Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

rhiwfield

choille wrote: »

Is your Aga oil fired Dave or solid fuel? Like a Rolls Royce in the kitchen really. I don't know how you could get rid of it once you've had one.

Funny thing happened. I have quite a few Hazel trees & have bemoaned that I haven't seen a nut - well I did a few weeks back on one tree, quite a few too, but they were white. I went back this afternoon - quite an awkard place to go and there's none, well I got one, a white one. I looked on the ground and didn't see any there. Now last year RAS reckoned we had squirrels but I've never seen any here. I have found nuts that have a hole in the shell & the nut gone. Quite strange.

Choille, IIRC the marks on the shell where gnawed show what kind of animal ate the nut. A jagged broken shell is a squirrel, but dormice and voles leave a hole, the edge marks of which can be used to identify the animal.

choille

rhiwfield that's interesting. Would these voles & dormice climb the tree?
I do have short tailed water voles that are huge & also very rare here.

They've taken them when they are still under ripe possibly? As don't you have to pick them when they're brown? I don't know a thing about nuts - apart from the two legged sort!

rhiwfield

Choille, add wood mice to the list! I know dormice and wood mice will be able to climb trees, not sure about bank voles. I think you can find descriptions of the chewed holes from the wildlife trusts. Experts can tell which species are present from the different holes in the nuts

Davesnave

Our Aga is oil-fired, which reminds me, I'll have to take out another mortgage to buy some fuel, pronto. Yes, we'll miss it, but we'll be happier with a more efficient way to heat the house and the water.

Our hazels are dropping their dud nuts at the moment. Still a few swallows about, but the bulk of them have departed.

Where do all the blackbirds go in August? Seeing a few about now, but they seem to vanish for a while in late summer. Would it be because they're moulting? Some of the hens look scruffy, especially the Vorwerks, which are usually so trim and tidy. Handfuls of feathers falling out of them! :rotfl:

And of course the eggs are tailing off. C'mon hybrids!

I_have_spoken

Woke up to gusting wind and rain lashing down here in Glasgow, autumn has definitely arrived

Just as well I brought the begonia and cannas into the conservatory last evening to keep them going another couple of weeks.

The trays of plug perennials will go into the coldframe just as soon as I've put it together...

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Morning all:j:j

Well I don't know, but I missed one or tabs so far, and I fell bloody worse, don't know if its me missing the tablets, or the tablets doing it???

I have a 4 day event down in Exeter again in 2 weeks, so we will be away for 5 - 6 days, an I cant afford to be ill for that,

There is def a diff in the weather now, at this time of the year there is annual fair, been going for 100's years, and as soon as the fair is here, the weather changes.. an its also the countdown to Christmas:cool::D

As anyone been watching that Harvest Watch on bbc2???

It would have been nice for them to show small scale farmers too

Rummer

:eek::eek::eek: the weather here is horrid :eek::eek::eek:

I really will need to start keeping track of the weather and I have been turning my thoughts to filling the stock cupboard and getting the car emergency pack reorganised and back in the boot. That said I love Autumn/Winter as it is a great time to focus on the house and crafting. Although I should have taken greater advantage of the nice weather yesterday when I had the chance

The Rumlet costs are seriously adding up I have only been buying the bare essentials and even then they have been on offer/second hand/gifted. Still a few things on the list, mainly expensive things, sigh. Oh well at least cuddles and love are free :j

Today I am mainly going to be writing lists and doing calculations while simultaneously hunting the house for things to ebay :rotfl:

I think the plums might take a bit of a battering in this weather so I am going to harvest a wee heap of them and figure out what to do with them

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Rummer,

Clothes wise etc I can help out with Rumlet Just let me know Alfie will verify this:D

Are you going disposable or useable nappies????

COOLTRIKERCHICK

noticed FK is a bit quiet

Rummer

Thank you very much CTC, we are quite lucky in that a good friend has both girls and boys clothes for the first year that we can have when Rumlet arrives.

Nappy wise I am going for reusables and I have been buying a few every month with a target of 20 in mind. We are using birth to potty ones in a couple of different brands. The ones I have chosen have all been on offer so I have made good savings there Also asked fro some on freegle/freecycle and keeping an eye out on second hand sites.

I just need to get my act together, being tired has led to a few takeaways here and there and the costs soon mount :eek: