Catchup and Garden Journal

Hello after a very busy week!  We have been ferrying daughter Suzie to and from the Theatre where she has been performing with her local Musical Theatre group.  They have worked very hard and produced an amazingly professional performance.  Monday they were practising with the orchestra, Tuesday was the Tech run, Wednesday was full dress rehearsal, then performances were Thurs, Fri and 2 on Sat.  Dan and his girlfriend came with Hubby and I last evening for the final performance.  We had booked our tickets months ago and had forgotten we had booked front seats.  Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and Suzie looked perfect in her outfits.

Another busy week ahead, as we have the school musical to look forward to.

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Hoping to get the chance to do a bit of upcycling - I spent my pocket money on a 'pre-loved' garden bistro set!  Hubby has got me a wire brush for cleaning/preparation and I chose what hopefully will be a fairly bright green metal paint.  The table is quite ornate with a rose design - this will be my favourite bit and I already have the red paint for that.  Here's how it looks at the moment, stored by Hubby's shed...

Here are some more pics from my garden journal...

This is one of the cute little mice that appear and disappear into a hole in the dividing wall between us and nextdoor.  I think it's a wood mouse/field mouse, rather than a house mouse?  So cute 💗

Here we have Rattie, one of a family of rats that were probably attracted by the seeds dropped from the main bird feeder.  For a while, we were only aware of the one rat and you have to admit he/she is rather cute.  However, when multiple baby rats began appearing we realised the situation was not ideal!  Hubby made so many trips to release the babies that wandered into the humane traps we put out.  Following nightly path disinfecting and excess bird food removal, we are currently rat-free!

One of the many baby rats!

 

This is Shrewie!  Isn't he lovely?! Action camera caught him popping out for a rare daylight forage!  He appears from the same hole that the mice use.  I suppose there must be a lot of connecting tunnels within the wall.  Fascinating!

This guy was on the inside of the kitchen window recently.  Kindly agreed to a photoshoot before gracefully flying off in no particular hurry!

Found this pretty lady struggling away in the birds' water dish.  I scooped her out and let her dry her wings off a bit before placing her in the petunia flower basket.

  

Was surprised to spot this majestic visitor to my little old garden a couple of months ago.  Wasn't really impressed with what he was having for lunch, it took me ages to clear up all the feathers he had plucked, but that's nature I suppose. 😟

One of my favourite afternoons ever!  Dan and his girlfriend found this tiny cutie on our front path.  He didn't seem able to fly and one eye was closed.  (From cctv footage, we later discovered he had flown into one of our windows.)  He let me scoop him up and I popped him into one of Suzie's hamster cages that we had stored away.  I sat with him all afternoon, talking to him and offering him water.  He sat on my hands and then cuddled up on my shoulder!  Couldn't believe that he was letting me so near.  Wonderful experience.  Slowly but surely he regained his flying confidence, and was flying around the room.  I waited just long enough for Hubby and Suzie to get home so that they could meet him, but then we had to let him go.  I took him to one of the bird feeders, so that maybe he would find his way back to us.  And off he flew. And there were tears!  I loved him straight away and hope he will visit again one day!   

Here he is feeling a bit better.  Isn't he so gorgeous?