Life for us continues much as normal with my regular morning routine
of catching up with messages and notifications on my phone over a morning cup of tea and slice of
rye bread toast with olive oil spread. Then outside to check whether
anything in the greenhouse or garden needs watering and to replenish the
bird feeders. This is a photo of the new protected ground feeder for
the ground feeding birds, such as robins and blackbirds.
Most
of the baby birds in the locality seem to have fledged by now and the
feeding has become less frantic. During the course of the day I can
expect to see in or from the garden: goldfinches, blue tits, great tits,
greenfinches, chaffinches, great spotted woodpeckers, blackbirds,
robin/s, jackdaws, rooks (occasionally), magpies (occasionally), feral
pigeons, collared doves, jay (very occasionally), swifts, swallows,
buzzards, red kites and either kestrel or sparrowhawk. Sadly we watched
the latter bird of prey ambush a goldfinch at one of the protected
feeders whilst we were having our morning coffee in the garden. It
swooped from behind us, but couldn't get the bird through the bars of
the cage but did kill it. It would almost have been better for the
kestrel /sparrowhawk to succeed in getting the prey, having killed the
smaller bird. It was difficult to make out which bird was the attacker
but I did notice that it was a brownish red colour and quite small. It
did struggle to get the goldfinch through the bars for quite a few
seconds, until it gave up when my husband stood up and waved his arms
around. We have seen a similar bird chasing a smaller bird from the
feeder at least once before which we must expect as we live on the edge
of the countryside and not get too sentimental about it.
Still, on
a more cheerful note, it looks as though the goldfinches have done well
this year as there is always a crowd or 'charm' at the feeders, as have
the blue tits and great tits. We have seen several woodpeckers as well
as heard them in a distant half dead tree.
MillCottageRetro is
open once again after being closed for some three months and, although I
am not going to the Post Office, Hermes are a regular and satisfactory
courier around our way. As well as the usual editing renewals (each
listing is valid for 4 months for a payment of $0.20), some with
alterations and updates, I have also been adding new items as drafts -
though probably not as many as I should have liked. I will be adding a
few of these each week.
Our garden is doing better this year with
more bees and insects which are, hopefully, attracted by the types of
plants I have introduced. Below is the wildlife area with Californian
Poppies, Cornflowers and Corn Marigolds.
To
match the summer garden theme I have selected a few items from
MillCottageRetro to illustrate the theme. All available for sale now:
Don't
miss the current special offer of Buy Two items and get one under the
price of £10 free! These itema above are: a Portmeirion planter, a pair
of pink Victorian style handled vases. a Voctorian style green glaa jug
decorated with lily of the valley and a CarltonWare sunflower milk jug.
Below are a few pieces that I will be adding soon:
Stay
safe and keep looking after yourselves and hope that you are enjoying
fabulous weather like that we have been having here in the Cotswolds.
