Spring visitors

if I could catch these blighters I would ......   (tell them about social distancing??)

ANTS

Two or three at a time appearing in kitchen. Been wiping down surface with smelly stuff, put sugar away (in fridge), checked outside wall for nest, still can't get rid.  

Mind you in checking outside I noticed kitchen drain blocked. There followed a smelly half day of digging out a blockage. So I should thank them for making me go round the corner of the house!!

There are worse things to worry about today.

Our Children on Whats App group this morning. All city dwellers and finding supermarkets empty and somehow they have all decided to become bread makers again as they are stuck at home so are swapping tips. Apparently no yeast around - we discussed sour dough!  They are channelling their great grandfather who was a Master Baker and ran a bakery all through WWII. 

Our other spring visitor was a surprise bird. A very young thrush appeared complete with some fluffy baby feathers. He stayed for some mealworms. Don't see many of them.

Bird food

Staggered in from town yesterday lunch time with a bag of books and a bag of various bird foods. Husband gets up from settee to make me coffee and says "Wait".  "Check the bird feeder before you go out there with the meal worms and seed".

Why?

"There was a sparrow hawk sitting on the top 5 mins ago."

Err, what am I feeding?

GBBW

Did you do the Great Britain Bird Watch  (RSPB) this weekend?  I love popular science stuff! 

Our garden count was:
15 hedge sparrows (usually more but it was cold and windy and they were hiding in the hedge most of the day)
3 Great tits
4 Blackbirds (after the mealworms I had scattered on the lawn)
1 Robin
2 Pigeons
3 Magpies
Just across the road in the cereal crop 15 carrion crows, 2 collard doves  and a curlew.

BBC start Winterwatch next week so more bird watching on its way.

Then the rain clouds rolled in and the sun set in a lovely way.

The TV is teasing me with a vague advert for GBSB - Great British Sewing Bee!  I can't wait!  Who knew hobbies like sewing and baking would make great TV?  I wish they would bring back the pottery version - I only did it at school but it made great watching as it was so easy for it all to go wrong.

Sparrowhawk.

There was a bang and then sudden silence.
"Was that you?" I called upstairs to husband who was on the computer. "Have you fallen?
"What?"
I glanced out the front windows wondering why the flock of 30 odd hedge sparrows had stopped making their early morning noise at the bird feeder.  Here's why!!

The sparrow hawk either hit the front windows himself or frightened the sparrows into them (we often get bird strikes).  I rushed to get my digital camera and focus through the grubby window. (I have photo-shopped it to get a clearer picture from the dozen I rattled off).  It gave me an evil look (only 6 feet from the window) and stayed firmly on the body of the poor sparrow. 

 It only left when husband finally slopped out of the study and demanded loudly to know what I was going on about and opened the bedroom window above me.  Honestly,  he has hundreds of £s worth of special cameras and lenses up there and misses a golden opportunity for a special photo!

The rest of the flock of sparrows spent the day hiding in the thick hedge.

Kestrel

A flash of brown went past the front windows and landed on the telegraph pole next door but one. Just about got a picture with my little digital camera of the local kestrel having a rest on the access ladder things near the top of the pole.

(Husband and better camera not around.)

Apart from that excitement I have been doing nothing much all day. Cleaning, dusting a corner and re arranging the Cds and player and some books. Its wet and foggy here.

Yesterday was mild and I managed a bit of veg bed digging over - I can do about 10 feet by 5 feet patch before needing a sit down. I hope I get fitter before the spring or nothing will get grown.

I was checking our food budget (including all household cleaners, basic toiletries  and loo rolls etc)  for the last 3 months we have existed on £40 a week for the two of us. That includes all costs in getting the food to the cupboard. If we have not grown and stored it, Supermarket delivers for £1 every fortnight or I cycle or bus(free) to shops.  I spent £50 on meat and fish last week and that should last a least two weeks. I had intended we have a few more protein rich meals but when we tried to have a full chicken leg or a generous pork chop each we were both bloated and a little sick feeling. So its back to sharing just about 200gms of meat or fish per meal between us. I shall be spending a little bit more on making the meals spicy or tasty. For example I  brought a bottle of BBQ sauce for 65p and used it to spice up some bacon in a roll and then some more to marinade 200 gms pork loin  cubed. This was acutely really nice. I added nearly half of one of my giant white onions from the store as they are very sweet and soft when cooked and took up the sauce really well.

