Thanks Bazza

Hi all

Well today I managed to prune away all the rampant growth from the climber on my no 1 bird table. It was covering over all the feeders that I had put on it. So I have now put away no 2 bird table till no 1 gets covered up again. Filled everything up with seeds, nuts and fat balls and it only took the birds ten minutes to discover the switch had been made. No such thing as being bird brained, they are pretty darn smart if you ask me. Anyway I now have a mate in the shape of a blackbird who must have noticed me chasing away the starlings, cause now he does the job for me. So its no more running outside shouting "geroutofit", cause he appears from nowhere as soon as a starling lands and chases it or them away. I of course would like to take the credit of training him up but alas I can not. I put out some meal worms for him as a tip. Aint nature wonderful.

Bazza 

SueA

Hi

What a great pic !!.                                                                                                                    You look a real cutie lol                                                                                                         Bet you haven't changed a bit have you

Bazza 

Hi Sue 

This is a lovely picture and shows something quite rare - a child being a child!!  Not a mobile/computer/Ipod in sight.  No make up/high heeled sandals/vest top/dangly earings etc.  It is a picture to treasure.  Bet you grew up knowing what flowers were, where milk, eggs and veg came from and so on.  I think it is very sad that a lot of children today have no idea and rarely get to taste fresh produce.  Because of my job I come into contact with a lot of young mums and children and am staggered by the number of them who eat frozen, ready prepared meals and veg and then think that they are eating fresh food.  Most of them can't afford to do it (I certainly could not, even if I wanted to) but can't get their heads round the idea that buying and preparing your own food is much cheaper, tastes much nicer and has the added bonus of teaching their children something worthwhile.  I mean, what is better- a fat unhealthy child and a plasma screen TV or a child that is fit and active and runs about outside like a child should?  No contest as far as I can see!  When I was little I could identify all the birds and also knew what their eggs and nests looked like.  I could also identify most of the wild flowers and some of the garden flowers.  A little while ago someone asked me how my garden was doing.  I said I had loads of flowers and it was a pity that they surrounded by weeds but at least I had massess of snowdrops out (32 clumps by my last count!)  Back came the answer "what is a snowdrop?"  Says it all really.  Your photo is lovely - you need to treasure it! 

Judith 

Bazza, I've grown a couple of feet taller since then!

Judith, It's true that we did grow up in a different world then (the pic. was taken around 1963 or 3 I think) & made our own entertainment spending a lot of time in the fresh air unlike a lot of children today. Although we lived in a town with some heavy industry we also had a lot of farmland surrounding us & next to our garden was a plot with chickens in & at the back was a field where one of my friends kept her pet sheep! We had an apple tree which mum used to bake apple pies from & I used to feed the ducks & a 'pet' blackbird. Starting to sound like a miserable old devil now - 'when I was young things were different', but unfortunately it is true & it's a shame so many children don't recognise birds, flowers or even fruit & vegetables now.

Hi Sue

 Your childhood sounds lovely, although I expect that like all of us when we were little there were grumbles.  I can remember wailing "it's not fair" on loads of occasions because I was not allowed to do something because I was too young but in hindsight (wonderful thing), I was too young.

I think I am starting to turn into a "grumpy old woman" but it grieves me to know that children are forced to grow up so fast.  Things were different and I am not sure when the rot set in but we all seem to have different values now.  Its a shame because there is so much right with the world and so much to appreciate that is missed.  My father always used to say that there was not much wrong with anyone who could take the time to admire a lovely sunset and be grateful for it but how many of us do that now or teach our children to do it?  We all seem to be too busy and I suppose it is easier to let children grow up fast because then they are not so much work.  I would prefer to put the work in but then who is to say that I am right?  In Victorian times children were sent up chimneys and down mines, so perhaps what goes around does come around.  Lets hope that the pendulum swings the other way soon and that we all learn to appreciate what we have and teach our children to do the same. 

What do the rest of us think?  Show children birds and flowers and expect them to learn to make their own entertainment or have the latest computer game/plasma TV etc and keep them indoors where they are "safe"?

Judith  

Hi,

Well my kids will probably end up spending time infront of the TV and games but that's because we do it ourselves. It's up to how involved you also get them with other things, I think when I'll have kids I will try to get them involved with other things from early life so it would be a part of their life - like painting, gardening, outdoor groups etc'.

