Bird Stories

This is the bird stand my mother got my father for Christmas and it has been very successfully firstly because he actually liked it and secondly it gets loads of birds coming to it and no squirrels. I was trying to take a photo of the birds eating from it because there was ten of them on it at the time, i scared a few away by coming to the window.

But then this huge fat pigeon scared them all away. Just not on.

Lucas likes to watch the birds, he is in charge of making sure its just birds and not squirrels starts to shake if there is a squirrel.

With this frost the water freezes up so quickly i put new water out every morning and it is frozen within an hour so i started to put warm water out to give the brid's a better chance of getting some water.

Something else that has frozen is the pond, which Lucas demonstrates in this photo. He found that out himself i didn't put him on there. He has mastered his fear now because he fell in the pond as a puppy and has always been very cautious of it.

I love the green which has frosted edges.

I think the bamboo looks stunning.

Bird Housing Market

I have been redecorating the bird houses we have. Those lucky birds have been getting some new straw to keep there little beaks warm, because they probably can't afford heating this year with the credit crunch and one of the coldest winters.

Also to chear them up i have decorated one of the trees .

Feed the Birds

Nothing much has been going on in my garden because i didn't want to plant any overwintering vegetables because i wanted to give my soil a really good period of time to get more nutrients. So i planted a tone of green manure, but i planted it to late and none of the three packets i had sown grew. I was really irrated because i had spent two days breaking up the soil taking out enough rocks to build a house with and then racking it all over ready for the seeds. Then thank heavens above only a depressing three weeks later little green shoots appeared so i must have done something right.
Now the frost has kicked in they have stopped dead in there tracks, but at least the frost is breaking up my soil.

I have also emptied the entire contense of my composter and dumped it on my old veg patch coverd it with newspaper and cardboard and some old bit of fencing and fleece to hold it all down. The idea of this is to a bulk up the soil there and get the soil to get some more nutrients in there. I did a similar thing to another bed where i had grown some beans and it worked a treat until the rabbits bit off the stems.

Lastly don't forget to feed the birds!

Feed the Birds

I made some coconut bird feeders using some old coconuts which i drilled through. Cracking them open took a little longer that used a few more tools, a hammer chisel and saw. The insides were done with bird seeds (obviously) and melted lard which you mix together. Big tip here feed your string through first with a twig on the end so it doesn't fall out, and make sure you fill up the hole before you but in the mixture i learned this the hard way, my lard went everywhere!

I left them in the fridge over night and they turned out really well, unfortunately no birds got them because the squirrel got them and the insides fell out and the dogs got them. So bad news for birds.

I painted a piggy bank and plan to use it as an honesty pot to put out with my gluts of vegetables which i will be getting. Yes i know i am overly hopeful.

The mystery squash revealed, this is the squash i grew from and unknown plant i got at a market and actually it is lovely i am going to be bold enough and say its nicer then butternut squash,it was that good. So i have saved some seeds ready to plant next year. I still don't know the name.