came rushing back and unloaded, and made myself a quick snack and sat outside in the garden to eat it. I heard the familiar "bonk" noise that means a bird has flown into the window, and looked up and did a double take. A Blue Tit had hit the window all right, but from the inside! It was in the living room, and sitting on top of Chippy's cage! I couldn't think how it would have got in there, it would have had to fly all round the bungalow inside to get there, and then I thought it must have come in through the front door when I was unloading the car, and been hiding somewhere in the meantime! Poor wee thing, I came in, shut Chippy's cage (he wasn't in the least bit put out by his new friend) And opened the window to let him out. In his panic though he hit the window a few more times before he made it, and then went and sat on my back fence, he was a bit stunned I think, but flew off into the tree after about 5 minutes!

That excitement over, my intention then was to head up the other side of Llandysul because I'd seen signs for a car boot sale starting at 3pm and I wanted to see what it was like with a view to doing it myself maybe next week, I've got so much stuff to be rid of. Anyway, having sat through the obligatory sets of road works traffic lights all on red, I got to where it's held and the sign said Car Boot Sale Here, starting at 3pm - every FRIDAY! Doh! Oh well, I had a car up my exhaust and thought I'd carry on to Ffostrasol forestry then and walk Emma, but then had White Van Man on my exhaust, and when I got to the off road pull off there were two cars there already and nowhere to stop. Sod it. So I carried on to Cwm Tydu where I rescued the seagull two weeks ago. Lovely there today, although once again, there was a cool northerly wind but okay if you could get a sheltered spot. A couple of brave souls were in swimming, I bet it was bloody freezing. Walked Emma up the cliff after she'd had her dip, and there were some lovely flutters around. Went and had a cuppa at the cafe, the guy said the Gull did come back to scrounge some food, so it was okay, how lovely.

Colin & Front Spot

Chippy's new friend





Boat crossing the cove

Looking down from the cliff


Peacocks on the buddlea

Meadow Brown on the gorse. Sadly these seem to settle with closed wings all the time.

Tuesday

Woke up this morning to rain and grey skies again, sigh. However, it did brighten up and become sunny later, but a cold northerly wind. At 12 pm in my front porch, which only gets the sun late in the afternoon, my thermometer (which is accurate) read 54f/12c. Very summery eh?

Anyway, went to Pat's for a lovely lunch, and we walked the dogs up the lane, it would have been too muddy to go to the woodlands, and the little grasshopper (or maybe it's a cricket?) leapt out in front of my feet. It was quite tame, and allowed me to take some really close snaps, it was on the verge of coming onto my hand when Emma came to investigate, and with that, it leapt off back into the grass verge, which was where I wanted to put it anyway, in case a car came.

Across the road from Pat's house, lots of House Martins were collecting mud and dipping it in the puddles and flying off to the house next door building nests. Poor things, I think it's too late for them to be doing that, just shows how bad the weather has been. Any youngsters they have now won't have a lot of chance of making the journey back to Africa I don't think, unless we do have an Indian Summer, and they can stay late into October. There were also some House Sparrows playing "chicken" dustbathing in the middle of the road!

The return of Colin

Unharmed after last night's excitement, he's eating like never before, so I don't think he managed to get back to the dish last night. Bless him. Wonder if the others will turn up, I shan't know though as I'm off to bed in a minute. He's so funny the way he gets into the dish, and I love his little legs.

Aberystwyth

I couldn't decide what to do today, but wanted to make the most of a bit of warm weather and sunshine, and thought Aberystwyth would be okay for a change. It had started to cloud over by the time I got there of course, and I went down onto the beach with Emma and you could hardly stand upright, the wind was so strong. Let her have a splash about, the waves were so rough though she literally got swept off her feet. Gave that up and we had a stroll round the castle, some of the flower beds there in the enclosed courtyard are fabulous. Walked the length of the prom and round the corner it was sheltered from the wind, and wasn't too bad at all. We had an icecream and sat on the beach, and Emma went in the water again. I took a photo of a cocker spaniel that was with some people, they were down below so I didn't talk to them, but I did a double take. It was the exact image of our old dog Spooky, who was a very unusual cocker, in his size, stature, length of tail. Well this could have been him, I was absolutely gobsmacked. I shall have to show Barry next weekend when he is here (Barry kept Spook when we split, and he sadly died last year aged nearly 15)


