Poor Birds

We've had a lot of wind recently, and this is what happened to the bird-table.

It lay like that for two days until we were able to pick it up this morning. I tried to take a photograph of the various birds perching on the upraised feet, and collecting around the fallen fat-ball feeder.
But the windows were covered with the salty and muddy marks left by the hailstones. - and for some reason (!) the birds didn't stay around when I opened the door.

They obviously appreciated having their restaurant restored to them though. Shortly after everything was re-instated I saw not one but two robins doing synchronised pecking under the roof. If two robins are that close together, without trying to kill eachother, they must be a pair. Wonderful!

Spring must be arriving.

ABC Wednesday - B

For the Wednesday ABC today's letter is B. I had a hard job deciding what to post (I have so many B's in my life) but I finally decided to go with the local option.

When we lived on our island we took our small Boat to the local harbour for the weekly shop.
We used this harbour - a fishing village called Burtonport - for all our necessities. All our belongings were loaded aboard our Boat (locally known as a punt) and ferried over to the island. Here's a photo of hubby on the pier with my tricycle, and number of fishing Boats in the background.

And here he is fitting my tricycle into our punt.

The largest island was and is served by a ferryboat. Here's her stern, or back, carrying a baby boat (lifeboat)

And a close-up of the lifeboat.

Well, that's my B for today. I hope you enjoy the pictures. If you'd like to join the fun, visit mrsnesbit who came up with the idea. Happy Wednesday!

Slaves

No, this isn't a human-rights post - under these circumstances humans appear to have few rights. I'm talking of humans' existence to care for, and pander to the needs of, various creatures sometimes known as pets.

Last week I posted pictures of my owners trying to take over my blogging. I had several comments from people who suffer in the same way.

Heather, Ter, and Welshcakes Limoncello have been befriended by dogs.
Now dogs like company, and they love it if you come down to their level (lie or sit on the floor, play with them.) They love to join in.
Badger will be 14 in May, and mostly behaves like an elderly dog in need of plenty of rest. I say "mostly" because there are two occasions when she still behaves like a puppy. First, when I brush and comb her in the mornings, because she knows I'll be taking her out for a (whisper this!) walk. The second occasion is if she finds me doing some exercises - on my mat on the floor. Wow! And yippee! Fun on the floor! PLAY! End of exercise session.

Cats are different. Cats like to take over. VP, Barbara, Max-e, Damama-t, and Teena have been taken over by cats (although Damama's are at one remove, and Teena also has a dog) And, of course, Daisy is a cat!
Daisy is very good at all sorts of things.
Cats do not like to be ignored. Cats do like being warm and comfortable. When their slaves sit in front of those computers they ignore cats - so cats sit in front of them to be noticed. Laps are warm and usually soft - and available under the afore-mentioned circumstances. Need I say more?

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of Rinli, playing my game of Sudoku for me. I can't illustrate the time he deleted my e-mails for me - I was too busy to take a photo!

But we love them really, don't we?

Surprise!

I've had a delightful surprise.

Yesterday I posted that my old-fashioned sewing machine was around 80 years old.

Today Katney came visiting and told me I could find the date of manufacture on the Web. So I looked.

I found that my machine was manufactured in 1903. It will be 105 years old this year. What's more, it was made in Elizabeth, New Jersey!
My mum was born in 1906, three years after the machine was made, and she never left Britain. She might have bought this second-hand, or possibly she inherited it from her mother. But it's American made. Wow!

Thank you Katney!

Saturday PhotoHunt - Old Fashioned

This week's Saturday PhotoHunt theme is "Old Fashioned". I suppose I could have posted a self-portrait, but why should I make you all suffer like that? So I decided to show you my old hand-operated Singer sewing machine.

This is something in the nature of an heirloom, as it belonged to my mother. Many years ago now I had it overhauled and put in the new case it now wears. It used to live in a dark wood base with a curved wooden cover, but this had split over the years and needed replacing. The man who did the work was very interested in my machine. He said the model number indicated that it was an imported model. I'd love to know more!

