I'm not obsessed with robins*, but...

photo taken yesterday, 'hot' robin chicks ready to leave the nest....

This has been a special year already.

We've been living in our house in Wantage for 5 years now, and this is the first year that we've had robins nesting. Yes, robins plural, as today we watched the second nest fly the coop.

The robin chicks from the first nest I reported on 'disappeared', and although we'd been incredibly privileged to have made the observations, I was a little deflated not to know the end of the story.  What actually happens on this momentous day in the life of a robin?

Well.  From observations made this morning, I can tell you what did happen.

The second nest was in the box of dog towels on the other shelves I use in an attempt to keep the back passage tidy.  (When I say attempt I should say attempt and fail to keep tidy, but hey-ho, there's no harm in trying...).

Anyway, the second nest had 6 chicks, and they've been very amusing looking like some kind of fluff-ball of squashed little frog-buddhas. Take a look:

baby photo! couple of weeks ago, eyes not really open.. mouth cavernous.

starting to feel the squeeze! yes, there are 6 of us...

So, another hot day today.  I'd noticed them looking quite disgruntled yesterday in the heat, and wondered when they'd be leaving the nest. Turns out today was the day.

I was looking for my gardening gloves (shelf above dog towels) at around 10am today.  I wanted to get some weeding done before the sun took hold again in this mini-heatwave, and I noticed there were only 2 chicks left in the nest.... so I got my camera and this is what happened.

should I stay, or should I go now?

the parent bird calls quite persistently, tch tch tch or tut tut tut. The robin chick makes its first flight, and fly they do. But not far.  The bird we watched only flew down and then seemed exhausted and a bit dazed and confused.  So took time out to recover. The parent bird keeps up its calling, but the baby is taking this new world in.  So far all it's seen has been the wall opposite the nest.  Now, there's overhanging buddleia from next door, our bicycles hanging from their racks, the lawnmower, the black and decker workbench(!), various plant pots of assorted sizes, gravel, old leaves, paving slabs, a kettle style bbq, some logs for the woodburner awaiting splitting, (and those heads which peer in to look at us seem to have rather large appendages below them...).

After what seems an age, the robin chick, in fits and starts eventually makes its way to the parent bird, up on the ledge of the wall, and then into the buddleia.  Except for the last one. He made it our kitchen doorstep, and then flew into the house, landing near to Roly (the dalmation)'s bed.  We grabbed dog by the collar, let the little thing recover a moment, and then he went out by the front door!

thank goodness for zoom! he's on the lawnmower handle.

This final incident of the robin in the house happened after lunch at around 2pm, so it's taken 4 hours or so to get all 6 chicks safely out, and launched into the great wide world.  So that's how they did it.  Here's final photo of the chap who visited the inside of the house:

'nuff said.

Night night! Kat  :)

*all right, I may be a little obsessed...

Damned if I do...

We don't have a TV in our house.

Not one.

We've not had one since Phoebe was about 3yrs and every morning before going downstiars she would ask 'What's on telly?' ...  Nothing unusual about that, but we decided to return the rental TV and see how  life was without it.

Once you've stopped watching the trailers it seems that it's absolutely fine.  We actually have time to do other things, and have enjoyed this happy state until now.

We don't think we've deprived the children, they have supervised access to DVDs and some internet sites.  They don't have pressure from commercials aimed at provoking pester power towards the parents. We as parents think that the lack of visual stimulation of a violent cartoon nature (very hard to monitor) has made for better behaved, less excitable, nicer children. So far so good. The children also see TV at other people's houses and at grandparents.

Now.

This is a unique year.

The diamond jubilee and the olympics.

Both historical events.  Both huge events.  Both televised.

I'd like to watch it.  I'd like our children to watch it.  It's going to be part of their memories of growing up, and I think they should be able to have these special memories.... but but but.

What then???

Can you get a TV licence for 2 months? I'll have to look into that.  If not we'll have to have strict rules about what they can and can't watch, and there will be the commercial element/influences that will be hard to avoid. Tom's already a pester pain.  He's got an argos catalogue and is constantly looking at the lego that he's not got, the tech-decks he's not got, the bakugan he's not got, the transformers he's not got.... I could go on.

So.  Apart from saying 'no' which is what I do most of the time, how do you help a 6yr old to see the value of playing with the toys he has, and not always wishing for the next one....?  Or is this a common problem, and is 'no' the only answer?

On a lighter note, we've a second nest of Robins.... can't remember if I mentioned them here, they're nesting in Roly's dog towels on the shelving. We've counter 6 beaks now, and they're starting to look awkward in the nestas they're getting too big for the space available...

from my kitchen window ...

back to Wolf Hall, page 400, 250 to go... ttfn. Kat

Where did the weekend go????

The weekend flew by.  Again.

After work Saturday morning, home, quick lunch and then we drove to Hampton, near Twickenham, our old stamping ground.  We'd been invited to our friend Julie's 40th birthday party.  This was to be held at 7pm-11pm, but seeing that it's a one and a half hour drive there (and back) we asked if we could arrive early, and leave early.  Oh, and can we bring the children along? as having a babysitter wouldn't have been worth it.

So we turned up at 4pm or so, and spent some time (getting in the way) with Julie and her family before the party started.  It was good to catch up with them all and meet the youngest (18mth old Connor)!  We took the liberty of eating pizza at their home, as the party food wasn't to be served until 9pm, and we'd be on our way home by then...

