9 June 2026.

 Can't believe it's been so long since my last post, I'll bet some of you thought I'd had the last post played for me, but I'm still alive but not doing much kicking though!.

Been over to the Debdale ressers to see how the Great Crested Grebes were doing with their babies, and they were all fine.

A bit to far away to get a good picture of the babies on her back though.

Coot babies were fine too.

Bath time for this Mallard.

Always a robin there to greet you.

This weeks visit to Costa at Sainsburys, had a nice Chicken & Bacon toastie and one of their fantastic Lattés 

Just love the decor at the new Café at Sainsburys.

Talking about food this week at Morrison's they had a new item on the menu.

I like their Chicken bites with Rice and chilli dip  but pass on the rabbit food (Salad).

My mate and his wife went away for the night to Blackpool last week and I got to have their beautiful girl Kimba, this is us watching telly!.

Out in the garden my bush had lots of flowers on last week and they were covered in White tailed bees, so that was nice to see, but the flowers only lasted a week, still hopefully they will be replaced with berries later for the birds in winter.  

Took an old Acer out, but it left a dark patch on my variegated privet I'd had off my mate Bob some years ago, but  think I've got it  under control now, soon be back to a nice cube!.

Bought this retractable hose reel and made a mess of installing it at first, my drills were so good I'd drilled the holes too deep!.

But good old Amazon to the rescue, ordered some longer Rawlplugs and they worked ok, Pheww!. 

The plants up the new trellis are pulling themselves up well.

That's a blue hydrangea with a Acer and you can just see a very small Monkey puzzle tree between them all seem to be doing well.

Will take the Monkey puzzle a lot of years to grow bigger, remember sister Babs had one in her garden in Nottingham that must have been 30feet high. 

Last week I fell off my electric bed, was going to get out to go to the loo, but fell out instead, first thought "there goes my hip or elbow" but luckily they were ok, but the switch that operates the bed came off the worse and snapped off. So ended up at 2 in the morning repairing that!

Gorilla Glue worked just fine!, took the tape off next morning and as good as new!.

  I caught the Blue moon last week, but you know its only called the blue moon because there are two full moons in the month. As it was further away from Earth at that time it looked smaller too.

Hopefully won't be so long next time.

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Monday 18.4.2026

 The last few days I've been on my own as my lady friend Jean has gone on a coach trip down to Devon to see her Daughter and grand-daughter which she hasn't see for a few years, so that's nice for her.

My other friend Peter is still suffering with the big C so not seen him for a while!.

Still life goes on and last Friday I went over to the Debdale ressers to see how the Great Created Grebes were doing 

At first just saw an empty nest!, but on looking round saw in the distance on the other side of the lake, the pair of Grebes and with my bino's saw they had some babies!. so it was off round the lake to get a bit nearer.

There you are, mum with at least two babies on her back!.

Dad was busy backwards and forwards with little fishes feeding the babies

This is one of my favorite shots from a few years ago, can see them being fed a bit better!. 

Sunday it was off to Costa Coffee at Sainsburys

Whilst there two couples of motorcyclists asked if they could sit next to me, I said delighted as I used to be a motorcyclist!. Seems they were going though from Grimsby to Wales, hopefully the weather stayed a bit better for them as it's been very wet here with some heavy downpours recently  

Saturday at The Bridge café, Brian the owner spent all morning changing the pictures round, all these on show are by a lady artist who is offering them for donations for a Kidney charity, so get down there and see if there is anything you fancy!.

Morrisons, today Monday my mate and I had the new menu shown and very nice too, with a choice of dip, we had the chilli.  

The new menu.

Finished this jigsaw this week that my grand-daughter had bought me for Christmas!. 

Very nice too.

Planted these fuchsia in the back garden but the heavy rain has battered the flowers off, hopefully they will grow again! 

The new gutters we had fitted a few weeks ago certainly got a good testing the last few days with the heavy rain, all is well with them!.
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May Bank holiday 2026,

 Been a good Bank holiday for me

 up to now, watch someone louse it up!.

 Following on from our rear guttering mentioned in the last post, my mate and I had our front guttering done and as you can see looking a lot better.

The gable end.

My friend Jean and I had a trip to the Bridge View Café, where there was a 90th birthday party this past week, Christopher the singer was there and everyone appreciated that.

Finished this jigsaw this week too.

Had a visit to the Debdale ressers to see how the Great Crested Grebes were getting on, and the lady is still sitting on her nest 

The Male was hunting far and wide to keep her well fed!.

This sign up to try to stop people feeding the birds.

Shame the birds can't read it, they have build their nest just within that area!

Was a nice sunny day.

The magpies and crows enjoying my peanuts!.

That's a good idea for the bins, as it keeps the crows and squirrels from emptying it looking for dinner.

Today Sunday, treated myself to a Costa Café.

I had a gift card so my Medium Coffee was free!.
Wiltshire Ham and cheese Toastie, very nice and had a game of Gin Rummy on my phone, nice and quiet no rowdy kids.

The last few days, my mate and his wife have been replacing their fencing, big job 11 panels, that's  22 sides to paint!!.

 All finished, I'll bet they'll sleep tonight.

They also told me about some clips from Amazon to stop the fences rattling, so I bought some too and I've put mine up and they are very good though the screws supplied are not very good!.

Had to adapt this end one, but they are easy enough to bend!

While working in the garden they noticed a large Wasp nest, and I mean Large it's as big as a football!.

 Off to Morrisons tomorrow for lunch, quite a few of my friends going, has I checked if they were open on Bank holiday Monday and they are!.

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