I shall up the salads too. I really need to shed some weight and get fit for summer.  Meanwhile will be encouraging husband to plant some mixed salad leaves in the poly-tunnel for some early home grown.

Our weekend treat was to have a newspaper. Mostly for the big crossword which we delight in filling in 50% without using any reference books or the WWW.  I then scour the paper for interesting stories you don't get on the news. Two struck me. One about an energy company (French owned) reporting a good drop in domestic usage of electricity in the UK. Hurrah! All those SMART meters are having an effect; especially on the power company's income. The second was about de-cluttering or spring cleaning. It was actually a hopeless article except the bit by a journalist de-cluttering his phone. How did end up with 6 betting apps? The outcome that was interesting is that he de-cluttered his mind and went out side and heard the birds singing!!!

Update

Its been so cold here that it has been difficult to get motivated.  If we turning the house heating on during the day to stop it drifting down to 16 C indoors I find it difficult to justify going to my sewing cabin and putting on the expensive electric fire to try and get it up to 10 C which is just bearable.

So I have been drifting around on this and that. 

Watching the bird population. Its was so cold and ground frozen a pheasant came to find left over bird seed.

The sparrows would not come out while it was there and sat tweeting loudly in the hedge so I had to chase the pheasant off.

Our little open boat down on one of the Fen rivers is a bit smaller than the average so it struggles on the moorings supplied by the Environmental Agency.  We have buoys, some bits of board wrapped in foam, and various ropes but we really needed a small tire, like a wheelbarrow one,  to screw to the pontoon. We started spotting those tires dumped on the roadside - too big, too much steel in the walls, too far into the dyke to rescue, on a main road.  Finally as I went to get some extra milk on my bike I spotted this in the lay by 150 yards down the road.

I have always envied Life After Money's Ilona skip finds but not sure I would have her confidence. No one around when I slipped this over the handlebars and scuttled home. Next warmish, dry day my husband can hang over the pontoon edge and attach it while I hold the boat off.

I have been trying to change our meals around a bit to stave off boredom and came across this on our local CoOp shelves.

Never seen this in a tub before. For £1.50 it was a good stand by as I could make up small servings as needed.

Mostly I have been using my Xmas present of Ancestry and spending hours building a family tree. Looking at census to see where people lived and their jobs is the most interesting for me. Occasional stories present themselves.  Distant cousin of husband's went of Chicago from Kent, then had to serve in American Civil War and later owned a very large farm in Ohio. Another went to New Zealand and became a Governor of Christchurch.  My grandmother's brother went to India in 1939 as a policeman, married and had children, he brought them back to my hometown in 1947, after his wife died, and then he went back to India 6 months later and stayed there till he died aged 90.  I can see why people people become obsessed.  I fully expect not to touch it once the weather improves and I can get out gardening!  I really enjoyed the BBC4 programme on the history of a house in Liverpool recently - it was a great way to see how the house and society changed.

Hedge sparrow population

I think we have been too generous with feeding routine in our front garden and the hedge sparrows have had a very successful breeding season. There are about 10 on the feeder.

At the same time there are about 16 underneath picking up the spilled seed.

The great tits and blue tits wait till late afternoon and the sparrows have gone off to turn up to tackle the peanuts.  There are definitely 3 or 4 pairs of these now.  

Have your bird populations increased this year?

Fledged now buzz off!

Suddenly a few days ago the behaviour of our hedge sparrows changed and they were not so quick to clear the bird seed first thing in the morning. I kept a look out and eventually spotted this fledgling down in the clover doing that fanning thing with its wings as recently shown on BBC Springwatch.

Then the mummy bird gathered up some bits and fed the youngster.

So sweet!   And now can you all learn to fly and go a bit further away from the privet hedge. It really, really needs cutting - it has put on a good 18 inches of growth this year.

First swallow

When pointed out one swooping next door to husband he responded "Don't get excited; one swallow doth  not a summer make". I was able to answer - "That's OK them , I saw two yesterday!"



By coincidence I picked up a second hand copy of Swallows and Amazon's yesterday in the charity shop -  I am just missing the Big Six now. Loved these books since I was 10!

Wildlife

Looked out the front window and there was a blackbird with a beak full of dried grass from under the privet hedge.

Smiling, went out the back door to find the moss off the flat roof conservatory had been thrown over the edge and littered the path and step with lumps. Thanks to the birds (hedge sparrows) gathering moss for their nests. Great.

