A Wet Morning

Thursday morning. I got up as usual and was in the process of taking Alfie out as I normally do. I had my jacket on, because even though it's late July, it can be quite chilly first thing in the morning. I had everything ready, with Alfie on his lead, but as soon as I got outside with him I realised that it was raining. Not particularly heavily, but enough to get a bit of a soaking, so we ended up returning indoors, much to Alfie's displeasure. I wasn't risking a soaking, of either him or myself. I needed to ring Ashfield Medical Centre to get a repeat of the Diazepam, as I had but one final tablet to take tonight. I could take Alfie out once I had rung the surgery.

I managed to get though to Ashfield Medical Centre in record time. I don't think there was any sort of queue even though it was gone 8.35 when I eventually got through, but I was told that today was protected time after 1p.m. so a doctor was unlikely to ring me back to arrange an appointment, but that my repeat prescription would be sent directly to Lloyd's pharmacy at Sainsbury's, so I should be able to collect it from there tomorrow.

Something amused me this morning, after the slight rainfall we had earlier. A squirrel came into the garden, hopping off the fence and approaching the bird feeding station. It gave a glance at the house, almost as if it was expecting to find a camera set up to take it's photograph. It then attempted to climb the central pole that supports the feeding station, but because the thing was wet it couldn't get a grip and began to slide down! Looked very amusing and this may be the answer to the problem of keeping these little blighters off the feeder, put something greasy on it and they can't climb up. More likely, just slide down.

Going To Worcester

Since I have been keeping the bird feeders on the feeding station replenished, our old friend Cyril Squirrel has been making an appearance. Even though he shouldn't be on the feeding station and I should really make some effort to remove him, however I manage to do that, probably by merely opening the window and shouting, I can't be be entertained by his antics. But how do you remove a squirrel from a feeding station? You can get a sort of disc that goes around the central supporting column but it would be difficult to fix. Then there's the crazy pigeon that attempts to sit on the structure and is far too big and seems to find it difficult to balance on the think. It doesn't have a lot of sense and in the end it just gives up and flies away.

Sunday. It's to such a bright and sunny day today, but still quite pleasant. Infact, I think I prefer it like this. If it's too hot I can't cope.

I've been out early to put diesel in the car, well before 8 o'clock. Virtually car-free on the way, which is the whole purpose, none of those idiots who insist on tail-gating. Shell have a new loyalty system and I have the app on my iPhone. I don't know if it's as good a system as the old one but after 10 visits you get money off your fuel, so it may be worth the effort to use. BP have done the same and given up Necar for their own system.

Monday. A not particularly bright and sunny day, but it did get warmer as the day progressed. I was ready and waiting for John and Margaret to arrive at exactly 10 o'clock this morning as they were driving me all the way to Worcester to see my new third grandson, Arthur, who was born four weeks ago. We drove out of Milton Keynes but going in a slightly different direction from the route I would have driven if I'd gone myself, up the A5 and across to Buckingham whereas I would have gone via Standing Way, but actually not a lot of difference as we still ended up on the M40 and then M5. I was surprised how quickly we got to Claines, which is part of Worcester, the remaining couple of miles being directed by the use of the Google Maps app on my iPhone.

Chloe in the garden hanging out washing and Steve was at home. We had lunch sitting at the table in the garden, salad and quiche and then Chloe got baby Arthur who had been having a nap when I arrived. Still very sleepy when she bought him down for me to see in the garden and given a chance to hold him. The other two, George and Eddie, were at playgroup and wouldn't be home until around 4.30 so I would be unlikely to see them as John and Margaret were coming back at 3 p.m. for the return journey back to Milton Keynes.

Sure enough, almost exactly at 3 there was a knock on the door and Margaret came in to say they were back, having been into the centre of Worcester. So, I bade farewell to Chloe, Steve and baby Arthur and we got in the car and drove home to Milton Keynes, arriving back just before 5p.m. I was surprised by the fact that we had left Milton Keynes at 10a.m. and driven all the way to Worcester and got home at 5p.m. I don't know exactly how many miles it was for the round trip, but it must have been a fair distance and I'm still so grateful to John and Margaret for taking me all that way. As babies grow up so fast, it was great to see Arthur as such a small baby. Probably the next time I see him he will have changed considerably, as is the way with babies.

