Feeding Frenzy

I filled up the sunflower feeder this morning (aka 'giving the birds their breakfast'). By lunch it was empty, so I went out a few minutes ago and refilled it, plus I topped up the peanuts and put two more fat-balls in that feeder too.

This so thrilled the birds that we had a veritable feeding frenzy on our hands! A huge flock of sparrows, FOUR goldfinches and a couple of greenfinches decended en-masse and the lot of them flapping around and jockeying for the best angle on each feeders. Amazing to watch.

Earlier we had been visited by our woodpecker, not once, but twice! He goes for the peanuts. And we had THREE collared doves moseying around on the grass below. I had only seen two before, so now I am wondering if this third might be a chick, all grown up now. Do collared doves mate for life?

I get such a lot of pleasure from these little guys. Worth every penny I spend on bird-food.

So Proud!

Probably the proudest Cub Scout in the world...
Pip's Cub pack had a 'race night' tonight. They had been given a project. 3 weeks to turn a block of wood into a racing car... towards some badge or another. The variety of cars was incredible and there were prizes for all sorts of things - best wheels, fastest car, distance, originality, 911 look-alike... It was a lot of fun, and we raised money for Children in Need which is always a good thing.

And Pip-squeak won the 'best paint-job' prize! He was so proud of himself... I just wanted you to see.

Thoughts of a flea-brained mother

Dude is on his way to being entirely toothless. Another one fell out on Friday while he was brushing his teeth, and yet another one is wiggly! I have warned him that it may be a diet of soup and porridge for him. He thinks it's hilarious - being gross is his favourite pass-time. Well, he is a 6 yr old boy!

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Since the bird-feeding-tree has lost all its leaves I have started re-filling the birdfeeders. We have fat-balls, peanuts, niger seed and hulled sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds go fastest, followed by fat-balls, then peanuts. Niger is a very poor last favourite. I rarely see any bird there. Even the goldfinches (Niger is supposed to be their absolute favourite) ignore it and scoff the sunflower seeds.
This morning I counted 7 species while eating my breakfast:
goldfinches, sparrows, chaffinches, greenfinches, a wren (ok, he was hopping on the fence behind the tree, but still), collared doves pecking at the spillages on the ground, and, joy of joys, a greater spotted woodpecker!!!!

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Good mother/bad mother. You judge.

Bad:

Yesterday Pip had his bestest friend over for a serious Lego session, and what did I do? It was a gorgeously blue day, so I winkled them out of the bedroom and outside to help me fill my new leaf bags, which I ordered the other day. They weren't impressed and being press-ganged into child labour, although things looked up when I offered them 50p a bag (there were 5 bags) each to spend at the Church Fair that afternoon.

Good:

This evening Pip and I painted designs on his 'design a car' project for cubs. They got given a piece of wood, about 2.5" by 6" by 4", a few metal washers and the instructions to turn it into a car by adding bits/ taking away bits/ decorating it. They were allowed help since it was bound to involve saws... I now have red and yellow gloss paint on my fingertips from holding it in the wrong place. *sigh*

Tooth Update

Dude's wiggly tooth has fallen out... so now he is entirely gap-toothed.

And wonder of wonders, the Tooth Fairy didn't 'get lost' last night and actually managed to leave a golden pound in exchange for the newest brick in her Tooth Castle. Way to go, Tooth Fairy!

Halloween

Just thought you might like to see my Halloween gouls and ghosties:

They were very proud of themselves and enjoyed being scary...

And here is Dude with his pumpkin-teeth, just in time for Halloween he lost one and the other is so wiggly he can turn it around in his head. Quite disgusting, really!

Good News

Well, after much trouble we found a microwave repair-man locally, and he managed to do the job in a day for £22. And considering that a comparable microwave would have cost about £122 we are very pleased.

Now we just have to work on getting a new oven. But at least we have something to cook food in if it finally gives up the ghost. Although it has been behaving well recently (which is why we still haven't managed to replace it).

We are on half-term in our neck of the woods, which means no school for a week.

We went with 50 of our nearest and dearest Church Family members to a Youth Hostel at New Lanark for the weekend. We took over the whole place and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. There were about 20 kids and of course they enjoyed each other's company immensely.

It rained quite a bit while we were there, but that meant that we got to see the nearby waterfall of Corra Linn (the hostel overlooks the River Clyde) in both gentle

and torrential

modes!

After that we went over to visit a friend in North Berwick, just to the right of Edinburgh on the Firth of Forth. His garden backs onto the beach, and so the boys were in 7th heaven!

This was the view from our bedroom window. Lovely!

The Island of Fidra, which was the inspiration for RL Stevenson's 'Treasure Island' was just down the coast, and easily visible from the house. We visited the beach nearest Fidra one evening...

These sunset pictures were taken from the North Berwick beach, within minutes of each other. Look at how the colours change!

Appliance Suicide

Our kitchen appliances are all dying, one by one. I am beginning to wonder if we have a gremlin! Or maybe they're complaining of overwork?

First, the fan in the fan oven is temperamental. It seems to only turn on when the oven temp reaches 'hot enough' (whatever that is, I don't know. I have just learned to turn it on and eventually the fan will kick in). We do have plans to replace the oven, but seeing as I am lazy I haven't done it yet. Bad idea to wait until it dies entirely? Probably, but hey...

May be definitely a bad idea, since our microwave seems to be giving up the ghost. When I say 'giving up' I mean, 'has given up and is just faking it'. It looks fine (no burn marks, no funny smells) it looks like it's working (turns, light on, makes noise) but nothing heats up. Hmmm.... Time to get a new microwave? Probably, but have you seen the price of microwaves these days? Yow! Beginning to wonder about calling a repair-man.

Which is exactly what we had to do for the washing machine last Thursday, when after acting wierd (stopping mid wash and not spinning) and being forced to spin a load of clothes that seemed clean, just sopping wet it started moaning loudly, followed by a burning smell... EEEK! Pull out from under shelf! Unplug! Unplug! Luckily we have this little beauty insured. We bought it when Pip was a wee baby and so it's now about 8 yrs old. It has had its drum changed, and its bearings changed already, so the insurance is worth it (also cheaper and more environmentally responsible than buying a new one). They sent out a nice man on Monday and he fixed it in 24 mins!!!! Apparently the motor had gone (hence the lack of spin) and in doing this it fried the control panel (behind the buttons) and the door lock mechanism (hence the burning smell). But lickety split it was all replaced and good as new...

Jubilation all 'round! Clean knickers once again! (tmi?)

So anyway, now considering the cost of calling a repair-man for the micro (surely less than buying a new one?) and which will be the best new oven for us... Our current (ancient - came with the house) model has the controls up high, against the wall above a 'back-splash' sort of thingy. Which means that little fingers can't fiddle. These days they seem to be built with all the controls just at the eye height of a 3 yr old... Brilliant design. Ho hum. Also want a A-rated one for energy efficiency. Which narrows the field.

Anyone (in the UK) have any recommendations for ovens?