Boys, bobbles, birds & cat!



This is the normal sight at the gate for the 8.00am feed of haylage!  Wee Eck with his prominent dentistry waiting to pounce on his pile of feed, with Faro and Fyta behind.



The weather has been less stormy this week but the temperature has dropped further.    Each morning the ice has to be removed from the water troughs and by lunch time it is normally frozen over again, albeit with thinner ice.

The clear frosty nights are enjoyed by the boys who spend them lying out in the open.  This is the site of melted patches in the frost which we normally find in the mornings!  At least when the weather is like this the boys go to the toilet outside - when they are bedded down in the shelters, the morning requires another poop-patrol!

Like many bloggers I find that knitting takes up a lot of spare time during the long evenings.   I've just finished a hat and maxi scarf with big bobbles, courtesy of Fidget's fleece.  Interestingly I've been using some of his second cut fleece and it has knitted up OK although smaller sized needles might have been better.

Have you noticed the horrendous cost of bird nuts these days - apparently the Chinese are buying them up wholesale and getting oil from them.  Can you believe that?  We have a bird table at the back of the house which operates like a mini Heathrow with hundreds of arrivals and departures during daylight hours.  Normally a feeder full of nuts will last several days and the one on the right of the table with a Blue Tit on it shows the 'normal ' level.  The feeder on the left is a lot emptier because of the Coal Tit inside!  He/she does what Coal Tits are famous for and that is that they carry the nuts off and store them in various locations around the garden to be eaten later!  The feeder has a 'dodgy' top so the Tit pushes it aside, drops in, pinches a nut, flies off and stores it and within a couple of minutes has returned to repeat the procedure.  It had emptied the feeder a couple of hours later!  We should call him/her ' Tesco Tit' as I'm sure it is running a store for the birdies around here!

And finally.......our ageing pussy cat, Pansy Potter who is now 16 years old.  She is slowing down quite a lot these days and prefers to spend most of her time under the radiator in the kitchen where it is nice and warm.