Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 10 May 2020

We had some Zoom time yesterday with Amber and her daddy - she climbed all over him, and the sofa, and leaped around as if she has what we used to call "ants in her pants"

Our son shows great patience with all this, much more than he's ever displayed before with anyone!

Primulas.

Lindy - Lovely pictures to cheer up a rather grey day here. Thank you. You can surprise your OH with waffles and when he tells you how good they are, you can confess … just a thought!

I glanced out of my window this morning and saw a deer meandering along the tree line nibbling at the bushes, quite unconcerned. Haven't seen one for quite a while, so that was lovely. Adds to my sighting of a huge dog fox as I walked around the meadow yesterday. The wildlife is obviously becoming more visible because there are fewer people around. Lovely.

PAT - two lovely wildlife experiences! What kind of Deer was it?

LINDA - lovely bright pictures of your flowers. Mrs Blackbird pulled apart one of our Primroses last month - she now has babies to feed, so no spare time! Young Starlings are coming to the feeders with the adults - bottomless mouths for the poor parents who park them safely in rows on the fence, turn round to pick up food and then have to search because they all move in different directions, screeching all the time.

OH had his first Zoom meeting yesterday with our Church Secretary, practising for a virtual Elders' meeting with the Minister. The other man's broadband went down once, but otherwise they seemed to do okay. OH had been "umming and ahing" for several weeks, thinking he hadn't got the equipment, then I eventually pointed out that my MS Surface has cameras, and he has a USB microphone. Now he has mastered that one, he may be persuaded to set up the wildlife camera which we bought about three years ago!

Didn't water the garden last evening - apart from a few essentials, as it looked and felt as if it would rain - but it didn't. Probably a full job with the hosepipe tonight to be sure - that will probably make it rain. Third morning he has ventured over the border for an Asda click and collect - was to be a delivery, but by the time he finished the list, it had changed to c and c! Discovered M&S foodboxes online last evening, but I did a count of all the meals we already have in stock, and decided we should wait another month before ordering - no wonder the freezers look rather full.

Don't know what I shall be doing today - just pootling I suppose, as usual.

One of my big bugbears has to be the misuse of to and too.

I finished a jigsaw a couple of days ago and have another ready to start. I have done them both before, but quite some time ago.

That looks a very difficult jigsaw - how many pieces?

I'm pretty sure it was a roe deer, OG. We used to get them a lot in the grounds, but building work at the end of the garden (a whole new cul-de-sac where just one house used to be!) and a lot of trees having fallen, the deer are few and far between now. So this morning's sighting was rare and wonderful. The adjoining property to the side of our grounds is farmland, with plenty of woodland, so I guess it wandered in from there.

Had a lovely hour on Zoom with my niece, her man and Charlie. They were making very gooey-looking bird feeders - coating a tube with crunchy peanut butter and then rolling it in bird seed. Looked like a lot of fun if a bit messy. I'm sure their birds will enjoy it - if I had one here the squirrels would probably demolish it in about five minutes! It was so lovely to feel a part of the family group for a while - I'm really missing that.

EAGLE EYE It was 1000 pieces and was made difficult as the picture on the box was only the centre of the jigsaw so a lot of it was guess work!! It took a couple of weeks.