Jools

Come feed the little birds,
Show them you care
And you’ll be glad if you do
Their young ones are hungry
Their nests are so bare
All it takes is tuppence from you
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag
Feed the birds,” that’s what she cries
While overhead, her birds fill the skies

Lyrics from Mary Poppins.

Well it would be nice if it were so cheap to feed the birds wouldn’t it? I’m not complaining though all the little and not so little birds have bought me a lot of pleasure these last few days. The difficulty has been keeping up with their appetites. With all the ground covered in snow there has been little natural food available for them and keeping the fresh water topped up has been problematic in sub zero temperatures. Hubby and I have learnt a few things in recent weeks when it comes to feeding the birds….

Given a choice between peanuts and seeds the birds tend to go for seeds first. If you change the seed mix or brand it will take the birds an hour or so to get used to it. Chapelwood No Ice bird bath treatment works.

With the No Ice liquid we were unsure of adding it to the birds water but as it’s from a reputable bird food supplier we thought we’d give it a go. The label says it stops water freezing down to -4C so obviously those days when we’ve been way below that the water still froze overnight. It did however thaw a bit quicker during the day meaning we didn’t have to go outside too often to top up with water that would quickly freeze over again. We’ve seen most of the birds drinking the treated water and they keep coming back so it must be ok for them.

We have 2 tall poles in the garden, on one we have a nut feeder, a fat ball feeder and a seed tray. On the other pole is a nut feeder, a seed feeder and a water dish. We also scatter seeds and nuts on the ground for the ground feeding birds and the larger ones that can’t use the hanging feeders. We can see the birds feeding from our comfy seats in the living room.

Normally I’d be at the window with my camera but with my arm out of action I’ve had to rely on Graeme to take photos for me. He’s taken some good ones too as you can see….

These are just a small selection of the birds that have visited the garden in the past month. Some birds like the blue tits, great tits, chaffinch and robin are regular visitors throughout the year, others we see occasionally  at times when food or water is in short supply in the wild. We’re lucky that we live on farmland, we have lots of trees and bushes in the garden and in our own garden we don’t use pesticides and garden as naturally as we can.

For those of you interested here’s a list of  the birds we’ve seen actually in the garden in the last month…

Blackbird

Blue Tit

Bullfinch

Chaffinch

Crow

Goldfinch

Great Tit

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Jay

Nuthatch

Pheasant

Robin

Starling

Tree Sparrow

Wren

Yellowhammer

We see the buzzards flying overhead regularly and along the lane we see partridge from time to time. There have been tawny owls hooting away in the trees and on one rare occasion we saw a beautiful barn owl very early in the morning. The sparrowhawk sometimes zooms into the rosebush in the middle of the lawn and takes a little blue tit for lunch. It’s amazing to see, it’s not pleasant but it’s nature, everything has to eat.

So please remember to feed the birds, it may cost you a few pounds a month but it really is worth it

A few folks have suggested that I should write about my experiences with the weather recently. It’s not been great and shows no signs of improvement but we’ll see how it goes, one day at a time and all that.

I’ll tell you bit of my background story and maybe you’ll understand my situation a bit more, for those of you that know I apologise for going over old ground.

I live about 3 miles outside of Penrith in Cumbria in quite a rural area, well on a farm actually. We’re just off a very steep hill and the house is quite exposed to the elements.

I am a Postie, I deliver the post on foot around the town of Penrith. On December 11th we’d had quite a hard frost so I was taking my time walking around as I knew the paths were slippy. At one house I stepped onto a sloping slate paved path and slipped on black ice. I landed on my right elbow, it hurt, a lot. I sat there for a few minutes and then got up and like a trooper carried on delivering the post for around 30 minutes. It got more painful so I called the office and a colleague took over the round whilst I was taken to hospital. I had x-rays and it turned out I had broken my funny bone, an olecranon fracture, that required surgery. 12th December saw me arrive at Carlisle hospital for the operation which involved screwing the bone back together. 13th December I came home to begin what would be a minimum 6-8 weeks of recovery.

The following week passed fairly uneventfully, my husband managed to get some special leave granted from work so that he could stay at home and take care of me as I wasn’t allowed to move my right arm. The weather remained very cold with frost almost daily. The weekend after my accident we got the first significant snowfall.

Monday 21st December we managed to get out to stock up with food and fuel locally, getting up the steep hill from here hadn’t been easy and getting home again was more of a slide than a drive.

Tuesday 22nd we woke up to a thick covering of snow, several inches and I cancelled an appointment I had as I knew there was no way we’d make it up or downhill. Even when the other roads are clear our hill is usually covered in snow and ice. Hubby went out and threw the remains of the grit pile at the end of the farm track onto the road but it made no difference really.

Wednesday 23rd we made an effort to go to Maryport to deliver some Christmas gifts, we didn’t make it up the hill. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we were stuck in over the holiday.

Thursday 24th, Christmas Eve, our neighbour temporarily moved to her family’s home in town. There was no-one else within half a mile of us. The hill was becoming more treacherous as tractors and 4×4’s compacted the snow to ice.

Friday 25th, Christmas Day, we hadn’t planned on going anywhere, just as well as there was no sign of a thaw setting in.

Saturday 26th, Boxing Day, again, no plans of going anywhere but maybe a slight hint of a thaw going on, we crossed our fingers and were hopeful of getting out the following day.

