May the Best House Win?!!

[ladytmwright]

Thought it worth a mention that myself and my period home will be featured on a certain ITV1 programme (clue is in the title :wink: ) at 1400 on wed of next wk, 12th June 2013. Would be interesting to hear your views (especially re the outcome :roll: ) Really enjoyed taking part and it's summat to show the grandkids if nothing else!!

 

[plasticpigeon]

I will look out for your blemish free hall floor and half bay window.

 

[Sonyaclegg]

I will watch. How lovely

 

[angrybird]

I look forward to watching it too

The only TV program I got asked to take part in was "my derelict dream home" I didn't know if I should laugh or cry .....the cheeky swear word!!!!

 

[DJH]

Yep, me too... got the date written down somewhere to remind me that is if I can remember where I wrote it down.

Doug

 

[ladytmwright]

Thanks for the interest! I am a bit nervous about the exposure but excited at the same time! And I have some exciting news for all those nature lovers out there! We have a blackbird's nest just outside of our front door!! It is nestled between the trellis (supporting the clematis) and the window directly above the front door! There are tiny young ones in there and I was watching mum feeding them this evening! We literally have a bird's eye view of what's going on from inside the porch as there is a convenient hole in the nest on the window side which allows us to view easily!! Seems we have adopted them! I feel so privileged and will see if I can get his Lordship to help me with a photo I can show you all soon. Don't forget to tune in to ITV on Wednesday and any thoughts or comments on my windows would be very much appreciated. I would love to travel back in time to see how they were originally. Generally, on the whole row now the frames seem much too thin and the huge volume of sheer glass makes the front rooms unbearably hot (we are south facing) if you do not have layers and layers of fabric as protection! Do you think the original builders of houses took the position of the sun into consideration when deciding on style/design of windows? Just for the record, the back ones are original. They are four panelled sashes, nothing too fancy, but beautiful nonetheless, but I do not think the front would have been sashes as they are just too wide, not to mention that proverbial half-bay thing going on! Am off now to check on my new-found feathered friends before they snuggle down to bed!! Would love to know what you all think of my lovingly renovated 1898 home on Wed!! We have done it all on an extremely tight budget but with lots of creativity and imagination!! Thanks again.

 

[Moo]

I shall certainly watch the programme, if only because it looks as though it'll be the only way we'll be able to see any pictures of your house!

And on the subject of blackbirds - we, too, have a brood being raised by very conscientious parents.
The end of our back extension has those wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows, and there's a rampant climber on the fence right beside the house, so we've enjoyed a grandstand view of the whole process.
Unfortunately we have cats and foxes in the neighbourhood, so we're going to get a couple of powerful water-pistols with which we will defend the fledglings from all-comers.

 

[Feltwell]

We've got blackbirds in their usual spot in the hedge in our front garden - they go there every year and seem very successful in raising at least one chick. I haven't got any inside my garage this year! Some of you may remember last year's saga - I left a window open and a blackbird, who seemed to be a single mum, nested inside in the corner on the wall plate - thereby stopping construction progress for some time.

I'd be in there working away though and she'd just sit there looking at me, we got quite used to each other. Only one of her 2 eggs hatched, and the fledgling couldn't get out of the window - which is narrow and up high. I ended up rescuing the fledgling into a plastic box, being careful not to touch it, then dashing to put it outside the window that the mother was flying in and out of, praying that she wouldn't abandon it. I'm pleased to say she didn't - 2 minutes later I saw her feeding the fledgling.

This year I've got wood pigeons nesting in trellis just outside our bay window, stopping me for doing the desperately needed pruning of the climbing rose that is threatening to block out nearly all the light!

 

[Zebra]

Today I had a swift fly in through the open front door and sit on the wiring between the beams in the front extension, which has no ceiling yet. I chased it out but it came back with its partner. I think they liked it and were planning where to put the furniture when I chased them out and shut the door. Can't have that, or I'll never be able to board the ceiling! Although, as excuses go....

