Category Archives: European robins

Jun20

June in Bloom

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Plants got the vote: thank you, Grannymar! What shall I start with, hmmm…

How about my two Duggar species. So named by me as they multiply like crazy – the violas: And the Sweet William: That’s a five-foot long shipping pallet, chock full of William. Only just starting to bloom, it will be lovely soon.

I forgot what these are (again). Not as many of them this year, wonder why?

  Clematis clematis clematis!

 
  Our robin in the grey willow that the clematis is climbing up. He kept me company for hours as I was moving dirt and finding him all types of tasty bug-snacks.  
 Planted this last year from seed, and over-wintered it indoors. Now what is it again… oh great, the tag I made has totally faded! Augh! Just spent about 10 minutes looking through last year’s posts, can’t find it. 

Mutant zinnia. The four flower buds are coming out of the previous bloom’s base, instead of on their own stems. Freaky. The lavender is happy this year.

 The tiny iris are happy, too!  My native yellow iris (dug out of a bog) opened the first bloom yesterday.  Also native – Irish common spotted orchid. I just love the spotty leaves! They moved in, I didn’t plant them – these are growing in my garlic planter. 

More common spotted orchid – this is the first to begin blooming and popped up in the raspberry patch. Simply gorgeous. They are more than welcome to live in my garden!

 

Awkward narrow strip next to the driveway – I pulled all the grass out and this ugly mess is what is left. Put in some nasturtium and nicotania. The ivy moved in on its own – bet my neighbour hates it – and the sweet pea is going gangbusters. Trying to get it to go over the front wall instead of falling into the driveway this year. Wish me luck! 

 

The new ALDI bulbs are coming up! 

  My front door – white-trash alert! Taken to give the size scale of the black lilies and stargazer lilies, which are well established compared to the new guys. Guess what is in the pot to the far right? TIGRIDIA!!!!

 Finally, a rose bud. Lots of buds but none open yet. 

Apr17

Forgot to Title… Meh.

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I’m currently fighting for space in front of the fire with the two boys. I can’t get a picture as it is too dark, but Lokii is jammed between my thighs and Spot is making sure that I cannot stretch my legs.

Oh wait, iDJ just came in and I got him to take a pic of us. This is live-blogging, folks!

 

He Himself has recently brought to the house his old electric guitar, and bought a small amplifier. He was just playing, and I tried to get a pic but he stopped too soon. He is going to figure out how to hook up a microphone to the amp so I can sing while he plays. This is something I’ve wanted us to do together for a very long time!

 

An earlier, ‘action shot’ of Lokii when he was doing his stretching exercises. Along with my feet still in winter indoor booties and the dog bed (brown thing with green fluff) that Lokii is entirely responsible for chewing up. Little shithead.

I think our robins have abandoned the hose-reel nest. They weren’t expecting us to be outside so much, or throwing smoke in their faces every weekend when we grill. iDJ just loves to grill.

 

Not taken tonight: this was last weekend. But since I have shared kitty pics, I must include a doggie pic of Neko looking so sad that she can’t have BBQ. Tonight we are having sausages, drumsticks, and my homemade hamburgers. Maybe an ear of corn for me, if I get up away from the lovely fire and open the oh-so-difficult package of Spanish corn for him. *snark*

Back to the birds – we bought them dried mealworms. Because, supposedly, robins love them. I opened the package and they smelled really good. So I ate one. On purpose, and all. It actually wasn’t bad – like popcorn without butter and salt. Nicely crunchy, a slight taste of fat. So maybe they just need warming, and salt.

It didn’t bother me to eat one, as mealworms don’t have legs or a distinctive head. Does that even make sense? Maybe I’ve just been reading too much about alternatives to protein in our diets and wanted to give it a go. Seriously, it wasn’t disgusting at all. 

Mar22

Raising Robins

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So, last post I mentioned our robin. He does flit between a couple of houses in the estate, so this is his territory now and has been since last autumn.

I postulated on if he had a girlfriend, because there was another robin hanging about. I thought he might be gay because this other robin looked the same, just a bit more shy and hungrier. Google to the rescue!

The male and female look the same, which was a surprise to me. She will likely sing less, or not at all, or not as loudly.

I’m still having trouble deciding who is whom. In any case, they both are around all the time.

Thursday, I noticed that there were a lot of dead strawberry leaves in the grass right next to the patio. I picked them up, thinking that I must have not gathered them all up when I cleared out the strawberry patch the weekend before. Friday, there were more leaves. I was baffled as it hadn’t been windy, and why were they all piled up in one place? I picked them up again and into the compost bin they went.

Yesterday morning, early, there were yet more leaves. Then I remembered that there are starlings above the roll-up door at work, and they leave a huge mess of sticks and whatnot on the asphalt. So l looked up from where I was picking leaves and was literally face-to-face with our Hoselock hose reel.



Well, shit. 

Well, that’s unexpected!

Well, we have a problem.

I cannot roust them. Just can’t. We will continue our normal activities, and according to Google, we should get our hose back in about 6 weeks after eggs are laid. Then I’m turfing them out and taking apart the reel to clean it – we got a 40-meter reel for a reason!

Unless they got freaked out by me finding the nest and pick a new one, which can happen. But seriously, this faces our sliding doors so cats are staring that them all the time, and the dog is in and out quite a lot… they had a bad realtor or estate agent!