Hobbies and Crafts

No Earwigs seen here Ann.I don't like them either.
The birds have feeding like crazy today.I have filled the window feeder twice !!.I think a trip to get more fat sticks is on the cards for tomorrow.

No earwigs here in Yorkshire Ann. Haven't seen these for ages.
Plenty blackbirds, sparrows, thrushes, doves today.... all very hungry!

Could be because our feeders hang in the apple tree. I suppose they have to eat too.

O-Oh, we had a visit from a Sparrow Hawk this morning, I was sitting in the lounge watching the birds feeding from the feeders that hang in the apple tree, a couple of Colard doves, a few sparrows and a couple of Great Tits when all of a sudden they all took off in a panic. As I was saying 'What spooked the birds?' A large (probably female) Sparrow Hawk flew into the tree but luckily missed all the birds :-) We haven't seen any birds since :-(

And in our local paper, a house in Gloucester is invaded by False black Widow spiders. I hope they don't find their way here. Ugh!!! :-)

I am so glad that the small birds escaped from the Sparrowhawk Ann
and I would not be happy for our home to be invaded by false black widow spiders..... keep them in Gloucester please!

I believe they are all over the south of England and slowly moving further north according to a newspaper report.

Won't be happy if they come to Yorkshire Ann. I have just remembered reading somewhere that to get rid of spiders in the home you are meant to put a conker in each corner of the room...... don't ask me how that works, but it's worth a try especially as the horse chestnut trees are full with conkers right now. I will be out "conkering" very soon lol.

I had Conkers in the corners of all my rooms last year .(I actually think they might have had an effect).But I was too late this year to collect any.I have spiders and webs all over the darned place :-S :-S :-S
Must tell my sister to look out for those False Black Widows ....she lives in Tewkesbury ,Glos.
I have had a few killings in the garden over the years by Sparrow Hawks,and it is horrible to see :-( :-(.
My little birds are still feeding like mad and there is a fair bit of fisty cuffs going on with the Robins and Chaffinches. :-S.They seem to dive bomb each other on the widow feeder.

If your sister has the local paper Jane she will know. We are about 20 minutes from Tewkesbury, we went through there yesterdsy,mwell round the bye pass on our war back from Evesham

In one of our local papers today there is a two page piece on the False Black Widow

This is the heading
Spider crisis? Or just a lot of bad PR for useful beast?

Some of the facts and figures given are,

The steatoda nobilis is thought to arrived in south-west England in the 1870s, with the first sighting in Torquay in 1879, there are only 12 out of the 640 species of spiders in the UK have been known to bite humans :-) :-(

It might be late Jane but I'm going out tomorrow to collect some conkers:-D this spider likes warm dark places so I am going to put conkers in my airing cupboard too :-D

The bite is not as poisonous as the true black widow. However some people may be allergic if they are allergic to bee stings and I believe a few (possible very few) people may have died.

That is what I have read too Ann.

Lesley x

Just stocked up the bird feed. We usually put out ordinary seed in two feeders and sunflower hearts (no mess) in one that has a squirrel guard so that the pigeons and doves can't access it, plus a thistle feeder and a fat ball holder. Just stocked up with fat balls and ordinary seed, £23 pounds worth. I hope they appreciate it!!! :-)

I need to get some Fat Balls .At he moment I feed the birds Berry Flavoured Fat Sticks,and the hanging Coconuts.Fat sticks go like they are going out of fashion at the moment.Ann I don't count how much I spend of Bird Food especially through the winter.I would give myself a heck of a big shock lol.They cost a bomb don't they :-0

I might just go and have a look tomorrow Diamonds too.I had thought there weren't any still around .I do know one of our Squirrels has been busy in the garden .It looks so funny running along with a great Conker in it's mouth :-D

A real banquet for your feathered friends then Ann.

We have 2 huge horse chestnut trees in our local churchyard but when I went yesterday it was clear that the squirrels had been busy eating the conkers..... I did manage to get about 8 and so plan to put them in the corners of the lounge and bedroom. I hadn't thought of the airing cupboard and so will try to salvage another couple of conkers tomorrow (if I am lucky?!), I hope the false widow spider stays away from Yorkshire.

When it stopped raining this afternoon I went and picked up half a carrier bag full of conkers and a paper bag full of chestnuts, if you are going conker hunting don't forget your gloves like I did.

kandj I read I think on GR that conkers are also supposed to keep moths away ... lets hope so.

Jane our squirrels are still beating me to our walnuts.

Ann have you looked on-line for bird feed it is often a lot cheaper.

Lesley x

No I haven't looked on line, we usually wait until we see special offers but I will look on line in future.

Lesley.We have never yet managed to get a Hazelnut from our tree.The Squirrels always get there first.We just find all the bits left behind :-S
I have been away today taking Daughter back to St Albans.While I was gone OH said we had the biggest Pheasant he has ever seen in the garden.I wish he had taken a pic of it.The Pheasant will be taking shelter from shooting :-S :-S

Not been on here lately, but wanted to mention that today around 2pm when it was raining slightly (after several downpours) I saw a ladybird on my brick wall in the front garden when I was coming home .

I have no plants in the garden, just a lot of fallen leaves from the trees outside.

I hope that it found somewhere sheltered.