Moving on

ladybird1106

We also did the big garden bird watch and the usual suspects/amount didn’t turn up today- typical 😤🤣. However it’s more than when we first moved in here 14yrs ago. It was barren of wildlife. 

Fantastic that you were able to get the biro off your coaster. 

Love 🐞

Cherryfudge

Yes, I'm pleased about the coaster, @ladybird1106. Channelling Nancy B1rtwhistle.  

I am fairly sure there are optimum times to count the birds: they always used to come to the feeder about 4pm but now the visits seem to be more random. I know what you mean about the wildlife building up: they learn where to come to feed, and of course if they're fed, more will survive and breed. We have a number of mature trees so they have somewhere to perch and roost, but also somewhere to hide from would-be counters!

Cherryfudge

Sunday morning's session with the children was fairly chaotic though the activities went quite well. I couldn't settle to preparing for it till after DH had gone to bed last night, so I had a late night but I made up for it by sleeping most of the afternoon!

DH, meanwhile, had a good walk and said it was really nice, and milder than it has been. He then made a chicken curry so we've eaten well. The Christmas Cake is all gone. I had a very lazy day, browsing V1nted and reading my book when awake, then watching TV with DH. As a result of this and sleeping, I feel refreshed and not yet ready for sleep!

DH has also rung his sister and his cousin. His cousin is recovering from an op and her parents are doing well: her mother went into a care home and is thriving on it, and her Dad is still in hospital with an ankle problem but at least that means there aren't concerns about how well he is coping on his own. DH gets on very well with his cousin so he's been ringing her more often to offer support.

Nothing spent today despite favouriting lots of things on V1nted!

Dakota_Rose

It’s lovely to read of your birdwatching. Mr D went ahead and did the big garden birdwatch without me! To be fair, we hadn’t agreed that I’d join him but it would’ve been nice. He has lately taken a keen interest in our back garden birds so signed up for the first time. 

There’s definitely worse ways to spend an hour and he got 21, with a nice variety of species. 

Cherryfudge

Thanks for dropping in, @Dakota_Rose! What a shame you missed it, though you could always get in some practice for next year - I found I didn't really know enough, even with some pictures up on my laptop to help me identify what came into the garden, but may be a lot more proficient than I am!

21 is an encouraging score. Was there anything unusual?

Cherryfudge

Today has been very January. Grey, cold, damp: let's hope this means March onwards will be fantastic.  

I found I was getting nothing done and DH was at work so I tidied out a bag of papers that's been sitting around far too long. About 10 items went in the recycling and I need to rehome the others. I got distracted when I noticed an activity bag from the children's sessions and realised I'm starting to accumulate these. If I do a session and feel I need to rewrite something or make an accessory, it comes home with me and it was all good intentions and nothing done, so I spent a while on this one, where some of the wooden spoon puppets needed fixing. I'm happy with how they all turned out and it's ready to take back.

While looking for hemming stuff to stop the puppet clothes from fraying, I found some buttons I had as a freebie and won't use, so those have gone on V1nted.

Eventually, I got myself out of doors, took the soft plastics recycling, tried to buy fabric paint to label the grab bag (again this is for the children's sessions), but had to order online (£5.19). I bought chicken fillets thanks to Olio/Ice1and (£2.87 instead of £4), met DH on his way home and collected the latest V1nted buys: socks for DH and travel perfume atomisers of which I'm keeping two and putting the rest towards stocking fillers. That resulted in a nice conversation online because the seller had to explain to me how to use them.

DH had the rest of the chicken curry for tea and I used the other bag of parsnips (from Christmas) to make soup. The meant using up some very old butter, which needed to happen but the result was delicious.

We have two snowdrops, of which one bud is nearly open and the other looks ambitious. I also noticed striped crocus leaves today. I resisted some planters in YTC which were marked down to £1 due to having various breakages. I have so many planters and they only enable me to put off clearing bits of flower beds for new plants. I also resisted some storage boxes which would have been good for corralling the packaging I've saved for V1nted. Yes, they were damaged but perhaps I just have too much packaging.

No email back from the potential temporary work so it can stay in the background for now. I think the other stuff I was concerned about last week looks like being something and nothing, so that's a relief. Another buy of the day was (yes, V1nted!) a named mug for DGD3, whose name isn't one you often see on giftware. That cost me £6.67 and will be put away for her birthday. It also occurred to me that the Christmas paper is now in the loft but I haven't wrapped the gifts for my sister and her family. Goodness knows when we'll see them but I bought some more paper in readiness.

The wind is just starting to get up ahead of tomorrow's projected gales and I had better think about bed as I need to be up to look after grandchildren tomorrow. DH would take the morning shift but then I'd have to walk 40 minutes in the storm!

Sun_Addict

I noticed lots of snowdrops out last month in a garden at the end of my road which I thought was quite early. I thought I had some in my garden but I can't see any, unless the squirrels have dug them up. I've got some daffodils making an appearance though as well as crocus. I love the first signs of nature coming back to life again.

Pollie

@Cherryfudge when you make the orange peel marmalade, is the pith left on? Thanks.

Cherryfudge

@Pollie, I took any dense pith off: it seems to vary a lot between fruits. I didn't bother unless it was noticeably thick. The resulting marmalade was strong-tasting, so if ever I make it again I will add the full amount of sugar (this was slightly low), and maybe experiment with added orange juice and some pectin sugar.

Dakota_Rose

Congratulations on the snowdrops - they’re my absolute favourite and I’ve been spotting them in a few places recently. I have 4 in my rose patch, which is an increase of 3 from last year 😂

As for Mr D’s birdwatch, we were ‘tits abound’ (in his words not mine 🙈) long tails, blue tits and great tits aplenty. There was one wren which he was particularly pleased with as they’re his favourite.

I’m not great at identifying but I do enjoy watching them. If I paid more attention to Mr D I would do better but we both agree that I’m a better teacher than student!

I do hope the storm didn’t hit where you are too badly. It’s been a wild one.