Sunday 24 August 2014

Bird Boxes

Swallows swoop and reel over our roof. They chatter and cheep constantly. They land on the roof and slide skittering down. They fly so close to the skylights that their wings sweep across the glass. I opened the skylights and they sat on them because it gave them somewhere horizontal to land. Then one flew in and I knew it was time to shut the windows! Although these photos were taken about 11:30 a.m. you can see how dark it was. Big black lowering clouds that brought rain and more rain.



This year we more than doubled the number of bird boxes we have in the garden and have been rewarded with lots of birds nesting, laying and rearing their chicks. One of the bird boxes is right beside the kitchen window.


There are baby sparrows in this box. They cheep really loudly for such tiny little creatures. The mother feeds them all day long. Sometimes I can see a baby bird with its head at the entrance to the bird box, mouth wide open, waiting for mummy bird to come back. Then, after checking that all is safe, mummy comes to the entrance and feeds her chick.


All the birds seem to love sitting in the hop that's growing over the pergola.






No matter how many times I try, no matter how long I wait, I just can't get a picture of the feeding in progress!

Late on yesterday evening I went out into the garden to pick sweet pea. Look at the size of the bumble bee I spotted on one of the flowers. It seemed to be sleeping as it didn't move at all no matter what I did.


There were gladioli in this vase which were past their best. As I was cleaning it I wondered what it would be like to put sweet pea in the vase; below the top so they would only be visible through the glass. This is the result. What do you think? It would probably be better if the vase didn't have a waist.
 

 
Mmmm - sweet pea probably look best displayed the usual way in a small vase.
 
Lots of vegetables are now ready to use from the garden.
 

I roasted some of the courgettes and put them in the freezer so they can be added to other dishes later on.


These beetroots looked at lot better once they'd been peeled!



And this is the first of the plums. There are so many more to pick!

 
Well that's it for now. Still trying to re-organise things to make my craft room a reality. There's only time to do a wee bit each day. Of course it doesn't help that I move things and then decide they need to move again to some other location. It'll get done eventually!
 
Thanks for all your comments. I'm not replying to every comment now but just when there's something more to say than just 'thanks'. Rest assured that I read them all avidly and just love getting them. So please keep leaving your comments.
 
All the best for now!

5 comments:

  1. Sadly our two pups manage to chase away all the little birdies that venture into our garden - except for our resident Robin whom they seem to have accepted as part of the family! Lovely pics and your home-grown veggies look delicious too.
    Hope you're having a lovely weekend,
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Gillian,
    Great photos, as always! What a sky! Here it was almost black this lunchtime as we were driving into Antwerp! Managed to get to a lovely craft market just as it started to rain like mad! Looks like your weather was not much better! It's fantastic that you have been looking after the birds, what a great thing to do! And the photos of your harvesting look yummy! Don't worry too much about the craft room! Honestly, I don't know how you manage to do all the things that you do! Give yourself a break! You deserve it! How about some nice plum crumble? I think I might make some next week. I got some sweetpeas growing along the balcony, they are so pretty. Every time the seeds are ripe, I stick them back into the soil, so they keep growing! I'm looking forward to my sunflowers growing and opening up hopefully soon!
    Have a great week!
    Ingrid xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. We had a family of sparrows in our garden this summer - so special. xxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. The birds must be on their second brood I would think to still be feeding at this time of year, how great is that though! I hope that you can get some pictures before they all fly off for the winter. It looks as though you have got a lot of veggies from your garden this year with more to come, the plums are lovely!!! xx

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for leaving a comment. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this and I read them all. I will try to reply as soon as possible to any comment that needs a reply.