Sunday 27th, indeed a slight thaw and the snow was turning to slush. We got ready and made a dash for it. We got to Cockermouth for some groceries and then onto Maryport to visit relatives. We didn’t stay long. Of course this was the day when my family were due to arrive from Nottingham but we’d told them not to come as the roads were so bad. We got home as the slush was starting to freeze.

Monday 28th, going nowhere due to ice and snow. Emails to the council requesting grit go unanswered.

Tuesday 29th, had to cancel appointment at Carlisle hospital with the surgeon due to snow and ice on the hill.

Wednesday 30th, managed, just, to get out for supplies of food and fuel. Don’t think I actually got out of the car much as everywhere was so slippy.

Thursday 31st, New Year’s Eve. Hubby back at work which meant he had to leave me my lunch prepared and I assured him that I could get a couple of jacket potatoes into the oven one handed. He had trouble getting up the hill nd back again but managed it.

Friday 1st January, New Year’s Day. Hubby went to work, it snowed, a lot, 3-4 inches, he set off home and got most of the way here but had to abandon the car in a layby as he couldn’t get up the other side of the hill. He walked home the last 2 miles. He’d had the sense to take a walking pole with him and had a torch and high visibility clothing but it didn’t stop me worrying until I saw him coming along the lane. Also learned today that one of my dear friends had lost her mother, we all knew it was a matter of time but the shock is just the same. Happy New Year? I don’t think so!

Saturday 2nd. Hubby got a lift to his abandoned car from a work mate and drove himself to work. It snowed on and off all day. I spoke to my sister in Derby and they’d got snow there too. Hubby set off for home around 5.45pm and he got most of the way back, within a mile, only to get stuck because some thoughtless person ad abandoned their car in the middle of the road. It seems that the Penrith side of the hill had been gritted too, why not our side? Anyway after a 2 mile detour and what seemed like forever hubby got home safe and sound but rather stressed. He called the police about the abandoned car but when they went to check later it had gone.

Sunday 3rd. A very cold day but that’s becoming the norm recently, it’s not been above freezing for the better part of 3 weeks with the exception of last Sunday for a few hours when we reached the dizzy heights of +3C! We stayed in again! We tried ringing he council hotline number to request grit and sent more emails, none of which were answered.

Monday 4th. I had an appointment at the hospital, I didn’t want to cancel but it wasn’t looking like we’d get out. A friend on Twitter sent out a request for help which lots of folks repeated but this time no luck. Hubby went out with the shovel in an attempt to find more grit, he was unsuccessful. We decided we had to at least make an attempt at getting to the hospital and set off a couple of hours early. As we reached the end of the lane we saw a tractor coming slowly down the hill. Hubby got out of the car to see what was going on. The tractor driver said he had driven to the council grit depot and had been allowed to bring some back to put on the hill. He was doing this because, like us, his requests for help had gone unanswered. He said that there were 4 gritters sitting idle in the depot. They could have been gritting the back roads to give some of us a chance to get out but the managers had said they weren’t allowed! So thanks to tractor guy we finally got the hill to a state where it was passable with care and I made it to my appointment. We stocked up with groceries again and will see what the coming days bring.

So what can I say about the weather so far this winter? Well it’s been cold, I’ve never seen Cumbria look so pretty but I’ve only seen it through the eyes of other people’s photographs really. It does look like a true Winter Wonderland but when you live on a steep hill in the sticks it’s just unpleasant. I don’t know when I’ll see my family and give them their Christmas Gifts, we were supposed to be going this coming weekend but we may cancel as the weather shows now sign of improving. I know there are folks who have been stuck in their homes for longer than I have but it’s hard to believe that we live in the 21st century and that something hasn’t been done to sort out the roads and paths in the area. I have to say a huge thanks to my Twittermates and friends on the John Howe forum who have kept me company online all these days and weeks, you don’t know just how grateful I am to have you around.

Sorry that was so long but that was over 3 weeks worth of news, hopefully next time I’ll be less verbose

Welcome to my blog, something I’ve decided to resurrect after 18months of not bothering. I’m not sure why I gave up with it but recently I’d been thinking I should start again and the first day of a New Year and a new decade seemed an appropriate time to do it.

I don’t imagine for one moment that I shall write deep and meaningful blog posts but I hope perhaps a record of my travels, adventures (if I have any) and life experiences in general. I’m generally a light hearted person so that will hopefully be what comes across to you dear reader(s). I expect there will be the odd rant and complaint but that’s life isn’t it? It’s not perfect and I think it would be pretty dull if we all got what we wanted without having to worry about certain things from time to time.

So, what do I hope to achieve in 2010?

I hope to meet some of my friends from the John Howe forum in USA and Canada.

I hope to meet some of my European JH forum friends again and some that I didn’t meet in 2007.

I hope to meet some more Twittermates who all seem to be a lovely bunch so far.

I hope my broken elbow gets sorted out soon (3 weeks today since the accident) and I can carry on enjoying life unhindered by having an unusable right arm.

I hope to be a good friend and to be able to help those who need me.

I hope to learn how to cope with all this technology we have in the house without getting G to explain over and over again what I’m supposed to be doing.

I hope that at some point I can show Graeme how grateful I am to have him in my life. These last 3 weeks would have been unbearable without him.

I hope to get up on a couple of  the high mountains in Cumbria this year, something I have neglected for way too long.

I hope to get back running as soon as possible and manage longer distances without too much trouble.

Well I guess that’s enough for now. Of course I’d like to see the world without wars, famine and injustice and so on but even I know that’ll never happen but I’d love it if I were wrong

All the best to you and yours for 2010!