 

[ladytmwright]

Really loved reading all the tales of nesting birds! And Moo, I will take your advice re the water pistols as we also have cats in the area (bah!) Not sure how many chicks are in the nest at the mo. Today I have only seen one, who is pretty large and was busy preening itself whilst I happily watched from my stepladders in the porch! Yeah, seeing my programme on Wed would probably be the only way you're gonna get to see shots of my house for a while as I have absolutely NO idea of how to 'upload'? photos onto this site! I know I cannot keep relying on the Lord so I somehow must find the time to learn, but I really don't know when that will be as I have a mountain of sewing, paint-stripping, gardening etc etc etc..........oh, and bird-watching!!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Oh you lucky people with nests--although we have a decent sized garden there has been little evidence of birds nesting. Neighbours on both sides have had trees removed over the last 3 weeks to build their extensions I am surprised that the tree surgeons agreed to do it as I thought it is frowned upon during the nesting season.) I know that there was a blackbird in one of the trees. Other than that we have far too many collared doves one of which our black labrador retrieved and took into the drawing room :shock:

Looking forward to the television programme!

 

[Zebra]

When I was a child, we adopted an owl which had fallen out of a tree and been abandoned by its parents. At first it sat in a bowl in the kitchen and was fed dog food. Then it moved to a cage in the garden and ate dead day-old chicks, which we'd drag along on a piece of string, trying to teach it to "hunt".
Eventually we built it a platform in a tree and it was free, no cage, but still fed daily. Sadly though it disappeared, perhaps killed by other birds.

 

[Penners]

I was actually woken up in the wee small hours by a blackbird singing under the open window, the night before last.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaSMROk-D-A

One voice, one guitar, immense talent.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Could have been a Nightingale----- :wink:

 

[Penners]

We hear a lot of nightingales in France, and it's not difficult to tell the difference between them and blackbirds.

The nightingales sing in the daytime, too. Or are those dayingales?

 

[Flyfisher]

I was actually woken up in the wee small hours by a blackbird singing under the open window, the night before last.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaSMROk-D-A

One voice, one guitar, immense talent.

An immensely talented blackbird indeed - our ones can't play guitar. :wink:


A very poor joke, I know, but it gives me an excuse to thank you for digging out that link. I've seen Macca play a number of his solo songs live and it really is quite a spine-tingling experience. Well, for a beatles fan anyway. I shall select the White album on my ipod while cutting the grass today.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Looking forward to seeing the programme, can't wait to see the house!

About 20 nest boxes here and lots looking pretty busy with blackbirds and tits. Best year ever for flowers and blossom, hence masses of bees and insects, large flock of yellow hammers, owls and buzzards and red kites all hunting in our field below the house. The 150 acres around me get wilder and wilder, masses of trees have been planted, and the muntjack deer are moving in. I often feel very in the way.

 

[Penners]

I shall select the White album on my ipod while cutting the grass today.

I find it frustrating to listen to music while mowing. Even with headphones, the noise of the mower drowns out much of the more subtle passages of music. Do you have noise cancelling 'phones? If so, do they really work for something as loud as a mower?

 

[Moo]

Sad news about our blackbirds.
We haven't seen any parental activity for a couple of days, so John investigated and found an empty nest.
We can only assume that the fledglings fell prey to one of our local predators - a huge fox that has a remarkable ability to scale walls and fences, or one of the multitude of dear ickle pussies that inhabit SE22.
In Norwich we had a successful hatching, and enjoyed watching the youngsters grow to maturity in the safety of our little courtyard garden. Any cat that (literally) dropped in would have found it impossible to get out and would have been tenderly ushered out via the front door*.



* as we told a near neighbour who acquired a pair of cats and then wondered why all the birds had disappeared from his garden.

 

[Penners]

one of our local predators - a huge fox that has a remarkable ability to scale walls and fences, or one of the multitude of dear ickle pussies that inhabit SE22.

Presumably that assumes that the ickle pussy will stand still for long enough.