Wednesday 18 February 2009

Spring has Sprung!

Just a quick post to celebrate the fact that at last Spring seems to be on it's way - it is much warmer outside this morning, and on wandering down to my shed, I noticed a little group of snowdrops - how did they manage to survive under all that snow?
The bird feeder that I had for Christmas has turned out to be a brilliant present. It is a constant stream of activity - birds are back and forwards all day. The fat balls have attracted birds I've never seen in the garden before - and a look in my ancient Observers' Book of Birds says they are long-tailed tits. They seem to fly around in gangs - I had four in the garden together at one time, two feeding and two waiting patiently for their turn. The robins also seem to be keen on the fat balls, whereas the Blue tits, Great tits and Coal tits seem to prefer the peanuts - I've been filling them up every two or three days (don't they know there's a credit crunch?)

As you can see from the picture, I seem to have temporarily thwarted the squirrels from nicking a complete fatball, having fashioned a kind of security system from wireform and wire. It makes it a right pain to refill though, and my Dad reckons that the squirrel will just round up his mates and they'll lift the entire caboodle out of the ground and carry it off.

I had an unexpected day out yesterday - Viv from Art Van Go rang to ask if I'd like to have a day at the Craft Hobby and Stitch Trade fair at the NEC. It meant getting up at the crack of dawn and getting to the studios for 6.30, to drive up to Birmingham with Kevin, but it was a great day. There's little or no opportunity to spend money, as its a trade show, so for once I managed to come back after a show without spending anything - and how often does THAT happen? AVG had a much smaller stand than they have at the retail fairs and it only took us about half an hour to get packed up, but they had a successful show. Here's Kevin chatting to Margaret Beal who was visiting for the day.

Ann and I tried to get into the Fashion trade show in a neighbouring hall, but they wouldn't let us in without the correct passes, and try as we might, we couldn't convince them that we were Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer. Can't imagine why - surely even THEY have their off days?

Got back home at about 8pm and watched the Culture show on BBC2 to see my friend Jane (check out her blog at http://www.janeslondon.com/ ) being interviewed by Mark Kermode http://www.flickr.com/photos/janepbr/3274155965/ - I have such famous friends!

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