Hello everyone, I know I've been missing for some time but with nan dying at the beginning of the year I have been out of sorts with my ME this year, Its the worst summer for a long time and I am really struggling with it. I have always tried not to sleep during the day as i dont sleep well at night but I have had too have a nap or two during the day. My niece got married yesterday and with our 25th party last weekend i am feeling very tired. I am going to try to be a more active member again.

Hello Maxine, I am sorry to hear you have been ill. The last few weeks have been quite humid. Perhaps you will feel a bit better when the weather changes, best wishes, Marie

Hi Maxine x

Hope you and family are well. I've been the same as you and a little remiss, but I don't have your reasons and so have no excuse. I will also have to be a better member again and have a couple of poems to post when time allows...will chat again soon I hope.

Love to you and yours.

Daz xxx

Hi everyone,

Maxine, yes I'm sure things will begin to get better for you. Close family bereavement takes its toll on the most well of people, so you are doing very well now I think. I see you've put your Silver Wedding photo up as your new Avatar. It looks good.

Anyway Daz, its good to see you back in chit chat too, I know you are always busy busy busy - especially with two active young children like your 2 sons (my lovely Smith cousins once removed!! )

Maxine and Daz, you might have noticed that at the moment I've got the "Literature, Music and History" Board on "read-only". This is because of some changes I've been working on. But will be reopening it for posting soon, so will look forward to your new poems Daz. I have some new History stuff ready to post there too. So must get to that asap.

Marie, hope you're making progress with your Ann Smith research and Don, I'm so glad you are safe and sound after the storms in your part of the world.

Carole

This year my ME has been very bad and i made the decision to stop having the hens, so a few weeks ago I sent the to a friend that has a farm where they will be cared for. We do have some new family members though, We got a rabbit and three weeks she had a litter of kids much to my annoyance. All i can say the shop owner got the sharp end of my tongue and 5 kits back once they where old enough. Lee had an illness through the ferrets over the winter and he lost a few and back holiday weekend he brought home three kits a hob and a gill. Joanne came home last November and brought her two cats with her but in the next few weeks Joanne and the cats are moving back out.

Daz wheres the home improvements up to? Over the winter we have made 2 rooms from the kitchen so i now have a dinning room as well as a new kitchen and redecorated the conservatory. The bathroom is for another make over this next winter.

Where has our summer gone? Marie the hotter it is the better i feel so we could do with a nice Indian summer.

Don glad to see that you kept safe with the weather you had.

Love
Maxine

We have one tame rabbit and one wild one who comes every morning for the currants and birdseed. He likes bread too. We have never had a wild rabbit visiting the birdtable before. The badgers come every night for the leftovers and the ducks from the nearby millpond in the day for peanuts. We get twenty ducks at once and they won't get out of the way of the car. They don't see it as a danger but we haven't run any over yet. My husband buys lots of bird food, but we enjoy watching their antics. bye Marie

Marie do you buy your bird food wholesale? I do the sacks for wild bird seed are much cheaper. We have 2 locally.

Hiya Marie & Maxine and everyone,

It's a pity you've had to give away your chickens, Maxine, but still it sounds as though you still have plenty of other animals to look after. Have you still got the ducklings that hatched from the abandoned eggs you put under your hen the other year? Marie, I like watching the antics of the little birds too!! hahaha what are we like! I can't have a bird table and such like in my own garden because of my cats, but my dad has bird tables and hanging things with nuts and seeds, etc for the birds around his garden, and it is fascinating to watch them. My dad knows every bird and what time of day it comes to be fed, at whatever time of year it is. There's one blackbird that goes to his garden at the same time every day waiting for my dad to put out the new supplies!!

I live in a park, & it seems unusual, but never seen any wild rabbits here - possibly because most of my neighbours have cats too! But we have loads of squirrels. I've been trying to get a photo on my mobile of a squirrel!! but every time I sneak up on them and start to click - they've jumped out of range or disappeared behind a branch, or way up a tree by the time of finished clicking!! But will keep trying!

My grandson Nathan, age 4, started Primary School 2 weeks ago. I pick him up from school a couple of days a week. Here's a pic of a gaggle of 9 geese we "encounter" on the route we walk home after school. Nathan's given them all names now - oh it looks as though I only caught 7 and a half of the geese on this pic...... oh but heck! they are noisy!!

I like the picture of the geese, Carole. The farmer keeps four white geese in a field next to us and a Canada goose which broke its wing. They feed it in the winter and its mate comes back every spring and flies away with the babies in the autumn. Sorry I didn't reply to your question about the birdseed, Maxine. Our local shops include a pet food man who has been there for years. When the petrol station closed down, a pet food wholesaler bought it and Jim was really worried he's lose all his customers but he's still there, so we're supporting Jim and the birds. The petrol station used to be the local workhouse for Congleton before it was the petrol station. A little bit of history just down the road. Marie