Not smiling any more. Went to the Poly tunnel to check on the watering of the seed trays put out there to harden off to find mice had nipped off 7 of the broad bean shoots and dug up and eaten the seeds.

There was a lot of muttering about wild life as the husband returned the seed trays to the safety of the greenhouse benches and swept the moss off the back door mat.

Parsnip crop

We are still working our way down the rows of parsnips and carrots left in the veg garden. Both have been exceptionally good - then we have ideal soil here. Loam with no stones - in fact, if we find a stone it is a cause for celebration!

This parsnip is a record breaker.  3 lbs, over 24 inches long. These kitchen tiles are 12 in squares.

Or in another measurement - at least two pans of soup per parsnip!

 Here is a recipe I tried today:
700g of chopped parsnips
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic

Onions and garlic are gently fried and you add:
1 tsp of curry powder
1 tsp each of cumin, turmeric, coriander and ginger.

Simmer with 1 litre plus of veg (or chicken ) stock for about 45 mins and then blitz.

It is quite thick and I have been adding more water with each serving.

Very warming!

We have had a few dry days with clear skies and sunny periods which have allowed us to see the flocks of Brent geese as they come off the Norfolk marshes and head to the sugar beet fields which are now mostly harvested. When there are 100 plus in a V formation it can be quite noisy.

Annual electricity summary

All our accounts are on line so we were surprised to get a paper statement from our electricity supplier.  Usually that annoys me. (My attitude is: do it on line entirely, please, and just send an email.) But on this occasion it was actually interesting and almost informative.

Apparently over the last year we have used 5% less electricity, compared to previous year.

We decided we have saved that 5% by

• Looking at the SMART meter regularly and questioning what it is reading.  If its high we go and find out why.
• Developing good habits of turning off lights, devices, anything on standby, etc
• Planning cooking - its either all on the hob or all in the oven.
• Being careful about having our TV system on.  (8 years old, and good but expensive to run).  Not left to burble in the corner - watch something purposefully or turn it off!

I read somewhere that if we all used 6% less electricity per year the UK would not have to build Hinkley Nuke Power.  I am now determined to increase my score in the next year!

Apparently,  we could save £50 by committing to a 2 year deal. Unfortunately there was no information on the 2 year deal in the envelope!  So will have to go on line anyway! Grr...

On a pleasant note around out house our swallow count seems to have increased from 3 or 4 pairs in the Spring to a little flock of 20 plus.  They have taken to sitting on the roof twittering away noisily when they are not swooping in great displays of aerobatics out the back over the grass areas.

First swallows

Spotted first pair of swallows today dipping into the muddy puddle at the edge of the field opposite the house!
Pictures? No chance of moving that fast. Managed to twist my back getting out of bed this morning and can hardly move. So stupid!!!  Waiting for pain killers and rub in stuff to kick in then will gently supervise husband planting more early potatoes!  Frustrated as the floors need a good vacuum and mopping. The sun is shining, after a very wet day yesterday, and its definitely Spring.

Spent time this morning doing grocery shop on line and looking up recipes for doing spicy stuff with next two cauliflowers. At least I don't have to do an antagonising  12 mile drive and load and unload the shopping - well worth the £1 charge to deliver to the door tomorrow lunch time!

See there is a programme following a diversifying farm on Norfolk coast (near Blakeney)  on TV tonight so will watch that with interest as it is quite local. They have a cafe that does seasonal local food apparently so will note for next visit that way.  Not sure why they called the programme "Normal for Norfolk"? Sounds very enviable lifestyle to me!

May try to finishing checking the fit of my new summer dress later but the zip I put in yesterday is not looking too hot. Thank goodness Great Britain Sewing Bee is back on 5th May - I need the inspiration!

Wind flowers

Coming round the side of the house over the weekend I found we had quite a few of these flowers sheltering under the hedge and the buddleia tree in an area we have been gradually cutting back and reclaiming from moldering overgrown shrubs.

Grecian anemones apparently. Someone, many years ago who lived here, must have been a good gardener as various little treats keep popping up when we clear out the overgrown corners.

