Macro on Monday - Guess What

OK. There were a few who guessed on the right lines for last week's Guess What. It was a close up of the battery switch on an electronic cigarette so Adrian and Glo who were correct and Wilma with her guess of a nicotine inhaler deserve the virtual gold stars.



Some years ago I decided to try weaning myself off my pipe and bought one of the original e-cigarettes which looked something like a cigarette. I found it unsatisfactory. The battery was supposed to switch on automatically when I sucked but it rarely worked efficiently. Also the small batteries used at that time needed recharging frequently.

I gave up and went back to my pipe for a long while until I discovered some modern e-cigs with larger batteries and manual switches. (the bottom one in the photo)



The main problem I found was keeping the mouth piece clear of any liquid as the nicotine irritates the lips. Recently I have discovered a newish adaption which has a container for the liquid and vaporiser which keeps the mouth piece clean and really works a treat. (Top of photograph)



On to the new puzzle photo for this week.
Guess What:


Clue: four legged vacuum cleaner

From a technical point of view I was very pleased with the above small crop. The photo was taken with my iPhone4 with yet another camera app (645 pro). Its main advantage is the ability to save developed RAW (dRAW) lossless TIFF files which give much clearer results.

Hedgehog Update:
No sign of the hedgehog these past two nights. I hope she (it is often a female which wakes early) has snuggled up in her nest and gone back to sleep for a while.  At least she has had a few nights feeding to help her.

Spring 2013

Looking at some information on the BBC website it shows that the temperature in this area for the same date in 2012 was +16C. Yesterday the temperature reached +2C with a wind chill of -4C in a blustery cold wind. At the time of writing this morning it is -0.5C

The Hedgehog arrived soon after 8 p.m. last night and scoffed nearly all the crushed peanuts I had put out. I hope it managed to find a warm nest site as it was snowing by 9 p.m..

Friday at the Flicks - Rook, Long Tailed Tit, Hedgehog

Once again the Rooks invaded the bird feeders. They particularly like the suet food and this one was having a great time attacking one feeder. Not shown are two other Rooks which were on the ground grabbing all the bits which were falling down. (No sound track)



A rare, fleeting visitor to my garden is the Long Tailed Tit. Though they normally move around in groups only one or two occasionally visit my feeders.



Once again the Hedgehog visited last night. Though this is about the time for them to wake from their Winter hibernation the weather this year is against them. Where the temperature would normally be in double figures, recently it has rarely reached 5C and this week it is struggling to get much above 0C and is likely to stay that way until next month. It will be difficult for them to find enough of their natural food which includes slugs and beetles.



I am putting out crushed, unsalted peanuts as a source of protein. The hogs need to find a reasonable amount of food quickly to make up for the weight lost while they were hibernating. Also available is a saucer of water - no milk as that is bad for Hedgehogs. I could put out tinned cat or dog food but that gets stolen by the roaming cats which are prowling around every night. I am not in to feeding other people's cats which kill birds, dig up my flowers and leave their mess for me to find when I am weeding. I might try putting a bit of tinned meat in the Hedgehog house where cats can't get at it.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you and do give it a helping hand when needed.

First Hedgehog of Spring

In spite of the unseasonal low temperatures I had a feeling there had been a Hedgehog around for a few nights as Penny kept investigating the areas where they enter my garden. Sure enough, last night there was one when Penny went out about 9 p.m.. It disappeared before I could get a camera. I broke up some unsalted peanuts and put them out in case it should make a return visit. Sure enough it did and was caught briefly on the surveillance camera.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Yes, Adrian, Jan and TexWisGirl, last week's Guess What was that easy so you all gain a virtual gold star for identifying the strawberry.








Produce of Morocco; large, reasonably tasty but hard and crunchy rather than succulent. You just can't beat home grown but this time of year I take whatever is available.


On to this week's macro photo.
Guess What:



I think this may be a lot harder.

Clue: Gives me plenty of nicotine without the carbon monoxide, cyanide, etc..

No prizes - just for fun.

The Case of the Disappearing Suet

The half coconuts I have which are filled with suet had been lasting for weeks as the birds gradually helped themselves. Occasionally the filling would fall out of one after it had shrunk during a particularly cold night. A couple of mornings ago I found two were empty where they had been half full the previous day. No sign of any fallen fillings on the ground. When I replaced them with a full coconut half I soon found out what was happening.

It doesn't take long for a large Rook beak to gobble it all up in a very short time:



An old coconut I have reused is one with only a quarter opening which was originally filled with suet. Now it is empty it is useful as a container for seed and suet treats:



Sometimes birds will spend a while trying to work out how to get at the food:



All in all Birdy Bistro Mk2 is very popular, especially with the cold temperatures hereabouts.

Frustrating Week and a Sleepy Pooch

There are times during this week when I seem to have spent half my life on the phone chasing things up. I am in the process of changing my power supplier. Last time I changed everything went smoothly but moving from Scottish Power is a different ball game. Sometimes I get a strong feeling they are deliberately obstructive and dragging their feet.

On the Summer House front things have moved on, slightly. After a call from Laura at GardenBuildingsDirect the greenhouse parts were collected yesterday morning. This morning, the first reasonable one weather wise for quite a while, I decided to assemble the base of the summer house and make sure the floor fitted OK. Fine in theory and would have been fine in practice if they had delivered all of the floor but I only had half! Another call to Laura - the missing part should be delivered tomorrow morning. That means a delay of several more days as the weather forecast indicates heavy rain for at least three days. I hope this is going to be worth all the trials and tribulations.

Of course I had a four legged supervisor helping this morning, but peace reigns tonight as she sleeps off a busy day followed by a hearty tea.

Awwwww:


Penny showing her sparkling white teeth after her visit to the vet last month.

Today I found out that this area is on the list for receiving a faster broadband service - up to 24Mb/s - but not until 2016 as we are in phase 6.