Walked back to the car and went and did a couple of bits of shopping, and saw the little steam train about to leave the station. Had a bite to eat, and then made our way home. The sun was out and blue all the way home of course, whilst I was stuck in the car, it was exceptionally hot. Got home about an hour ago, put out the guinea pigs in their pen in the sunshine, and have now just had to run out and get them in, and got soaked to the skin, because yes, you've guessed - it's bloody pissing down again. :(

The Marina











Bikers on the prom

Waves smashing up the sea wall, just like winter!

The Spooky Boy double

Mass Excitement!

Well it doesn't take much to be honest. It's all been happening tonight, firstly I had two baby toads outside, then just now I was watching my normal hoggy, Colin (I named him the other day, and marked him with tippex on his rump) on the cam. He went to get a drink, and suddenly, another hog appeared. Just when I thought I was down to one now. With that, Colin took fright and ran like hell, and the other one took off after him. I waited a few minutes and then thought, oh I hope they're not fighting on the lawn, so I went out with a torch and the tippex, to mark the other one if they were still around. Well the noise that was coming from over by the fence (and my hog box! yay, maybe they are using it) was incredible. Colin was cowering under the bush and the other one was nearby. I've never heard their noise before although I've been told they do make a racket. Anyway took a couple of snaps, came back in, and in a few minutes, the second hog (or so I thought) appeared back at the dish. When I opened the door, this was a THIRD hog, no marks! Woo hoo, and the noise was still coming from across by the fence and Colin and the other one were still there, not fighting though, so maybe it's courting noises? And the way Colin ran, maybe Colin wasn't the boy one that came here! Anyway, I've now marked the third one as well, with a blob near its head, and the one who has chased Colin with a blob in the middle, lol. You got all that?

Other than that not much to report this past couple of days, apart from being completely fed up with the weather, rain, grey and miserable, and about 8c less than anywhere else in the UK.

Did the car boot sale today, luckily inside, but wasn't any good really, not many people came, the books we sold were mainly to other traders, but I suppose it was something to do for a few hours, we'd packed up and I was home again by 11.45!

Took a photo of Diddy boy and my apple tree a couple of days ago, forgot to put it on, we actually had a bit of sun then by the looks of things, and the Song Thrush was from yesterday, through the kitchen window, eating a slug. So lovely to see her (or him I suppose, they always seem like she's to me for some reason) still staying around, lovely birds.







You can just see Colin cowering under the bush!

The newby, currently to be known as Front Blob

Thursday already

The time is flying by, it doesn't seem more than a couple of days ago that I had the last wind farm meeting, and now it's here again.

Well had an exciting day today! Well not really but a few things of note to mention.

The day started miserably - grey skies, and it bloody started raining at 8.30 as I let Diddy boy out. So wasn't in the best of moods, it was only a shower, but I wasn't too bothered, as I had to go shopping anyway, and it meant that I could take Emma, I won't take her if it's hot of course, because I won't leave her in the car for more than about 5 minutes.

So off we toddled, went to Pets at Home for yet more suet pellets. They are costing me a small fortune but all the birds love them, I swear I could go through 10 packs a week if I were to keep putting them out all day, as it is its about 4! Anyway, got back in the car, and a huge 40' lorry pulled up alongside the car park, with Matalans on the side, the driver could see the shop, but wasn't sure where the goods entrance was. He'd put his hazards lights on, but a woman in a car had pulled up right behind him. Next thing, the guy started to reverse! I yelled out, STOP, there's someone behind you! OMG so close. Stupid woman in the car really. Anyhow, that was my first good deed for the day!

