Things that have made you happy today' 2024

I too have the Merlin bird app. Very useful when out in the field, etc, even when my wife interrupts my attempt to record bird song.

 

A pair of blackbirds are building a nest right by my window. They did a survey of the spot last yr and decided the shrub wasn't quite dense enough. This yr they are satisfied and have been coming and going all morning with bits of twig and stuff. I will have to keep away from the window so I don't alarm them.

 

The hedgehog which took up residence under the shed last summer, is back! The wildlife camera has shown it carrying mouthfuls (mouthsful??) of dry grasses and bits of bark to make a bed, for several nights. Once it becomes light, it is sometimes accompanied by nosey juvenile magpies, as far as its "front door".

 

Phew! I was putting on a load of washing earlier. I always turn the fabric conditioner bottle upside down to mix the contents. I had just started this action when I noticed a slight movement of the lid. Aborting the manoeuvre with a nanosecond to spare, I returned it to upright and, touching the lid, realised it was just balancing, not screwed down. As the bottle was almost full, that would have been a whole litre of fabric softener all over the floor.

Relieved to be describing this event on the "happy" thread and not the "moaning" one.

 

We saw a green woodpecker in the garden this morning.
We do have a proliferation of ants, which they eat, so, maybe we will see more.

Also, yesterday, while in the garden close to a series of wooden posts with horizontal pieces across, I was aware of a very wide eyed wood pigeon staring down at me, sitting on a nest. It's not like them to stay quiet and still, especially when I'm around, so it must be on an egg or two.

 

11:34 AM: Red Arrows heading to Faringdon to be on time for Silverstone

 

Seeing my Dad on our weekly family Skype call. He's 83 and has lately been in poor health, in and out of hospital.

He's fine now and back to his old self, his sense of humour is back and he is reluctantly accepting talk about assistance at home. Well, I pretty much told him to cash in on all those taxes he has paid to get a person to mop the floors and hang the laundry.

He seems ok

 

@Liriodendron I gave a hedgehog a house with a CD size big entry in the shed 2 months ago. I saw him walking in the garden this week and he had grown a lot. Must have been a youngster from last year. I wonder if soon a family has the space in the house.

 

On my way to the shops this morning I noticed someone had chopped down the ragwort in a little field which sometimes houses 3 horses. (They haven't cleared away the stuff they've cut down though, which is going to be bad news if the horses are brought back.) The good news is that on the way home I noticed a couple of cinnabar moth caterpillars clinging on to one of the felled ragwort plants, so I brought them home and put them on the ragwort in my "meadow". They can munch that to their hearts' content.

 

I know of someone who's horse died because it ate Ragwort which was apparently in the hay they gave it.

 

I was clearing shrubs out of two large planters at the front of the house yesterday afternoon, and it was a joy to listen to the baby blackbirds twittering away in the front hedge, every time one of the parents returned with sustenance.
Music to my ears!!

 

Probably after scoffing someone's blueberries!

 

OURS!!!

 

Just had my car insurance renewal quote and, astonishingly, it is lower than last yr.