CreamyGoodness

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Bearded Tits

As an excuse to take the MX5 out for a run for the first time in a while, I popped down to Weymouth this morning to see if I could spot some bearded tits. Only about 500 pairs in the country, and they normally hide deep in the reeds, and also been on my list of birds to see since a failed trip to Weymouth last January. But I got lucky today and nailed a few decent shots. Two shots on the right, and a third on the Birds 8 page.

I shall celebrate by drinking beer and eating bread sauce with chicken. Top quality gluten free lager now available in Waitrose.

07/03/10

New Years Resolutions

Possibly not resolutions as such, but my plans for 2010 centred mostly around eating and drinking better. So far it's going well. Have developed a huge taste for oysters, but the trips to Loch fyne restuarants are getting pricey, so I'm going to start mail ordering them direct. Have also started to eat raw beef. My beef carpaccio is very nice. Come the trout season, I plan to catch and eat more trout - some sushi style, some smoked. Same with mackerel.

On the wine front, our trip to New Zealand has persuaded me that we should spend more on wine, but drink less. So far so good. We now buy in bulk from Majestic, spending a minimum of £10 a bottle (which seems to be giving us consistenly high quality wine), but only drinking 3 bottles a week between us. So the wine rack is stacking up - photo on right.

As for 2010 photos. Lots of birds I still need to photograph, but I have been passed the contact details of a man in the woods who knows where to find them. I'm also going to get photos of more non-bird UK wildlife. Photo of a frog from this morning on the right. Weasels, Stoats and Grass Snakes are high on my list for spring and summer. My Not Birds photo collection is building nicely here.

28/02/10

New Excercise Plan

Haven't really been exercising properly since about September for various reasons. As a consequence, I've lost about a stone and a half - all in muscle. Luckily, I now have a TV signal in all the upstairs rooms which means I've installed a TV above the rower so that I can do 30 minutes of exercise and weights while watching the Simpsons every night. Photo on the right.

In making the shelf for the new TV, the MX5 got covered in MDF dust. Meaning it now neds washing despite having been sat in the garage, in imacculate condition, since November.

21/02/10

Update but no news or photos

Felt I should update the site after nothing for the last month. Main reason for total lack of any news or photos is the rubbish weather. No birds about and not much fun being outside anyway in the cold and wet. However, have spent a lot of time in the woods this weekend trying to get a photo of some crossbills that have been sighted. No luck yet. Only real news is that after almost 4 years living in our current house, I've finally figured out the weird mess of tangled wires and amplifiers that had been installed to get a TV signal into all the bedrooms. Not sure why this is a good thing, nor that I actually want a TV for the bedroom. But I guess at least the option's there should I ever give up on life to the point I'm too lazy to walk down some stairs in the morning.

14/02/10

Redwing

Very cold, very snowy. Minus 7 degrees at night at the moment. The chickens are too scared to come out of their run in the snow, so other birds are stealing their food. Very pretty redwing in the garden this morning. Photo on right.

09/01/10