The Glums are back (to see last year’s brood click here), albeit in egg form at the moment. Here’s a picture from inside the robin nest while mum was briefly elsewhere. Can see two eggs but the clutch will actually be between four and six eggs.
Mum sits on the eggs for 13 days. The chicks hatch naked and blind for about the first five days. They’ll depart the nest a couple of weeks after birth but won’t be able to fly for another couple of days.
The young are tended by their parents for up to three weeks after fledging. Frequently the care of the fledged young is left to the male, while the female prepares herself for the next nesting effort. Robins have two broods a year. Three successful broods a year is not uncommon, and in a good year even four are known.
It’s sad to think that although one robin was known to live for over eleven years, most survive for only two years with the biggest causes being cold, starvation and disease. A robin can lose up to 10% of its body weight on one cold winters night. Nevertheless the UK robin population is doing well. with an increase of 45% since 1970. Providing feed during winter can make a big difference, favourites being mealworms, fat, cheese, cake, biscuit crumbs, dried fruit and shredded or crushed peanuts.
This is the second consecutive brood in our robin nest box since I put it up last year. The nest box needs to be open-fronted and placed in a hidden location in a climber or other such vegetation.
Managed to solve the fruit cage problem of the last update. Hammering in the posts before trimming them down to fit inside the water tubing to a depth of six inches seems to work fine. See picture below of progress.
Almost achieved the unbelievable accolade of holding all the family titles against sons David and John this week. Won the pitch and putt last week, and going in to the last squash game of the month needing to win 3-0 against David did it! He couldn’t believe it either, to the extent that he’s STILL NOT GIVEN ME THE WINNERS CUP! And almost took the month’s pool and darts title on Sunday, losing to David in the play off. At least it proves I’ve still got it in me (somewhere!).
Sort post this week since I’m up to my eyeballs in preparation for the Hill Rise Allotment Association spring newsletter. Going to try it as an on line version this time and see what members think.
Video clip of Sammy & Izzy on Sheringham beach to follow
They follow the normal political theme of having splits within the party. However, their splits are generally based on arguments about how silly they should be.
Can’t help thinking there’s something peculiarly English about a party who’s manifestos have contained the following satirical gems…
Putting Parliament on wheels, requiring it to sit throughout the land and thus negate the need for regional parliaments
Introducing a 99p coin to save on change
Allowing drivers to go straight across roundabouts when there’s no traffic to make driving through Milton Keynes more fun
Giving MPs expenses to the poor and needy so they can waste it instead
Dedicating pogo stick lanes on routes to work
Having a thirteenth month of the year to get completed all those little jobs that never get done
And how about the tradition of candidates changing their names by deed poll to something more interesting, for example Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bon-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F’tang-F’tang-Ole-Biscuitbarrel, or R. U. Seerius.
In spite of their wackiness the Party has had occasional success in its 47 year history. The founder, Screaming Lord Sutch, originally stood in 1963 as a candidate for The National Teenage Party to highlight the hypocrisy of teenagers being denied the vote (the minimum voting age at that time being 21 years) whilst at the same time being able to serve and die in the armed forces. The voting age was reduced to 18 years in 1970.
A colourful character, David Sutch was a musician who suffered from clinical depression after the death of his mother Annie in 1998. Sadly he took his own life in 1999. His showman spirit lives on through the manic performances of The Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidates throughout the country.
Bit of a disaster on the allotment yesterday. Having spent hours chipping away at the square fence posts I had for free so they fitted inside the water piping of the fruit cage (to be), as I hammered the fourth post into the ground the trimmed part snapped off! Had sawed too far into the post when preparing it. Oh well, thought I, I’ll put the tubing up on the first two posts hammered in on Monday so I can take a photo to show today. As I grunted and groaned over pushing the second end over the trimmed part… it snapped off too! Now I’m a bit stuffed. Do I trim the posts again while they’re in the ground, or do I just pay for some fence posts? See photos of problem below.
Did have some success… managed to make a bug bedsit as shown below. Biggest wish is for some rain. We’ve had nothing but a five minute light sprinkling in three weeks so nothing is growing very fast at present.
Sammy and Connor had a few hours on the plot on Saturday to make improvements to their den, involving the usual laying of heaps of planks against the existing structure. Disharmony broke out when Sammy wanted install a refuse chute which Connor didn’t agree with. Ten minutes later and some water and piping, all was forgotten and they were into team working.
Think I’m becoming the Peter Pan of squash… beat son David twice in the past week and we’re level pegging on scores to win this month!