Just Another Day

I took out Alfie for his, by now, expected walk around the park. He's becoming quite  demanding about this and comes and stares at me and often barks to make sure I don't forget. I don't get much option and frankly wouldn't want to upset him if I don't remember. How could I?  As we walked along the outer circle path, along the section behind some houses which line the park, next to the fence that divides  the gardens off from the park, I heard this loud thumping sound. I thought at first that it was a cat running along the top of the fence, but when I glanced at the fence I saw a squirrel instead, running at speed along it. It was quite a shock and it moved at great speed. Alfie took not a bit of notice and just continued running along the path.We did almost two circuits of the park and we heard a cockerel crowing. Someone on the estate keeps chickens and a cockerel must be part of the chicken-coop. I can't actually believe anyone would have chickens around the estate and if so, I bet they annoy their neighbours. I bet they get complaints of the cockerel crowing in the early hours of the morning. Being bought up in the country and on a farm where we had all manner of livestock, including chickens and cockerels, you would expect all sorts of extraneous noises and getting up early on a farm went with the job and never bothered me. But in a town? I don't think people around here would get up much before 7a.m. to go to work.

There was quite a lot of stuff left from when Carol had her antibiotics administered by the nurses over the past couple of weeks. It's been stored on a table in the lounge. We were told by the last nurse on Sunday that someone would come to collect it on Monday. When we went to Lidl's yesterday morning it's obvious that someone had come to the house to collect these items. We got a call later in the afternoon yesterday from one of the nurses to say she'd been to the house but couldn't get a response. Obviously we had been out shopping in Lidl's. She can't have come much after we'd gone out in the car because we were gone barely an hour or so. She said that we could take the things to Ashfield Medical Centre and it would all be collected by the team of community nurses. So this morning we collected up everything into two parcels to carry it all easily out to the car and drove to Ashfield Medical Centre and handed it over to reception. I had a letter from the surgery a few days ago suggesting I have a blood pressure test and I could use the self-service blood pressure unit in the reception area, hidden behind a screen, and managed to do this. It printed out the result on a ticket which I gave to the receptionist and the result was put in my computer notes. I also booked a blood test because I haven't had one done in some while and needed to have a report on my cholesterol level. I had booked a similar appointment a few months ago, but what with all Carol's appointments it was cancelled.

I noticed a couple of trucks turn up opposite the house when I was washing up at the kitchen sink. Thinking about it. I quite often see a lot of people, mostly in cars 'turning up' as I stand at the sink doing the mundane task of washing up. They looked as if they were workmen about to do some job around the estate. About 15 minutes later I could hear what must have been a pneumatic drill so no doubt they're repairing a pothole somewhere or other but I can't identify exactly where.

Acrobatic Squirrel

We've had a  visiting squirrel giving us some entertainment over the past couple of days. It has come into the garden and run along the top of the fence and then it stands and stares at the bird feeder from the left-hand side of the garden, Garry and Shelley's side. We re-installed the bird feeder a few weeks ago and used a thing in the ground which has four 'spikes' in it which you push into the ground and then put the central pole of the feeding station into this and lock it in place using the butterfly nuts and, considering the wind we've had blowing through the garden recently, the thing seems to be working successfully. It has stood firm and hasn't moved. I'd suggested we move the entire thing further away from the fence because of the fact we had a squirrel actually jump from the fence onto the bird-feeding station. Quit a feat and actually could have impaled itself on the finial which tops the feeding station. Amazed when I saw this with my own eyes. This new squirrel has managed to actually climb up the pole and hang upside down from the bird feeders, and climb down and change direction several times before running away into the long grass near the fence and then, somehow or other, climb back up onto the fence and was last seen running away along the branches of the over-hanging trees. And throughout all this, Alfie was asleep on the sofa and totally oblivious of all this going on outside the window. I did manage to get some photographs of this incident, but unfortunately the results are not as good as they might have been.

Alfie came in the house and there was a really bad smell. We couldn't find out where it was coming from. Had he rolled in something stinky? Dogs have a habit of doing this. It's not nice. So we had to stick him in the bath, much to his displeasure. He currently looks like a drowned rat (although I've never actually seen a drowned rat.) Running around the house shaking himself and rubbing himself against bits of furniture. But it's as well to do this as we couldn't spend the rest of the day with that awful stink.

