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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23.4.2026.

 Sorry it's been so long since my last post, will have to put it down to writers block!.

I had a nice Easter, but when you'r retired all days are a holiday so it's not much different for me, though I did have an invite out with the family on Good Friday to the Royal George in Mosely which was very nice, fish and chips for me!.

While there, we were talking about jigsaws, and I mentioned my puzzle table is mottled black, so hard to see dark pieces, Son John came up with a roll of Wood effect Fablon, which I fitted the next day!.

Matches the floor too.

That's a lot better isn't it!.

After a trip to The Windmill a couple of weeks ago with friend Jean, we carried on to Sainsburys to check out the new Costa Café that had opened there the previous week.

It was very nice there but a bit pricey, but it's nice to go when you've finished your shopping or trip to SpecSavers.

Been doing a bit of gardening in the front, my fuchsias are coming up well again this year, as is the Hydrangea I planted last year, so added a few bits in the corners to add a bit of colour. 

Had  visit over to the Debdale ressers last week to see if the Great Crested Grebes were mating, and I wasn't disappointed.

Nice sunny day with the school kids on the water.

There they were, her on the nest and him bringing her nesting material and little tit bits of food!.

I know one isn't supposed to disturb them whilst nesting, but I was quite a bit away from them with my Nikon P1000 with a big zoom on so I'm not that close really.

Only about six feet away was this Coot nest 

There is the father to be, he's going too be worn out by the time the babies are born and feeding themselves.

The male swan was about, but didn't see where his mate was that day.

Usual Squirrels about for the peanuts.

On a run back from the Bridge café the other day called at the Nottcuts garden centre and bought a couple more hydrangeas', a Red one, 

And just had to have one of these, believe its a new type of pink Hydrangea, with pink variegated leaves!, in a pot for now to see how big it gets!.  

On a shopping trip to Lydl last week bought these standard fusia, one in the front.

Another in the back

Bought some slide transfers from Amazon and put them on the front porch glass, I think they look alright and that's what counts isn't it!.

Next door, my mate Chris was having work done on his gable end, Facia boards and gutting, so I joined in and had mine done too, and what a fabulous job done by the Pakistani family that live opposite, can highly recommend them!.   You only have to see the beautiful job they have done on their own extension, to see the type of work they do!.

I think it's always nice to have the names of people that you can recommend to do a nice job at a fair price!.
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