Very appropriate flower this week as Storm Imogen raged through. It was dry but very windy, probable no more than other storms, but I think we have had enough windy weather now and I found myself looking skyward and muttering "Come on now, you have got to be joking, give it a rest please!".  Today we have a bright blue skies and hardly a breeze so perhaps someone was listening after all. In fact it was a strange day for things flying by - a couple of hundred noisy Brent geese heading inland first thing, a couple of nosier RAF Harriers mid day and then late afternoon a silent barn owl swooped past the house along the line of an overgrown field ditch opposite.

Started to read a library book whose back cover introduction to the hero detective starts "He's fallen from grace in Cardiff and exiled to be the catch-all detective in the big bit in the middle that God gave to the sheep". Having once lived in that bit, in fact on the furthest edge of that bit, which my children always described as "where the map says beyond here be dragons"; I was bemused and amused.  Its turning out to be quite comic and a good cheerful read and not too much like the dark stories of Hinterland (BBC4/S4C).. Author Ewart Hutton "Good People".

January budget review

Welcome to new follower - knittynutter.

It is the last day of the month so I totaled up the spending on food for the month.  It works out as £5.24 per day to feed the two of us (plus 1 visitor for 2 days).  Of this 40p per day has been spent on fruit and veg that we could potentially  grow and store in future years.  The freezer is one third empty but the store cupboards are not too bad.  Will be thinking hard about February menu before shopping on Wednesday for the next fortnight.

Did you do the RSPB great bird watch count?  Its been a grey and damp day and not a very exciting day and all our usual bird visitors seemed to have disappeared! It was very mundane - tree sparrows, magpies, a single starling, collard dove, pigeon, great tits.  Where were the blackbirds, robins, wrens, kestrels, pallid harrier, curlews when you wanted to count them?  Not even seagulls in the fields today.

We also reviewed out fuel situation. Not too much oil has been used as we have not had the heating on too much, especially last week when we were outside most of the day time and 17C indoors felt warm in contrast. We have gone through a lot of logs for the wood burner in the evenings but as the sheds are improved quite a lot of scrap wood is coming out and is suitable for the fire. Some 4 in by 4 in beams are quite solid in places and in others the previous owners horses almost chewed through - not sure that was good for them?  Electric bill is up £10 partially the use of power tools and lights in the workshop but mostly the propagator and greenhouse heater.  As the greenhouse has 30+ geranium plants, several standard fuchsias, baby delphiniums and foxgloves and a couple of dozen early veg plants.  I think they are worth more than spending so far but it is a balance.

Real shame about Terry Wogan - we were remembering, with a giggle, his "Janet and John" stories.

When clearing out comes back to bite you

Last week we went to the local tip and did a lot of recycling including shoes, batteries and ancient mobile phones. Today, I wish I hadn't as the software failed on my mobile in the middle of a call and it got stuck. No amount of pressing buttons or trying to turn it off would work. In a panic that I was still making that call,  I attacked the thing to get the battery out and promptly broke the glass screen. By which time we were in danger of being late at the dentist! Drove quickly to town and a kind young man in an independent phone shop opened it in a flash and took out the battery. Its still stuck and has a cracked screen. Now if I had not recycled the old phone I could have just moved the SIM card. Luckily two sons have old phones we can have!

When I say we drove quickly, we went quickly to west Lynn and then jumped on the ferry across the Great River Ouse to Kings Lynn town centre. It was blowing hard and the tide was running out strongly - the boatman took us in on the lee of the steep steps but the wind still nearly swept us off our feet. Coming back the tide was well out and there were white caps on the river! Bit too adventurous!

The weather continued awful all afternoon so after a bit of a rest I spent an hour repairing my husband's thick work trousers by forming new hems. Should last another year or so now!

Didn't get a picture of the rare bird, Pallid Harrier, this morning but it was more active walking around the orchard area rather than just sitting on the fence.

Weird bird?

We have been up a little earlier as we have been trying to complete the re-cladding of the ex-stable workshop and we have seen this weird bird sitting on the fence overlooking the fruit tree area of our back garden.  Its big, a raptor, sort of round body, but not a hooked bill, pale front, big wings. Its been there for two or three mornings, just sitting on the fence and looking around from day break till about 9am.  It is not very active and not looking very "with it".  After a lot of checking our bird books I was sure it was a harrier and found out there was a pallid harrier (juvenile) just across the Wash (20 miles?) at Snettisham bird reserve.  Quite  a rare bird. My husband has put out his wildlife camera to try and get a picture as it is a bit too far for the lens on his camera.

Hopefully be able to post something soon!