Second I went round to Morrisons. I'd got loads of different fruit and veg in the trolley, and started raking through the carrots to find some decent clean, smallish ones, and picked one out and it had a little black beetle on it! I didn't know what to do, if I put him in my bag, he would probably get squashed going through the checkout. So I took my trolley to near the checkouts and carried the carrot to the cashier and said would it be alright if I took the beetle outside and put him in a bush, I'm not stealing a carrot! I'm sure she thought I was mental, but she said okay, fine! So off I went, the bushes are about 50 yards down the side of the building. Then he didn't want to get off the bloody carrot! So I broke a little bit off and put it with him under a leaf in the hedge! Took the carrot back and put in with the rest, and then decided to buy a pre-packed bag of organic ones to be on the safe side!

Next to McDonalds, and then to the lakes to eat. Oh I forgot to mention, by the time I came out of Morrisons, the sun had broken through, so we ate our McDonalds sitting in full sunshine round the lake on a bench. It was great. One slightly sad thing, there's a couple of old fellas who walk their three dogs round the lakes, they meet every day at 2 oclock, I've often seen them and had a chat. Well today, there was just the one and he told me that his mate had had to give up driving, his eyesight was too bad now. Made me want to cry really, his poor dog probably looked forward to that so much, not to mention the old guy too. His mate said he couldn't fit them all in his little car, but he still goes round to see him once a week. Sniff.

Came home and went mad, cleaned out the hog box. A job long overdue, something has been going in there because I've been leaving strands of straw dangling which have been knocked out of the way, but nothing has been using it as such, so thought a fresh load of woodchip and straw may encourage a permanent visitor. Then I cut all the grass again. We're forecast more rain tonight I believe, and I won't be able to do it again till Sunday anyway. Then I thought I'd do the strimming. Silly move, bloody thing kept stopping. Had to bash it on the ground to get it to go again then eventually it decided not to go at all. I have no luck at all with strimmers, they drive me mad! Don't know if I'll bother to get another one, I only use it about three times a year.

Well that's about my exciting day really, it's beautiful outside now, not a cloud in the sky, I need to water before I go out I suppose, because I shan't feel like it when I get back. Nights are drawing in already now too, won't be long before I will be coming home in the dark I suppose. Not sure I shall be able to go then because I won't leave Diddy unsecured outside when it's dark, he needs to be shut in. Will have to see how it goes.

Emma had been playing hunt the chip, and then had a swim

Lots of Tits.....

... and other things in the garden! I wonder how many hits today's blog will get in the search engine, and how many disappointed men there will be lol.

Anyhow, to be honest, haven't been feeling too good today, had a bad head earlier which went off with one of my migraine pills and a cool pad on my forehead, and my legs ached so bad I could hardly walk, poor old sod. So I sat myself down on the sun lounger this morning, armed with camera and put plenty of suet pellets in various places, and wasn't disappointed - was soon inundated with Blues and Greats, plus the odd sparrow (they mainly stay up near the aviary in the holly bush where I put the wild bird seed) and a Jackdaw or two up on the roof, looking longingly down, but afraid to come. Missed an opportunity and cursed my luck though, I went up to check the squirrel feeder earlier and a baby Nuthatch was there on the peanuts, and wasn't in the least bit bothered that I was there, got within about 4 feet of him, could have got some good shots, dammit. And later, when I was eating my lunch out there, my tame hen mummy blackbird came right up for the sultanas, even though Emma was sitting with me. She is still feeding youngsters, this has to be her third brood I think.

Got a couple of nice shots of the tortoiseshell butterfly, sadly very faded and on its way out by the looks of things, and also I owe the guy who pruned my budlea and I accused of having killed it, an apology. It's come into bloom now, and it's stronger and healthier than it was before, so perhaps he did know what he was doing after all! Also took a shot across the garden of my porch, which is also looking good. Other than that, the garden is a mess! Grass needs cutting again, only did it on Saturday, but haven't the energy today. I did manage to totter round the park with Emma, but that's about the extent of my exertions for today. Will have to go shopping tomorrow as I am busy on Friday and Saturday this week, and will run out of veggies for the guinea pigs before Sunday.

Weather not quite as good today, lots more high cloud, but less wind and still warm, pleasant enough anyway.