Sunny Sunday.

I created my herb bath. There is mint in a pot at the back. You have to keep it in a pot otherwise its roots would fill the container. On the mint's right are three very tiny borage plants, if they survive they will grow very tall. I have put in all three in the hope one will survive. On the left of the mint is another tall one, lovage. At the front of that is coriander, front of that thyme, in flower, carrying on round is sage and rosemary and tarragon.


I will take another photograph in a few weeks time to show how they grow - or have expired.

Lots of visitors to our bird feeding station today.

A pair of siskins, they live in pine trees and there are plenty of them around. We only had them at our previous house in the depth of winter, so this is a nice addition to our bird feeding records. We do a weekly garden bird count for the British Trust for Ornithology. This picture is of a male, often mistaken for greenfinches, but seen close up no mistaking. He looks a bit fluffy/untidy so hopefully has reared a brood of future siskin visitors.

This is not our house, the photograph was taken by Mike on his early morning walk, a House Martin. It was nest building, which is a bit late, but may be repairing the nest.

Back to our house and two collared doves on the fence right outside the kitchen window. The one without a collar is a young one.

And finally, a blue tit feeds its baby on our boundary fence.

You may remember the warnings given by the RSPB et al regarding putting out whole peanuts and baby tits choking to death on them. Fact is this has only ever been recorded as possibly happening once. If you watch tits feeding on peanuts they take whatever they have extracted from the bird feeder and bash it to bits on a tree branch. They then eat it. Once they have refuelled they return to seeking out grubs for their babies.

I spent the morning emptying all the kitchen cupboards and drawers. You must know how it is when you move house, you just fill up the cupboards and drawers and then realise nothing works. The cups are miles away from the kettle, the flours are in one cupboard and all the other baking stuff all over the place. So a bit of reorganising.

We downsized to come here. But still I find we did not get rid of stuff we are never, ever going to use again. Perhaps high days and holidays..... We have enough pans to cook for an army. So they got weeded drastically. Toast racks? When are we ever going to use a toast rack. Its out the toaster and onto the plate. Salt and Pepper grinders times 2. Two people do not need any more than one of each. I now see I have two empty shelves in cupboards in the kitchen. I then remembered the dining room cupboards had got tinned food in there. So transferred and a big sigh of satisfaction.

Hopefully, we now have a fully functioning kitchen, with everything to hand.

Then -

I remembered we have seven people coming for the weekend. Daughters, partners and a grandchild.

Panic. I will not send to charity shop/freecycle until I see how things pan (no pun intended) out.