Gardening bore
Monday, May 9th, 2011 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caddymanMonday again. Weekends, even long weekends just speed by. It’s not right and it’s not fair.1 Still, we managed to get quite a lot done, including getting the landline fixed and the conservatory patio door sorted. More time and money was sunk into the garden, which is coming on a treat.
We now have to take a look at the patch out front, which is only about a yard deep and two yards long. It’s been rather neglected and it is quite likely that some of the plants, particularly the climbers have given up the ghost. We must sort out the irrigation out there now we have it working out back. We also have some new plants and big pots to put them in. I guess that’s a job for next Sunday (we are out and about on Saturday). It’s a busy life being a home-owner.
That said, the irises in the back have started coming through after a slow start. Here’s a couple of pictures I grabbed on my iPhone, including a white and yellow iris, the concept for which hadn’t occurred to me (although looking on Google, I see they are fairly common). Although I have tried dickering with the colour on the other photo, the petals remain essentially blue, which is nice enough, but fails to reflect the true purply glory of the real things.
Somewhere nearby we have a nesting pair (or maybe two nesting pairs) of either great or blue tits. I have very little idea concerning these things, I just like to see the birdies in the garden, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ellefurtle is stuck at about 66% certainty. Enough to be a resounding poll decision, but not enough to unequivocally confirm that they are great tits.2. We did have a robin and some chaffinches, but they seem to have gone to pastures anew. In the meantime those we have are powering through the fat balls we put out for them. There’re some hungry chicks out there somewhere.
On Saturday the engineer from Virgin Media turned up and fixed our land line. We were going to complain to Virgin about shoddy installation values (despite being very happy at the time) since we have been in the house less than a year and already it had gone wrong. It turns out, however, that the main junction box is at the front of the house and that the extension that we were (and are) using was jerry rigged by some worthy called ‘Gav’, so the wonder is not that it broke, but that it ever worked. Probably best we don’t mention it to Virgin Media after all.
On finding out that it would cost about £90 to get an extension installed in the study, we declines and I nipped out to Argos and bought a nifty triple handset chordless affair by Motorola. We now have the Batphone at the front of the living room, a chordless phone at the back and two more upstairs, one in then study and one in the bedroom: £45 and could have been cheaper except that I preferred to spend a little more and get something that looks reasonably nice.
1It’s Mohammed Ali’s left leg! *boom-tish* I thenkyew...
2I shall come around and thump you on the arm if you don’t stop... er... tittering...
We now have to take a look at the patch out front, which is only about a yard deep and two yards long. It’s been rather neglected and it is quite likely that some of the plants, particularly the climbers have given up the ghost. We must sort out the irrigation out there now we have it working out back. We also have some new plants and big pots to put them in. I guess that’s a job for next Sunday (we are out and about on Saturday). It’s a busy life being a home-owner.
That said, the irises in the back have started coming through after a slow start. Here’s a couple of pictures I grabbed on my iPhone, including a white and yellow iris, the concept for which hadn’t occurred to me (although looking on Google, I see they are fairly common). Although I have tried dickering with the colour on the other photo, the petals remain essentially blue, which is nice enough, but fails to reflect the true purply glory of the real things.
Somewhere nearby we have a nesting pair (or maybe two nesting pairs) of either great or blue tits. I have very little idea concerning these things, I just like to see the birdies in the garden, and
ellefurtle is stuck at about 66% certainty. Enough to be a resounding poll decision, but not enough to unequivocally confirm that they are great tits.2. We did have a robin and some chaffinches, but they seem to have gone to pastures anew. In the meantime those we have are powering through the fat balls we put out for them. There’re some hungry chicks out there somewhere.On Saturday the engineer from Virgin Media turned up and fixed our land line. We were going to complain to Virgin about shoddy installation values (despite being very happy at the time) since we have been in the house less than a year and already it had gone wrong. It turns out, however, that the main junction box is at the front of the house and that the extension that we were (and are) using was jerry rigged by some worthy called ‘Gav’, so the wonder is not that it broke, but that it ever worked. Probably best we don’t mention it to Virgin Media after all.
On finding out that it would cost about £90 to get an extension installed in the study, we declines and I nipped out to Argos and bought a nifty triple handset chordless affair by Motorola. We now have the Batphone at the front of the living room, a chordless phone at the back and two more upstairs, one in then study and one in the bedroom: £45 and could have been cheaper except that I preferred to spend a little more and get something that looks reasonably nice.
1It’s Mohammed Ali’s left leg! *boom-tish* I thenkyew...
2I shall come around and thump you on the arm if you don’t stop... er... tittering...
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 11:28 am (UTC)Lovely iriseseseses.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 11:31 am (UTC)Re your problematic tits; if they are robin-sized and mostly grey/green on the back, with a wide and continuous stripe down the breast they are great.
If they are considerably smaller and much brighter blue, with a thin and not continuous stripe down the breast, they are blue.
Simples! The stripe on the chest is the thing to look for, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 07:37 pm (UTC)That said, there are blue tits too :)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 01:24 pm (UTC)I'll wade in with the following clicky-linky offerings which should solve your problem once and for all courtesy of the RSPB:
Great Tits
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greattit/index.aspx
Blue Tits
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/bluetit/index.aspx
If your garden visitors sing while relaxing in the Jardin de Gin Palace you can quickly identify a great Tit by its very distinctive trill call "Teacher-teacher-teacher"
The Wrenmiester.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 01:47 pm (UTC)As to the tweet, the greedy little buggers are too busy filling their beaks with fat ball to make any noise other than snarf.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 07:38 pm (UTC)I just like having birdies in the garden, me.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 07:38 pm (UTC)Do far we've had: great tits, blue tits, chaffinches, robins, jays, pigeons and blackbirds. Not a huge amount but nice.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 07:40 pm (UTC)(hehe)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 08:01 pm (UTC)