Touchdown at the Newest Bluestocking Inn. Pudding, cups of tea, the vegetable garden coming into its own, and gerbils beautiful gerbils all furry.

[DeanElderberry]

All females welcome for intelligent discourse and non-harmful comestibles.

There also was always a pair of tawny owls in the trees near my last but one house, but then Network Rail arrived to widen the raiway along the backs, and no more tawny owls grrrr...

We have both red foxes and gray foxes here in Maine, though I’ve never seen one of the latter. Picture here for interested parties. https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fish-wildlife/wildlife/species-information/mammals/foxes.html#:~:text=Foxes%20are%20found%20in%20diverse,central%20parts%20of%20the%20state.. We also have coyotes and fisher cats which we used to hear in the woods behind our house when we lived more in the country than we do now, but I’ve only ever seen them in the Maine Wildlife Park (also moose and bear). Our resident groundhog has yet to appear this spring (and yay, we finally have crocuses!) and may be RIP.

Good to see you back again @Chickadeeinme I was just thinking about you the other day and wondering if Spring had arrived yet in your neck-of-the-woods?

Went to look at new steam irons this morning as I wanted to see them out of the box and see how they handle. I've gone for a Russell Hobs Powersteam Ultra Pro. I don't have any complicated ironing to do, but I do have cotton and linen clothes and bedlinen which always needs ironing, so wanted one with a good shot of steam. Although I went to a store, I've actually ordered it on-line as it was cheaper.

Chickadee,
You are in my (original) part of the world! When I left New England in the late 1980s, coyotes were something that happened in Arizona, in cartoons- now they are everywhere! I do miss the New England wildlife (much of it, including chickadees), but certainly not the bugs, heat, mugginess of summer, and endless winters of frozen ground, ice, snow, and slushy gray mud mountains on every street corner, covered in brown salt and sand. Or driving in winter.

I love that Britain has such long springtime and glorious summers, although the climate has definitely changed here over the past 40 years. Used to just be rain. All the time.

You'll have to report back with pros and cons! One main concern of mine is that a lot of new irons require distilled water because they can't cope with a hard water area, which I am in. I can't be dealing with bottles of distilled water!

I love your kitty. I miss mine, she was everything to me (died several years ago on Christmas Day, ughh). So now I live vicariously through other people's cats...

I've mentioned here before that we have a lone male tawny owl locally, who keeps tu-whoo-ing hopefully. He needs to get on whatever the owl version of Tinder is.

I can't tell you how much I love all your nature notes about owls and ospreys and coyotes - wonderful, thank you!

As for Edith's driving foxes - are they better drivers than squirrels I wonder?

Thank you to everyone for the good wishes for Dad. He's got a serious infection in the shoulder he had a replacement in.

They think they'll have to opens him up, clean it all out and possibly remove the titanium-whatever that's gone wrong, but that will probably leave him without use of his arm. Which is not only bad in general but, as he's already on crutches, means he can't walk either.

His heart's misbehaving so it's worrying all around.

And one of my hens died. Poor little Georgia O'Keefe, she was only 2 1/2.

Reminds me of this sign, seen at Rotorua in New Zealand. Reassuring, I think you'll agree (that isn't actually a full stop after mudpools, it's just a splot).

That sounds distinctly not good, Pasta. Thinking of you

That doesn't sound great, Pasta. Wishing all of you the best.

Your poor dad! Hoping for the best.

Aw, Georgia. How long do the normally live? And are they all named after artists?

I had the most boring online meeting in the world for two hours today. So once I had introduced myself I turned off my camera and microphone and continued joining squares together.

I was not needed among the 22 other people on the call.

Regarding wildlife...

For the past 40 years, we've seen tiny bats flying around the garden of an evening. Just this week, DH says he saw some which were much bigger. I'm wondering why.

1. DH was mistaken.
2. Bats take 40 years to grow up.
3. Father Ted & Dougal, close to/far away.
4. New, bigger bats moved in from somewhere else.

Any ideas?

Larger bats would be my guess, you had pipistrelles, and some Leisler's or something similar have moved in next door.

I always think the sleep gerbils probably have proper bat-wings, whatever AI thinks.

My garden in full of burrows disappearing under tree roots, paths though the long grass, and snuffle-holes, but I've only seen an actual badger once.

What I have seen several times over the last few days is Holly blue butterflies, tiny and very pretty.

All good wishes to your dad, @PastaAllaNorma ❤

Not bats at all, but swallows?

This lot are all artists - Artemisia, Beryl, Frida, Yolko Ono. We also have And Peggy, from the Schuyler sisters flock.

We've had shipping regions, Beatles song names, Doctor Who companions, Steven Universe characters... There have been a lot of hens over the last 20 odd years.

Usually hybrids live 3-5 years. Older breeds can live longer - Rita was a Bluebell and she was 11 when she died.
That's because older breeds are mixed use birds, much heavier and more robust. Hybrid layers have nothing to them, they're bones and feathers and nowt else.

Makes me laugh when books say badgers are furtive & shy, & if you're very, very lucky one day you might see one.

I had them 9 deep on my patio night after night, & one of them would tip me the wink through the glass when the food was about to run out, so I could nip out & replenish it at exactly the right moment. True, when I opened the back door they'd all run off, but they knew to come straight back for seconds.

Sometimes I'd stand, hidden, on the patio while they were there & it was actually thrilling. And they smell wonderful!

I suspect never putting food out for them even once is probably the key to a quiet life.

otoh, what do you feed them?

I've never seen an alive badger, just ones at the side of the road.

I see foxes quite frequently, as they try their luck with the henhouse.

I've had 22 different species of bird visit the garden, though. And deer at the park, who took to walking down the he middle of the road during lockdown.

Hoping for the very best possible outcome for your dad, Pasta.

I'm not knitting or crocheting, I'm stitching what seems to be a good kilometre of boning channels.

Sorry to hear that, Pasta, it sounds like your Dad is facing into a lot of procedures. I hope whatever they do makes him feel better and more comfortable. It's a very difficult time for you and the family, as well as for 'Mr Pasta Senior' as I think of him so sending lots of good wishes to all.

Sorry about the loss of Georgia O'Keefe, always sad but also unfortunate timing in this case.

I love the way you name your hens, especially Yolko Ono😁