From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

So taking my inspiration from you good people on here, who suggested some time ago downloading the Merl1n app, and Fortune who reminded me again about it, I downloaded it.  I have just been trying to listen.  It wasn't fool-proof, I suspect partially because the birds are SO vocal at the mo, but it was identifying birds I knew and could see, and some that I knew, but couldn't see.  It did claim it could hear an American robin (along with a commonal garden UK one), which was a bit surprising, and a curlew, which was not beyond the realms of possibility, but also a surprise.  But in addition to listening - along with my phone, - I did see another lone swallow (only my second - or third 🤔 - around here) and I also spied a sparrowhawk silently flying over - I'm going to plump for a female again, purely on size, as it was little more than a silhouette against the hazy sky.  

I'm not sure I can keep the app on the phone all the time - my steam driven thing is creaking under the strain as it is (and I've very, very few applications running on it 😬), but I enjoyed watching the app doing its thing, and taking a moment to stop, listen and look.  

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Glad you had a go with the app Greying 😊 I love it, it's a regular companion with an early morning cuppa for me. Apparently today there was a willow warbler and a siskin, among other things, and I caught a glimpse of what I think might have been a house martin... 😊

Hope you get a good night's sleep xx

redofromstart

Our 40 plus Siskins  have sadly now moved on, but I would not have postively identified them or my lovely dunnocks without the App. Mine mostly does Robin, blackbird, dunnock and various tits. Not 'heard' anything unlikely.

saw the baby coots again today which was just spot on. 

ETA - very noisy outside with dusk chorus - all black birds apparently. 

Greying_Pilgrim

redo - i got a slight fillip when listening, and I thought 'blackbird' and then a moment later the phone flashed yellow on the Eurasian Blackbird line..... 🤣

I have watched Andi Oliver's Feasts on i-player and thoroughly enjoyed the Bradford episode.  I could quite easily have set up camp in the fruit and veg shop - what a place!

I have folded all the washing.  Although I pair socks as I peg out, and try to gather them in together, I dislike folding socks....

DH got a loaf out of the freezer for tomorrow after I'd mentioned we needed one, earlier 🥰

LG went to bed, but acted up a bit with DH - so it wasn't just my buttons being pressed, there must have been something in the water today, or maybe they caught too much sun......... Tomorrow is a new day.

I had a lovely chuckle at the bus stand-off story on newgirly's thread - "better than owt on the telly..." 🤣

Thank you for popping in and chatting today.  Appreciated. Greatly.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

We've a wren going great guns in the garden here 😁

Wash is on - assorted bits of grubby school uniform (🙄 we were only one day in......🙄), PE kit etc etc.

Shopping today.  Going to try to keep the figures down, but as we've discussed, nutritious food ain't cheap 🙁

One thing I did like in last night's tea was some stir fried peppers and celery with a bit of garlic added at the end.  I know folk do this for fajitas etc as a matter of course, and it's nowt new, but it was just the ticket last night.  

Right, I've snap to prep.  A shopping list to finish off and pants to peg out just now....... 🤭

Greying X

Fortune_Smiles

I think it takes the app a while to 'learn' Greying.  We had a few false ids when we first started using it.  It sometimes picks up other background noise too and gives you its closest guess - I was whistling FDawg to come the other day and was identified as a curlew 😂

Fortune x

redofromstart

Thought of you earlier as our MrT has 20% off the Laila stuff again, and most of the world food isle. Runs into 11th June apparently. 4kg of chickpeas from our bulk fund as I used the last of the stores yesterday.

EssexHebridean

IIRC we get three different variants of Robins here in the UK - so it's not beyond the bounds of possibilities that you might find the app picks up something a bit different! 

Greying_Pilgrim

Fortune - The app came up with 2 wild and wonderful suggestions earlier - one of which I had really not heard of (some sort of Jay - I think it was a magpie trying to raid a Starling's nest, but of course may have been this Jay), and a type of parakeet.  Again, not beyond the bounds of possibility to have a parakeet either loose nearby, or in someone's house, just interesting mixed amongst the robins, wrens, blackbirds etc.  

Thanks redo that is useful to know.  In theory I have enough for a while, but I may well go over to that town with the better stocked World Foods aisle MrT's, soon, so it will be worth bearing in mind.  

EH - you have made me think of a robin that we saw in........ Glendurgan(??) gardens in Cornwall a good few years ago now.  It was sooooo different to any robin I had seen previously.  I took pictures of it - I will have to dig them out.  Yes, it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that different birds are in fact hopping about in the trees and bushes, as I remember coming away from the house prior to us moving in, and it was just on the cusp of dusk, and I spotted a blackbird, that was, literally all black - including it's beak, but still with the yellow eye.  On looking it up, I found it to be a European blackbird, rather than a UK one, and it's black beak denoted it to be less than a year old.  As it aged, the beak would turn yellow, but it's an adaptation that UK blackbirds don't have.  What on earth it was doing in our neck of the woods - heaven knows, but we had had several of those storms, so whether it had literally been 'blown in'.  

So, shopping done.  I went to MrAl and MrL today.  My totals are high, but are higher because I have totted up and added in yesterday's groceries/non-food expenditure too.  Gulp.

Food came in at a mahoosive £56.91.  I can only say that I got some 'reasonable' produce for that - plus i did splurge on 2 boxes of ice-creams/lollies and there is some alcohol included too.  Non food was £7.95, excluding the sunscreen as that came out of CHB.  

MrL appears to have had some changes.  There is no longer the trolley wiping station available, and the £1.50 box sign wasn't even out today, never mind no boxes.  I suspect our store has had a change of manager.  The previous one was extremely ...... "confident" shall we say, I can't quite work out who the new one is, but if it was the person showing a 'newbie' the ropes today, I don't think things will improve anytime soon......

Right, best go and check on the washing.  I keep on getting faint wafts of bonfire - don't want the clothes spoilt with nasty odours, having gone to the trouble of washing them.  Will amend siggie totals too.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Finally, it's Friday!  Lawks this week has been long - despite being short!  

We had the bedroom window slightly open last night (unfortunately we haven't yet got a smaller top light to open), and I once again heard the local tawny owls.  No need for the app, I know what the sound is like, but nice-ish to hear in the middle of the night! 

All the line-dried washing was bone dry yesterday - including the school kit.  Thankfully, LG managed to keep everything clean yesterday, so the clean/dry stuff can go in the cupboard ready for next week.  

We ended up having ratatouille and pasta for tea last night.  The ratatouille was made up with HM tommie sauce, and veg that I had in - so courgette, red onion, celery, a few of the mushies I got yesterday etc.  The pasta was a box of Nap0l1na branded chickpea fusilli that I got in a branch of H3r0n a while back.  I think it was from the branch in the next market town along, rather than from the one that closed in Greying Town some time ago.  It was slightly out of date, so needed using.  I figured as I was only using veg in the sauce, the protein oomph from the pasta would be useful.  Yoghurt and the last of the tinned pineapple for dessert.  

I need to double check the weather for today.  It's started warm-ish, overcast and still.  If I washed anything it would most likely be workwear, which needs a bit of a breeze to help it dry, so it may not be worth it, unless we're in for pavement splitting sunshine.

I've snap to make up, so best shift a tail-feather.

Ta for popping by.  Greying X