Morning all from a cloudy and chilly Bandit Country. It was lovely and sunny first thing this morning when I went to the gym, now it's horrible. I have been eating my breakfast watching the birds this morning - an amazing range of birds we are attracting the moment. Just had a huge Crow and then a huge Magpie hanging from the feeder that has those fat balls (but the veggie sort), they break the balls up as they feed and the smaller birds wait on the ground and hoover the small pieces up. Then on the smaller seed and nut feeders we have had Goldfinches, Bluefinches, Cole Tits, a massive Robin (all angry and aggressive as ever) and a pair of Blackbirds. As I was typing Mrs Blackbird flew into the window, but luckily is OK - they have a nest in one of our small trees. Would be better if the sun was out though!
Morning all Lovely day here but off to see grandchildren in London soon. Plenty of birds in our garden this morning too...goldfinches, great tits, blackbirds, pigeons, magpies, collared doves, blue tits, chaffinches and a wren so far! Cut the grass yesterday so there's a feast of easily accessible insects out there.
G'day all... Beautiful day up here too, if just a tad cool. I've got a workman in this morning replacing the bathroom ceiling - well, covering it over to be more precise. When we bought our home six years ago one of the things that annoyed us was that a previous owner had an obvious liking for that horrible wood-chip wallpaper - it's an absolute nightmare removing it - and they even put it on the bathroom ceiling. I finally got fed up with having to spend a couple of hours every three months cleaning mould off the damned stuff... I've just been reading about this disturbing debacle - http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/...entally_releases_secret_Nato_military_manual/ Would like to think that Michael Fallon would 'Fall-on' his sword as a result...
I've had a couple of male robins battling it out in recent weeks in the garden. Must have been some fight as both of them have red-raw chests....
The draw for the Fourth Round of the FA Cup that year (1969) paired Manchester United with Watford and Preston NE with Chelsea at Deepdale. BR in their wisdom organised 3 special trains for Watford fans up to Manchester (not sure they were called Hornet Expresses until the trips to Hull and Bolton in the next season, brian) and 6 specials for Chelsea fans. On the Saturday before the games, Watford had sold out their 3, Chelsea were struggling to sell 3 out of their 6. So BR switched 3 trains from Chelsea to Watford going up from the Junction. On the actual day, I arrived at the Junction for my train to find the platforms heaving with fans. In the end after the 6th train had left, there were so many fans left that BR pulled some carriages out of the sidings, stuck an engine on the front, filled that and sent it up to Manchester - I believe that not all the fans on that train made it into Old Trafford. I got in with the turnstile closed 2 people behind me. The gates were shut on just over 64,000 - United's biggest gate of the season - even though it was not an all ticket match. The attendance that day beat all United's European Cup games and their World Club Championship match against Estudiantes, that season! I started watching the match a couple of steps from the top of the "Scoreboard End" terracing (them wer't days) but after Scully's goal and the wildest footie celebrations I have ever been involved in, found myself half-way down the terrace.....
Hello all. I didn't get the job - they liked me but because my experience was more bookkeeping than accounts prep that counted against me. It does mean that the employment agency can better target what they look at for me. Here the birds are mainly gulls and pigeons, with the occasional magpie, blackbird or robin - there is more variation in the country parishes. Pigeons have this habit of trying to land on my windowsill - I live in a first floor flat. They eventually realise that there is a flat roof just across the path that is lower than my windowsill.
Sorry Barry, I hope it goes well for you in the future. It has been a lovely day here, sunshine and warmth. We have stopped putting out peanuts for the birds now, as they are quite likely to be feeding their young, and nuts can be too large, so choke the little ones. They still come into the garden and can find plenty of insects which are better, providing that they are not frightened off by our resident snake that has been seen on the wall soaking up some of the heat.
63,498 was the official attendance - but who's quibbling... I travelled up by car and my abiding memory is of overtaking a seemingly never-ending convoy of yellow & black bedecked buses - we lost track of the number. I remember those celebrations - I like to think we invented the vertical Mexican Wave that day.
Last Christmas we stayed over at my brother in-law's (wife's brother). His mother in-law (who is very straight-laced) and I were up early on Boxing Day, and as I made breakfast for my kids and was emptying the dishwasher, looking out the window at the bird table, she suddenly shouted: "Look at that squirrel and his fat balls!" I struggled but succeeded to keep my cool and answer with suitably polite surprise. Within a minute, and you're going to struggle to believe this but it's absolutely true, she followed this with: "And Gemma's got great tits!" On a birdy note, about three weeks ago, we saw a red kite attack a crow, on the wing, and then the crow and its pal saw off the kite. It was amazing. All about 80ft above us.
You are of course correct with the attendance bb - I have a feeling it was first announced as over 64,000 then revised down - but I may be mistaken. The celebrations were a trifle wilder than an Mexican Wave - more like a collective drug-fulled Colombian middle-finger to the Stretford End. I was hoarse for days after.