Alfie and the Squirrel

We've had a visit from an extremely cheeky and crafty squirrel to our garden over the past couple of days. This might explain why Alfie, our little Yorkshire Terrier, keeps on disappearing into the garden. He spends quite a lot of time in the rather over-grown area near the fence at the bottom of the garden and near the shed (a polite way to describe the wreck of a shed as it's totally unusable as it is.) The squirrel has been seen actually IN the garden, darting about in the long grass. It has been on the shed roof and flicking it's tail about in an agitated fashion. It then climbed about in the over-hanging branches of the trees and then on the fence to the left. It seems to be keen to find a way to get at the food on the bird feeding station. A couple of years ago we had our feeding station a good deal closer to the shed that belongs to our neighbours, Garry and Shelley. A squirrel actually JUMPED from the roof of this shed onto the bird feeding station and managed to perch on the thing, and at one point hung upside-down on it in order to eat some of the food. It's a wonder that this crafty squirrel didn't impale itself on the pointy finial on the top of this thing! It even managed to climb the metal pole of this feeding station. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw all these acrobatics. This latest visitor is so cheeky, it even stares at the house to find out if Alfie is about before venturing further. 

Mystery Man

Here we go again. I'm in the kitchen, standing at the sink, washing up, when a white van draws up, but I can't see exactly what's going on because the hedge which shields off next door's garden. The drive is shared, although the lady who lives that side of us doesn't have a car so the space is usually vacant. Then a man appeared poking about under the hedge with what looked like a screwdriver. I imagine he was only doing his job, but he looked somewhat mysterious and shady. He had a mobile phone to his ear and was talking to someone on it. I imagine he was a workman from a contractor who was going some work on our neighbour's house, for the Council as it's a council house. Probably quite genuine, but he did look a bit shifty. Poor man, as he must have seen me through the window. I should have just gone outside and ask him what on earth he was up to, but I didn't.

Why is I seem to notice so many strange things going on outside our house? No real answer to that question. But there are certainly a great many odd people wandering around 'out there.'

It's been an almost spring-like day today. It's just far too mild, considering we're well and truly into the month of October. We put an extra-thick duvet on the bed, but it's far too hot so I've gone back to have the lightweight summer duvet back on the bed.

We've had a couple of pigeons in the garden. I've seen them sitting on the flowerpot which stands near the shed, although it's full of water. One of them appeared to be swimming in the water, or at least having a bath. I wasn't sure whether the other pigeon might have deliberately pushed the other one into the water. Probably not as I think they're a bit dense, pigeons, and wouldn't be able to think like that. It just looked so comical, floundering about in the water.

After the comic pigeons a squirrel ran across the roof, stopped in the middle, stared at the house, did a little nose-twitch and ran off. And Alfie didn't even notice. It was fast asleep and then one of the two neighbours' cats did a shimmy across the fence and did what the squirrel had done, took a glance at the house, no doubt to see whether Alfie would respond as he usually does. But no . . . it disappeared before Alfie could wake up  and rush out of the house, barking.

Acrobatic Squirrels and Stalking Yorkies

We have had some real entertainment in our garden  regarding the bird-feeding station which we set up fairly recently. We keep replenishing the various hanging feeders which are on it. We got four feeders which came with the set (purchased on Amazon) and have since added a round wire peanut feeder as well as half-shell coconuts. We get a variety of birds visiting the feeding station, mostly starlings, blue tits and some unidentified birds as well as a couple of pigeons and even a very large crow which sat on the thing briefly as well as a magpie. There are two more bits of the feeding station which I have since removed, a water bowl which fits onto the upright of the station by means of a circular arrangement which clips on to the stand as well as a wire bowl which has a similar attachment and is meant for seeds or other types of food which don't go on the hanging feeders. I took them off because we had a couple of pigeons which visited and sat on these bowls and hogged the entire feeding station. The pigeons seem to have given up attempting to eat the food since these items were removed. Then the other day I went into the lounge and looked out of the window into the garden and saw a squirrel sitting on the feeding station. It was a surprise as I couldn't work out how it got onto the thing. I was soon to discover when I saw one of the other squirrels (I think there are three living around here, possibly with young in a nest (dray) somewhere in the trees and bushes which fringe the Redway which runs behind this house.)  I was really shocked to see a squirrel climbing up the metal support of the feeding station! Then at the weekend, when Carol and I were sitting in the lounge, no doubt watching television, a squirrel came and sat on the shed which forms part of the dividing fence belonging to our neighbours to the left (Shelley and Gary). Then it did a spectacular leap right onto the feeding station! It's a wonder it didn't impale itself on the finial on the top of the feeding station, and then it proceeded to do a wide range of acrobatic stunts, hanging upside down at one point and scrambling all over the thing. Quite amazing.

The bird-feeding station, minus birds

Starling on the bird-feeding station (taken with my newly-acquired macro lens.)

 Starling eating from coconut shell

Acrobatic squirrel climbing DOWN the pole 

from the bird-feeding station!

