Guilt Free Railing 3

[WouldBeGood]

Looks like railing is still needed.

Here is the judgment feee zone to do it.

I love birds but it's not always cute and fluffy behaviour!

in fact I reckon the RSPB has articles on attracting birds. I know they recommend access to water, plus remembering some are ground feeders and the issues of keeping the big and little ones apart.

You can get baffles if the squirrels nicking the food bothers you - I watched a ninja one cross 5 gardens to get to the bird feeder last week.

Oddly we have very few squirrels. Well, not that odd really - we have a 6ft fence, and there's a burn behind our house so they have better places to go. We've done a fair bit of planting but it's all spindly and unestablished just now. Neighbours have either not planted at all or are still in early stages too. Similarly all the trees the builder put in are skinny wee things just now, hedges are straggly...Give it a couple of years for the planting to mature and it will be much more enticing I think. You can see it will be quite green and nice

I always think it takes a good couple of years for trees and shrubs to get established. Nothing much looks good this time of year.

No, I'm looking at the garden just now and wondering what actually is still alive!

Squirrels are just so last year, on our estate it's rats that are de rigour. They are doing some work over near the river and they've decamped into the gardens. Someone has had part of their house eaten through and another had her chickens killed.

DD3 only lets me refer to my pet seagull by his initials because his name is somewhat descriptive of his core personality.

We have foxes from the railway to keep the rats in check. Loads and loads of very cheeky squirrels who seem to be too quick and nimble for most predators. Thankfully not des res enough for daft lawyers in kimonos wielding baseball bats.

We were out on the hills proper yesterday. Couldn't think for birds chattering and rabbit warrens aplenty but they all have so much habitat and food you very rarely see any of the wildlife up close.

Just on the RSPB. If anyone has DC who want to do conservation or just get closer to nature our local sanctuary runs a really good family volunteer programme. We have helped with building bug hotels, planting reed beds and dealing with invasive weeds etc. Also great way to be outdoors making friends with other families.

rats? you definitely need to tempt a fox or two in. I worked for a pet company years back and you were discouraged from using expressions like 'you dirty rat', 'rats' (instead of a swear word) etc. as they're a popular pet these days.

Family volunteer days sound great dinnafashyersel

We had hedgehogs last year. One day a huge one wandered across the lawn, impervious to rookiedogs ebthusiastic barking, the next day there were two baby ones on the path.
DH has created a hedgehog bridge across our pond- one nearly drowned in it the year before-and a hedgehog hotel to keep them comfy. So hoping they come back again.

it's not really a fox friendly area and I've never seen one (doesn't mean there are none though). It's all 6 foot fences and most folk have a dog. My SiL has a whole fox family that she feeds and admires.

@WaxOnFeckOff

Squirrels are just so last year, on our estate it's rats that are de rigour. They are doing some work over near the river and they've decamped into the gardens. Someone has had part of their house eaten through and another had her chickens killed.

This does not bode well for our tiering assessment come end of April. It comes to something when even the rats have more freedom to travel than us🤷‍♀️

A friend who works in a diy shop saying that sales of wire wool are through the roof as folk are trying to stop further rat damage. Interestingly we haven't had any issues. WE have a cat but she's middle aged and rotund and doesn't catch mice anymore or leave the house for longer than 15 minutes a couple of times a day.

Thought you all might appreciate this.

Resilience - Not All It's Cracked up To Be

liz-vicarofdibley.blogspot.com/2021/02/not-all-its-cracked-up-to-be.html?spref=fb&fbclid=IwAR0LiYJVIONyZ3fZz-a9uyLJhcgnRanVnnzmNBlsmNTFJ0kB2zNSEnuVCWc

"Resilience has become a term of abuse held out by those who prey ... on the weary ... condoning injustice .... survival of the fittest ...."

This is what I am currently faced with as she wants her dinner...

terrifying wax mind you, my two pensioner-moggies managed to kill a mouse that somehow got into our kitchen a few months back and they barely move these days, so maybe she's a better deterrent than she appears!

I don't think they need to be very useful, just their presence seems to work

Need a solution for neck pain when working from home. Its agony. Have tried a special chair, a massage pillow, adjusting the height etc. Still in pain.

What height is your screen at?

jabba as best as you can try to get your home desk including lighting and heating and IT set up as you would have it in an office. Also look at whether a footrest would help. I would walk to the "coffee machine" at least hourly as well. (need to think about ergonomics, mobility, stress, draughts, muscle tension and eyestrain all as potential causes)

Other than that for stiff necks I use yoga. Main thing being to tuck your chin down to the bottom of your neck and rotate gently. Warm shower and heat pad also help. Hope you get it sorted soon. It is horrible.

screen is at eye level. I have a foot rest and an ergonomic (sp?) chair. I have a monitor, external keyboard etc. All the right set up but my neck is agony. I haven't worked for a while (stress related sick leave in last job) so I don't know if I just need to get used to it.

New job is wierd - everyone nice and its not too hard, but I have hardly spoken to anyone. They seem to just be letting me get on with it but I'm not sure if I'm doing it the way they expect or the way I think its to be done iykwim. I did expect a bit more interaction and guidance. Not sure if this is the norm for Higher Education tho!

@jabbathebutt it must be quite tricky (and a little weird) starting a new job with everyone working remotely. I don't think I could do that! Well done

I get a sore neck working at home and I also have a proper height desk, chair/monitor etc. I think some of it is anxiety and I also haven't been moving as much. At work in an office, there are people walking past, folk talking etc so I think you tend to make all sorts of small movements all the time, whereas at home I think i sit much more still and stare at the screen too long. Maybe just get yourself used to moving more, doing some stretches, look away from the screen etc?

Hope you find something that works.

saw on the herald that new levels could be regional rather than by council area.

Not sure about this. If Glasgow is really high but other parts of the west are not, will we all be in level/tier 4? Similarly could Glasgow go into level 1 / tier 1 or whatever if east dunbartonshire is low but Glasgow actually isn't?

will it be back to health boards or other regional lines? or maybe it will be top, middle and bottom....

God they just make it up as they go along. I'd think it will be health boards if there's another change.