Unlocking lockdown: June

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.