Hi all

Sign of the times. Kids are doing schoolwork on computers at a very early age and that is the norm now. They can be in another part of the world via the internet with just a click, They can e mail a friend or relative in two seconds and get an almost instant reply. Is that a good thing or not?? Down side of course is that if they are using a computer to say write a letter or essay, they can correct any spelling mistakes through spellcheck. They do hardly any writing with pen and paper. So if the computer breaks down they are unable to write an essay because there is nothing to correct the spelling mistakes. They use things like C.A.D to do design work and so they are unable to read or use a common ruler

There was a prog on the tele the other night where a teacher was asking the children what different veg was. None of them new a sprout from a carrot, very sad. Some children think that milk is made in a factory and not from a cow. A correct balance needs to be found somehow in teaching. When I went back to college as a mature student I was amazed by how much a computer is relied on, not only by students but by tutors as well. Assignments were not allowed to be written by hand they had to be done on the computer. Some mature students of fifty plus not only had to do the work but had to master the computer as well with no credit being awarded for the effort.

When I was small I used to go for long walks down country lanes and run around in nearby fields. You cant do that these days, and all the fields have houses on them. As I said sign of the times. Its nice to have memories from a happy childhood but its a bit like your parents saying we used to survive on £2 a week, or our holiday was a sharabang to the seaside for the day. Things change not always for the best, but things change.

Bazza 

Inbal Bland

Hi 

Tip 105 a good way to get your hubby or future children to eat veg they may not like or just to get veg inside them, is to liquidise them and mix it in to the dish you are making. That way no one veg is overpowering.

Bazza 

Back to wild birds subjects -

Are Squirrels considered vermin (grey ones I mean)? Hubby seems to think so and he says even Bill Oddie said to shoot them as they threaten other species. Certainly the ones in my garden scare the smaller birds away and there are 3 of them now here every day.

Inbal Bland

Hi

Yes they are considered as vermin. There was talk of them being culled to reduce the population, but I dont know if that is happening. If they get in to your house you can call the council to remove them by trapping them. You could try and trap them yourself but if you catch any you must kill them you are not allowed to release them somewhere else.

Bazza 

Interesting, all caused by human stupidity as usuall.

Inbal Bland

Hi

You could make a nice fur coat out of them, or as there is only three a nice fur hat. You could start a fashion trend then everyone will start killing them. Personally I think they are quite cute, thats the red ones not the greys. I dont mind them coming in the garden but they always want to dig things up or pinch the bird food. One comes now and again so no big probs for me

bazza 

There was a bit in the Times the other week about grey squirrels & apparently the law has changed & you don't have to kill them if you capture them now. You do however have to apply for a licence to release them elsewhere but at least it gives people an alternative if they don't want the squirrel in their garden but don't want it to be killed. I love all squirrels whether they're red or grey & don't think we can do anything about the greys, they're here to stay & have a massive widespread population. The only case I can see for any form of culling is if they are found to be carrying the disease which threatens red squirrrels & are endangering a  nearby  established red colony.

Here's a link to the article.

Grey Squirrel article.

SueA

That's interesting. I agree with you - I like all kinds of squirrel. I had the unfortunate experience of finding a group of baby grey squirrels that had fallen out of a tree and were lying bleeding and trying to crawl on the pavement below. I covered them with my fleecy top and went to phone the RSPCA. Unfortunately they got there too late and the squirrels died, while someone had copped off with my topl

The grey squirrel has seen off the red and now the harlequin ladybird is seeing off our native ladybirds, and escaped paraqueets, like I have in my garden, will probably see off some of the native birds. Survival of the fittest. It's evolution and how we adapt to environmental and changing circumstances - which is why we're at the top of the food chain and not a bunch of primates.

Nice thread by the way.

That's a shame about the baby squirrels Sarah (& your top!). I bet the RSPCA would probably have had to put them to sleep anyway but it must have been upsetting.

We have the occasional grey squirrel in our garden & I find nuts in shell lying around in the garden or pushed into pots but I don't have a problem with them digging up bulbs or anything. I put peanuts out for the birds in a mesh metal feeder & the squirrels leave that alone, I used to hang up the net feeders of nuts (which aren't a good idea anyway as birds can get their feet caught in the mesh) & the squirrels used to just bite through the net to empty out the nuts & then spend the rest of the day burying them everywhere, fun to watch but not the intended purpose!

We visit the red squirrel colony at  Formby quite often & they really are beautiful. Here's a couple of pics. I took there last autumn.

Great pics Sue!

Yes, I had a bit of a 'Silence of the Lambs' moment with the grey squirrels (i.e. couldn't save them). We've seen the red squirrels at Brownsea Island off Poole Harbour. Well worth a visit if anyone is in that neck of the woods. I didn't know there was a colony in Formby.

How could anyone beat something to death is beyond me, it's one thing killing an animal  and another to hammer it to death! (I'm referring to the end of the article posted by SueA). I'd probably give them some sleeping tablets or something in water