This is the mechanism for winding the old-fashioned long bobbins.

And these are three spare bobbins, together with spare needles in two sizes. The needles are kept in the elongated acorn-shaped wooden container.

This is the only sewing machine I have used since our move in 1990. It's probably 80 or more years old now, and it still works well.

If you want to join the fun, click here. Happy Hunting!

ABC Wednesday - A

Yesterday I discovered Mrs Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday. I was taken with the idea so I'm joining in. The alphabet came to an end last week and is starting back at A today. I've not had much time to think about this, so my entry is a bit hurried.

I tend to drink quite a lot of water. Also, I've always disliked the taste of chlorine and metal piping that to me make up most of the taste of tap-water. Over the years I've spent a small fortune on various bottled waters, all, believe it or not, with their different flavours.

For twelve years we lived on an island off the coast of north-west Ireland. Our drinking-water came direct from the sky, ran down our roof, along the gutters and down the pipes into two storage tanks. The eastern tank was especially cool and good, and the water was superb. Though it tasted quite different after a thunder storm!

Moving to the mainland and back to piped water brought a return to expensive bottles of "spring" water. We bought a filter jug and stored filtered water in the fridge.

Not long ago my dear husband bought a very special item for me. I proudly present my entry for letter A - my AQUA FOUNTAIN!

This lovely item filters the nasty taste out of tap-water and chills it as well. That bright blue light shines when the water temperature is 4 or 5 degrees Celsius. Lovely cool, fresh water on tap whenever I want it.

Cats!

So there I was this morning, sorting out some comments on my previous post, when this happened!





That's Rinli with the string on my desk, and Tris on my lap. It's so hard to blog under these conditions! Shortly after Aileni took these photos, Rinli decided to play with Tris. Tris objected, and they left. Now I can blog again!

Monday Musings

A bit of fun to start the week. I've shown you Badger trying to fit in Tris' basket on an earlier occasion, here. Now here's poor Badger squashed into a corner of her own bed so that Tris isn't disturbed. Isn't she a considerate dog?

Fortunately they are good friends. Tris likes to come walking with us to keep us company.Tris even likes to sniff the wheels of parked cars when we pass them. I wish I had a photo of them both sniffing - the dog with her head down and the cat stretching up. The neighbours laugh!
Sometimes you find treasures when you're out walking. Like this yummy slice of dry white bread. We had to stop for Badger to eat this. If I offered it to her at home she'd have been disgusted. I suppose things taste different in the open air!


Poor Badger finds all this walking and eating makes her thirsty. Maybe the bread was a leetle bit dry after all. This is actually her favourite puddle. She loves to stop and drink here. Tastes much nicer than the clean water I give her at home!

Stephen's New Blog

I'm delighted to report that Stephen has reconsidered his previous decision and started a new blog.
I know, he could have reactivated the old one, but he wanted a fresh start. He's done some work on it today, which is great.
I hope he carries on with his reading, but this blog gives him an outlet for his photographs and for his feelings and will surely do him a great deal of good.

Saturday PhotoHunt - Important

Sorry this post is so late. I forgot all about it last night, and I've been busy this morning. Still, better late than never as they say, so here it is.

This weeks theme for the PhotoHunt is Important. The most important thing in the world to me is my family. These photos were taken back in 1995, and I have to admit that they were not taken by me.

This first one was taken by Tony Weaver for an article published in the "Sunday Express" on 9th July 1995. The article, written by Amanda Doherty, was a look at the way residents lived without piped water, electricity, or a ferry. This particular photo was never actually published.


Amanda was fascinated by the way we lived, and she came back to write about us for "Best" magazine. The above photo was taken by Trevor McBride to accompany that article.
Now I just want to remind you all that I have two daughters and three sons - and leave you to guess which are which!

If you fancy joining the PhotoHunt fun, just click here, or on the blue PhotoHunters image at the top of this post. Happy hunting.