The party was held in a large community hall, and had a Celidh band, who started playing at around 7.30pm(ish).  So we decided to join in the dancing, and a good time was had by all, especially Tom and Phoebe!  I was aiming to leave around 8pm, to give Tom a chance of a 'normal' bedtime, but there were so many people we'd not seen for such a long time, and it was a great opportunity to catch up, that we didn't leave until 9pm...  got home around 10.30pm.  Bit late for little people  :(

Would have l-o-v-e-d to have stayed longer, but the distance made it difficult.  I don't relax about things like that, so it put a bit of an edge on the evening for me, but it was worth the effort, and was lovely to see everyone as well as Julie!

Sunday.  The weather was fine.  Much gardening to be done.  I set to in the vegetable patch, and dug up two trug-fulls of couch grass/roots in the search for my strawberries...  found them and moved them to slightly better position.  Planted runner beans where strawberries were.  Dug out random nettle clumps, stray weeds and bl***y raspberry runners.  I despair of my raspberries.  I managed to take one row out over the winter, but the row that remains I couldn't get to with the amount of rain we had, and now they're actually in bud, so we may just have some raspberries this year....  I don't know what I do wrong.  Well actually, I do.  I don't do anything, which I think with raspberries is a bad thing.  So last year I think I saw 10 raspberries, and ate around 4.  Not good value to my mind, so they  were going to go.

But, the ones that remain, well we'll see.  I'll net them from the birds, and if I don't get a bowlful then they're definitely going.

Dug trenches and planted my maincrop potatoes. Well, I say maincrop.  Only crop is more like it.  How late is this???  Last weekend we were in Shrewsbury, so this was seriously the first time available with the correct conditions (ie, not raining) to do anything productive...

I also moved my tomato 'house' - one of those £20 kits, tubular frame and plastic cover, the right size to put grow bag and 6ft canes to support in.  It didn't really perform as I'd wanted to last year at the back door - against white wall, in 'sun trap', but the garden faces NW, so suntrap is SE, but not a success. So I've re-positioned it down the garden nearer to the veg patch, where the self-seeded tomatoes did great stuff last year!  It's sheltered by the children's play house.

Well, play house is what we call it, but 'folly' would be a more accurate name.  Some of the previous owners of our home built a breeze block and tiled roof 'L' shaped building at the bottom of the garden, and in a Spanish style.  It's a useful size, but there's no power, so really it's a solid shed. We store wood for the stove in there, and there's some old cast off furniture as well for the children to 'play house'.

So, we'll see if the tomatoes get on there or not...

they want to knock the rackity shed down and build 18 houses over the fence.....

This is the view from the veg patch when I got up to let the hens out the other morning at 6.30am.  The early bird (me!) gets the rainbow!  As the 5 minutes passed there was the faintest attempt at a double rainbow (photo no good), and then it was all over...

After all this gardening, I took a shower at 5pm, and then decided it would be nice to go out for supper, (had no energy left to cook!!!) and suggested this to my lovely husband, who agreed.

In all of this gardening frenzy where were the children???  Well, they were playing in and out of the playhouse, in and out of my veg patch, and in and out of the house.  They're finally of an age where we don't have to chaperone or supervise their every move, which is a huge relief, a blessing, and, probably too good to be true!  No, actually, I'm starting to feel that I can actually get on and do things I want to /need to, and not have to be distracted by the banalities of young child care requirements.... Free at last, free at last....

On that note I'll retire, and have another chomp of Wolf Hall....  nightnight!  Kat

Ssssssssssssssss

Sssss-ausages?

Balloon deflating......

Ssss-ilence.....

I don't like a quiet house.  That is to say, I like to listen to the radio (see previous blogs!).  If the house is silent I don't feel comfortable. I like the way the radio is usually always on in the background, seeping into my subconscious and conscious mind, keeping me company, keeping me sane, and sometimes something for me to shout at (if the children aren't here!).

I'm glad I'm back into Radio 4.  But the news is so bad that I'm certain it adds to the burden of everyday stress, which isn't good for my, or anyone else's health.  But it's really the only intelligent radio available, commercial free, and usually impartial in its reporting. If you don't want the news you can avoid it, and it's the delights of the other spoken word programming that I particularly enjoy.  Women's hour, From our own correspondent, the comedy slot at 6.30pm, the afternoon play, the quizzes, the one-off documentary, it's all of life there every day and all the better for that.

Balloon deflating:  I've just left my Women's Institute meeting for this month.  We meet 2nd Wednesday of the month at 10.30am.  I'm an active member - being the Secretary I have to deliver the notices for the month.  I'm quite irrereverant in my presentation, which I hope makes it more fun, because that's what we're about.

This morning's speaker, Barbara Hately-Broad, told us all about the Changi Quilts - which were made in 1942, WWII by the women interred (by the Japanese) in the Changi prison camp in Singapore.  I'd never heard about them before, but Barbara was passionately informative about the quilts (now held in the archives of the British and Australian Red Cross), and I learnt a lot about embroidery and the previously privileged lives of the women who were imprisoned there.

Next month it's Pat Dogs - dogs which go into hospitals as therapy for patients.  Variety is certainly the spice of life at Wantage WI!.  We've got a website - have a look, you'll get a flavour of what we get up to:  wantagewi.weebly.com

I'll finish here for now, I may get more regular postings going if I schedule it during the daytime!  I'm still reading Wolf Hall - up to page 350, so over half-way.  It's fascinating how the author Hilary Mantel, has got 'into' the characters, they really come to life on the page and I'm impressed by how 'easy' it is to read.

We went to Buscot Park (National Trust, Faringdon) on Monday (bank holiday) and the water gardens were closed due to inclement weather....  here's a photo to whet (all puns intended) your appetite...

TTFN! Kat.