New Painting

Well it's been a whole week since my baby girl was PTS. It's gone so quickly, yet so slowly too. I miss her more than anything. The house is so quiet and the smallest thing can set me off crying for her. 

There was a chicken breast left over from last night's tea, and for a second I thought I'd chop it up for Ruby, then I remembered there will be no more left over food going to her. In fact this has happened all week. I miss her greeting us with her tail and bottom wagging from side to side when we come home. I miss her little face looking up at me from the bottom step, waiting for me to come downstairs. I miss lying on the sofa, with her basket next to me and me stroking her beautiful silky ears.

Yesterday, I had an appointment at the Audiology clinic, to have a new hearing aid because Ruby chewed my old one up. I began to explain what had happened and started crying. The girl was so lovely. She told me she had a Jack Russell that was 16 years old, and she'd had him since she was 15. She said she didn't know how she would be able to cope with losing him, but knew it couldn't be too far off given his age. It's lovely to have a dog but to lose one is the most painful thing. 

This morning, I took a full, unopened bag of dry food back to Pets at Home for a refund. If it had been a small bag I wouldn't have bothered, but it cost almost £40 and none of my family wanted it for their dogs so back it went. It was my favourite lady serving and she dealt with the refund with no quibble. She was utterly lovely and understanding when I started crying yet again.

This afternoon, we went to my Brother and Sister in Laws' house for coffee and scones and I was greeted by a very excited little Henry. He's a lovely little dog and his cuddles were just what I needed. Another lot of tears were shed talking about my Rooroo. It's all therapeutic to let it out. I will learn to live without her being here eventually, but at the moment it's so raw. 

Anyway, I've decided I'm going to get back into my painting again and did a little one today. I'm very proud of the Blue tit, which was from one of my own photos. I want to study every day, to learn enough to be able to paint any of my photos. I will get there! 

                                                    Reference photo for the Blue Tit 

Nino Time

Today I spent the morning in the loft sorting more boxes out. I'm such a hoarder! I have cards from the births of my 3 kids up to their teens. Clothes, shoes and all sorts of things that I kept for them over the past 40 odd years. I'm putting them in plastic containers for them and when I'm gone they can do what they want with them. I just can't bear to part with their things after keeping them for so long. 

I had a little tea break and sat in my rocking chair for a few minutes looking out at my garden (my happy place). While I was there a pair of Blue Tits and a pair of Great Tits came to the feeder. They've been coming for a while now, and every so often both pairs check out the nest boxes. Looking hopeful for this year's nesting season. I managed to get a bit of video of both pairs. There's also a beautiful pair of Blackbirds coming every day, and I caught the male eating bits of an apple that I threw out yesterday. 

Mario came round with Nino for a couple of hours. Nino ended up staying so we played shops, then I took him on the tram to the pier to watch the starlings come in to roost. Not so many of them just yet, but soon there will be thousands of them. It was bitterly cold so we didn't stay long. He wanted to go on the comedy carpet, so I took a photo of him with my favourite Morecambe and Wise saying, Bring me Sunshine. It began to rain soon after I took the photo, so we got the tram back to my car then I took him home. He wanted to come back with me but it's hard work when I have Aniello poorly. At least the swelling in Aniello's knee has gone down and he's managing to walk now. He even came downstairs for the first time in 4 days. 

Love this photo of my little Ruby Roo lying by the radiator with the sun just lighting half of her face ♥

I'm now all cosy in bed writing this and I'm going to catch up on a fabulous series called Stay Close. It stars one of my favourite actors, James Nesbitt, and parts of it were filmed in Blackpool. It's really good so far. That's all for now...

Bella's still building!

Nest building recommenced this morning after another night spent roosting in the box. Bella's fetching alternate twigs then stuffing. She knows when Ruby (my dog) goes outside because her head pops up and she stops everything to listen. Sometimes when ruby goes outside in the day, Boris, Bella's mate, warns her that danger is about. I've heard him do that a few times now and it's always when Ruby is in the garden. Other times I've just heard him singing. A few photo's from this morning's activity. Wish she'd hurry up and start laying her eggs :D

Blue tit nest building

Back in February hubby placed 3 nest boxes in our garden hoping to encourage our local tit population to take up residence in at least one of the boxes. The first box is one that Aniello made a couple of years ago and which is very basic and roughly thrown together, then painted green with fence paint. I bought a beautiful one from Villager Jim's web site and the last one was bought from Lidl which also has a camera inside.

Aniello's nest box

Villager Jim nest box

Lidl camera nest box

The one Aniello made had a pair of Coal tits use it last spring and they managed to successfully raise four babies. 8 eggs were laid, 7 hatched but 3 chicks died at various stages. 

Last year's Coal tits

Coal tit babies from last year

During February and March we had plenty of visits from Great and Blue tits but I only spotted a Coal tit once. I've heard that birds usually return to their last successful breeding site but not this year for the Coal tits.

Coal Tit in March

I got quite excited when I spotted blue tits entering the box with the camera inside but they seemed much more interested in Aniello's thrown together box. I did notice a few times a blue tit having a nosy inside Villager Jim's nest box and I even posted a photo on his page for him to see. He messaged me back saying I'd made his day but sad to say it just never happened. I suppose there's still time but I doubt it'll happen this year now.

Blue tit visiting Villager Jim's box

We re-positioned the box with the camera in a couple of times thinking it was maybe just in the wrong place for the birds to take an interest, but apart from a couple of investigations they lost interest in that one. For some reason it was Aniello's nest box that was the main attraction.

All through March the blue tit went into the box and knocking noises could be heard. At this point I didn't know whether it was male or female. The bird also pecked around the hole and spat out tiny slivers of wood. This behaviour carried on daily into the second week of April, so one morning I looked inside the box to see if there was any sign of a nest being built. There was! 

I decided to buy a camera for the box and around 3pm on the 18th, hubby fitted the camera and I set the software up on my laptop. I sat watching the screen for a long time but the bird didn't come back at all for the rest of the day. I was worried I may have frightened her off.....

The next day I set the camera to record any activity and was delighted to see Bella (as I now call her) carrying materials to the box.

This is the first video of her in the box at 8.30 am...

To be continued......