First of all I ought to say that I've never blogged before. I am a blog-virgin. I've never even considered myself the blogging kind. Then I realised that I didn't know what the blogging kind was; I might be the epitome of blogginess for all I know.
I don't do text speak either, or 'emoticons' (and the ones blinking away on the right of the screen are fairly irritating). I do full sentences and real words. This is probably because I've reached an age (45) where my children are starting to find me a little uncool (by which I of course mean very uncool). Kids say things like 'Mint!' and I think, 'Yes please,' rather than, 'Yes, I thought it was brilliant too'.
So, on the offchance that anyone actually ever sees a word of this, don't expect things like 'Isn't it gr8 wen u c a robin'.
I'm not that kind of blogger. See? I even know what kind of blogger I am already.
I should have started this in October, the day the first Brambling turned up in my garden. It was like I'd seen a kingfisher in the bath, or had suddenly got Great Auk on my year list. So I'm now going to post from time to time about the birds I see in my suburban garden in northern England, what they do, and how they're enjoyed by my family. We had 28 species in the garden this winter, inlcluding the aforementioned brambling, great spotted woodpecker and redpoll; 'bird of the winter was probably a (no doubt lost) moorhen, forced into our garden by the big freeze that affected all small water bodies (and I still haven't got round to creating a pond). Like many other parts of northern and eastern Britain, we also had our street lit up by the presence of waxwings this winter, which rather thoughtfully came along on the day I had off work to paint my older daughter's bedroom.
I'll post some photos, but my garden is about 100ft long and 25ft wide, with plenty of trees including apple and plum (not on the same tree, obviously). The fieldfares, redwings and blackbirds were grateful for the fact that we never got round to picking or gathering the apples last autumn. A look at Google Earth (other ways of peering from space into your garden are also no doubt available) shows just how important gardens are for our wildlife; there's a huge network of wildlife corridors in the mature gardens in our part of town.
So, enough for now. If you're interested (though I'm sure you have better things to do, whoever you are), I'll post updates from the garden from time to time ovee the year. Today it feels like summer, now that the sky above the garden is once again home to swifts - the first birds came back today and it feels like the good weather we've been having has finally caught up with the calendar. Let's hope it continues.
I don't do text speak either, or 'emoticons' (and the ones blinking away on the right of the screen are fairly irritating). I do full sentences and real words. This is probably because I've reached an age (45) where my children are starting to find me a little uncool (by which I of course mean very uncool). Kids say things like 'Mint!' and I think, 'Yes please,' rather than, 'Yes, I thought it was brilliant too'.
So, on the offchance that anyone actually ever sees a word of this, don't expect things like 'Isn't it gr8 wen u c a robin'.
I'm not that kind of blogger. See? I even know what kind of blogger I am already.
I should have started this in October, the day the first Brambling turned up in my garden. It was like I'd seen a kingfisher in the bath, or had suddenly got Great Auk on my year list. So I'm now going to post from time to time about the birds I see in my suburban garden in northern England, what they do, and how they're enjoyed by my family. We had 28 species in the garden this winter, inlcluding the aforementioned brambling, great spotted woodpecker and redpoll; 'bird of the winter was probably a (no doubt lost) moorhen, forced into our garden by the big freeze that affected all small water bodies (and I still haven't got round to creating a pond). Like many other parts of northern and eastern Britain, we also had our street lit up by the presence of waxwings this winter, which rather thoughtfully came along on the day I had off work to paint my older daughter's bedroom.
I'll post some photos, but my garden is about 100ft long and 25ft wide, with plenty of trees including apple and plum (not on the same tree, obviously). The fieldfares, redwings and blackbirds were grateful for the fact that we never got round to picking or gathering the apples last autumn. A look at Google Earth (other ways of peering from space into your garden are also no doubt available) shows just how important gardens are for our wildlife; there's a huge network of wildlife corridors in the mature gardens in our part of town.
So, enough for now. If you're interested (though I'm sure you have better things to do, whoever you are), I'll post updates from the garden from time to time ovee the year. Today it feels like summer, now that the sky above the garden is once again home to swifts - the first birds came back today and it feels like the good weather we've been having has finally caught up with the calendar. Let's hope it continues.