Alfie, our Yorkshire Terrier, about whom I have mentioned in many of my blog posts, has quite a thing about the cats which come into our garden. Mentioned repeatedly that he and Poppy, our other dog, don't really like pussycats and particularly those who drift into their territory and sit on the shed roof and walk along the top of the fence. Quite pleasant and friendly in their way and totally oblivious to the fact that the dogs are barking furiously at them. But the other day Alfie showed a particular behaviour which I have never seen before. He went out through the patio doors from the kitchen and stood staring at the cat which sat on the shed, diagonally from him at the door. Then he moved very slowly towards the cat, almost in slow-motion, stopping every few feet and just staring and standing with one forepaw raised (a bit like a Pointer.) He did something similar a few days ago, just standing, stock-still, with a forepaw raised and just staring at the cat. Really odd. I suppose it's terrier behaviour and would have been instinctive as Yorkshire Terriers were bred to hunt down and kill rats and mice in cotton mills in Yorkshire. We've seen how good he is at dispatching vermin when we lived at the house in Crownhill, when we were inundated by rats and he managed to kill one, a good deal bigger than himself, one morning. The way he shook it (similar to the way he plays with his toys, by shaking.) was quite startling and very surprising.

Crazy Squirrels and Working Computers

The Macbook is now running normally again. For whatever reason it hasn't been opening for the past couple of days and I've had to use Carol's Toshiba laptop, but it now appears to be fine. I have a feeling it might be something to do with the battery as it seems to become very hot when it's been fully charged. It might be a good idea not to keep it plugged in once it's completed it's charge.

We've been amused by the antics of a couple of squirrels who live in and around our garden. I thought there was one, but I'm sure there's two, or maybe more. I first saw one of them running along the top of the fence (or, at least, what remains of it, as there's a great gap where a section has given up the will to live and looks more like a piece of decking than a fence.) and along the roof of the shed. It jumps onto one if the concrete posts and then off through the gap and then it comes back and this is repeated endlessly. On Sunday morning, this went on for a good fifteen or twenty minutes. The dogs were unaware if these antics, but it started off again early this morning and both dogs barked loudly at them. We didn't open up the sliding patio doors into the garden because Alfie, in particular, would probably try to chase them and most likely end up through the gap in the fence with me in hot pursuit.These squirrels have also been seen running up the trunks of the trees at the rear of the garden and then leaping about from one branch to another. Certainly quite energetic and very amusing. Whatever they were doing it looked as if they were enjoying themselves.

It's another bright and sunny spring morning. I just hope the weather remains warm and dry for the next couple of weeks, during which time we will be going away for a well-earned holiday.

Lucky Squirrel

This is a few days late, but I forgot all about it until today. We were on the way to church on Sunday. We usually drive to the carpark near Milton Keynes college and walk the rest of the way along the Redway or take one of the Plus Buses which are specially laid on to take people. We decided to go via Chaffron Way and park in the M.K.C.C. car park because when we started the car it was being somewhat stubborn starting. Actually, since it's been MoT'd and had work done on it, it makes very little sound when it's being started hence Carol not being able to hear it running, and then over-starting it and it not starting, if that makes any sort of sense. Anyway, as we drove along Chaffron Way near the college, a squirrel ran out into the road from the verge. Carol saw it in time and slowed down, but the stupid creature seemed to do a sort of double-take in the middle of the road, seemed to reverse it's direction of travel and ran under the car, and ran out and back onto the verge, without coming to any harm. Carol squealed, as she didn't want to run it over. But it was a lucky escape for the crazy little thing. We have a running gag about pheasants because we see so many of the stupid birds when we're driving around, most of them looking totally stupid, with no road sense whatsoever, ambling along on the side of the road, generally looking stunned as the traffic roars by, and when they do actually attempt to cross the road, it's so you have to slow down in the car, they seem to stare at you as if they expect you, the driver, to stop just to let them amble across. Then, generally on some winding, open country lane, you see a dead pheasant laying on the side of the road, one bird which hasn't been taught the dangers on the modern highway, how cars a fast and dangerous and it's been squished by a large heavy goods vehicle or some high-speed speed freak who doesn't slow down for the wildlife. As for rabbits, you see quite a few of them hopping around on the side of the road or in the long grass of the verges along the grid roads around Milton Keynes. They do have a habit of running into the path of your vehicle as you run along and when they see you coming, probably at night when you have to use your headlights, they do the old 'staring at the headlights and freezing' when they see you coming, a rather perilous form of self-defence, and as a result being run over and killed. The same way that hedgehogs roll up into a spiky ball when they sense danger and most likely in the middle of the road and also being run over by passing traffic.