Odds & Sods 2021

We decided to drive the 35 miles to Ely Cathedral on Sun to have a look and wonder at the Gaia installation which is currently touring various location around the world and UK. Well worth a visit, it certainly made us both think about our world and the climate problems we are experiencing and the amount of sheer emptiness of the oceans.

Its a 7m diameter (roughly 23 feet) NASA composite image of the world which straddles the nave and slowly rotates. 

We have a family of magpies visits the balcony sneaking in to take some live mealworms I put out for the robin so I added two more dishes with sun-hearts, berry suet and peanuts (safer now that there are no nestlings around) ....     they are clever birds working out when it is best to nick in for the food  !     I have to say I like corvids so have given them some chicken scraps from tonight's dinner.        (only record shots) 

Looks like its in jail  !!     but I did let him out   ha ha 

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this is another magpie .... a juvenile ......

We get three Great Tits including two juveniles and two robins are also regular visitors ......

Robins are looking slightly tatty now they are beginning the moult

its one way to hog the dish   !! 

and I know MC (Paul) likes to see the detail of the tail feathers to age the birds ! ......... so here ya go but be quick as they are about to fall out   LOL ...

and the endearing little Wren often pops in for a live mealworm snack 

Lovely to see them coming in Hazy, I do like your posh dishes, hope those birds mind their p's and q's :-)

Thanks ladies,    

@ Catlady,   you've got a good memory about the food bins at or old house which we stored in the garage - we used to go through sacks of sunflower hearts, plus peanuts and suet feed through the year - the massive bird food bill (pardon the pun ! )   has come down to a half kilo of sunhearts and half kilo of mealies a month plus a few extra treats now and again;   the magpies have some leftover chicken this morning;    I have recently bought some swan/duck biscuits as now lockdown is over we are able to take our 80 year old neighbour out now and again and I introduced her to hand feeding mallards and swans which she really loved;   so much so she's asking where I get the duck food from   !!!      I bought her some from our local garden centre.      Our other neighbour upstairs who also loves birds and has set up a feeding station gets grey and pied wagtail on her balcony so I'm a tad green with envy  !!   I'll have to start dangling a mealworm or two from the balcomy railing   LOL    Saw and heard one fly/call its way to her balcony yesterday - really nice to have a range of birds despite not having oak trees like our old place.    

:@ Gaynor,     the dishes were bought in the early/mid 90's whilst living in Poland as they are famous for pottery  (Boleslawiec)  and I had lots of dishes and mugs.    Also bought a lot of Krosno glassware/vases but had to give most away as we downsized house to apartment !     These unused small coffee/tea mugs (6 in total) are almost the same pattern so I'll keep your name on them  ;)  !!

More pennies to spend on yourself and Mike now then, or maybe they all went into the new apartment and that is why you can only buy a few kg of bird food! Love the mugs.

Lovely birds, photos and crockery, Hazel. Shame you had to get rid of so much stuff to fit into the new place. I wondered if the crockery was Polish, having seen similar at the Christmas market at Winchester Cathedral over the years. We've even bought a few small pieces in the past, pre-pandemic. Not even sure if that market happened last year. Depending on the situation with the virus, if it is on again in Nov/Dec, we might go again.

Taken through the window overlooking side garden and one chilled out funny wabbit   !!

S-T-R-E-T-C-H      .............. !!

and waving goodbye  ! 

Cheers Hazy:-) I didn't know you had lived in Poland too, bit of a different climate to Australia and the other Southern countries you inhabited!! Interesting though, I did a few countries but wish I had done more, always great to have the memories.

Funny wabbit indeed!!!   They seem to wait until the last moment these days to get to their safe bolthole, must be the weather, or they know that Sue shows no interest:-)

a rather woolly looking Chiffy maybe ?  had darker legs.

male Common Darter   ?