Here’s the plan of the fruit cage (click to enlarge) I’m working on at present… hopefully my very last construction job after having completed a shed, lockable storage bin, chicken hut and run, greenhouse and tree house for the grandchildren. Phew!
I’ll be covering the frame with scaffold netting to give me a fruit cage with a microclimate that’ll enable me to have a longer season for vegetables such as tomatoes. Use plastic sheeting to create a polytunnel instead.
Blue mains water piping is the main element, with a 2ins (5cm) internal diameter… yellow mains gas piping will do as well, or any strong piping you can lay your hands on. If you’re lucky mains piping is available for free… most reasonable sized building sites will have spare bits lying around. My supply came from the adjacent cemetery after new drainage was installed. Of course it would be on the far side, so had lots of fun dragging all 100ft to my allotment, even more fun hauling over the fence without flattening everything in sight.
You need posts that fit tightly inside the pipes, I’m intending to fix with screws as well. Some square fence posts I’ve got are having the top 1ft chipped away to shape at present, see photo below. These will be hammered into the ground at intervals… the plan shows every 5ft, probably advisable if you’re building a polytunnel which needs more support for plastic sheeting, but scaffold netting is tougher so I’m going for 8ft intervals. Planking is then screwed to the bottom of the posts, ideally so it’s partially below ground level to stop couch grass and other weeds creeping in, partially above ground level to protect the covering from spade related accidents when you’re digging.
After making holes in the piping to fix spacing battens, the final work will be to fix the door frame before measuring lengths of scaffold netting, stitching them together and fixing over the frame. Of course I’ll pick the windiest day possible to do this part of the job, as usual. The blog will be updated with periodic photos of progress.
Really making progress with planting. Lettuce and beetroot seedlings out this week, as well as raspberry canes. Sweet corn, French beans, spinach, pumpkins and butternut squash all in pots. Snapdragons and celeriac growing. The greenhouse is bursting with life, really encouraging. Got into the habit of checking with wife Linda what needs planting next before I cycle up to the allotment. She’s organising me much more effectively than if left to my own bumbling efforts.
Samson the cockerel has settled in. The girls don’t give him quite such a hard time unless he pushes his luck when the favourite titbits are given out, such as cooked spaghetti. Avert my eyes when he sneaks up on one of the hens and does what a cock a doodle do.
Not going quite so well on the sports front. Another failure at squash and I’ll have handed the month to David again… lost 0-3 on Tuesday, but the scores were 7-9, 8-10, 9-10. A handful of mistakes on my part made the difference. Sunday’s pool and darts competition got off to a bad start when I couldn’t hit a double at darts. Ended the night only winning two darts games and one (yes, one!) pool game. Note to self: must stay off the home made apple wine before the sons pick me up. And finally pitch and putt yesterday against David (John was off to Cheltenham for a night out with cousin Rob). Can feel myself welling up at the thought of it so I’ll keep it short. David won the first hole 4 shots to 5, said that was it and he’d be in the lead for the rest of the eighteen holes… and he wasn’t wrong.
Here’s Samson the new cockerel, mad as a hatter and still trying to assert himself with my four hens known as the feathered fiends. Offered him for free from a fellow allotment holder with one too many. Wife Linda not keen, but on returning to my plot on Sunday there he was in the chicken run, so I must have sounded more positive about having him than I thought.
Didn’t have the heart to return him to an uncertain future. Think he’s not had much chance to get out so he’s blossoming as he gets used to his new surroundings. The girls gave him a hard time the first day or so but now seem to grudgingly accept his presence. Makes me laugh as he goes around chuntering away to himself as though he’s having a good moan. See the video clip of him crowing below.
Another big event this week was the installation of all the new television kit… a Panasonic 42” plasma TV and DVD hard disk recorder as well as Freesat satellite dish. Much planning to ensure all installed and completed while Linda was at playschool Tuesday morning, only to be told on Sunday by daughter Becky there was no playschool since it was school Easter holidays! Had to break the news Monday evening and Linda wandered off down town for the morning while the workmen attended. Comet in Huntingdon did a great job, both in the deal they gave me and the installation… well done to Will Peck, the manager.
The TV is fantastic, the DVD recorder really good at recording programmes to hard disk for watching when we want… only problem is I’m struggling to load video footage from my Samsung U10 camcorder to the hard disk of the DVD recorder via the SD card slot so I can archive to disk.
At long last had the grandchildren’s campfire at the allotment… although Izzy wasn’t able to make it because of a chesty cough. Been holding off for weeks since too muddy, so had to hold it while it was still light. Decided that was OK… can have the Autumn camp fire in the dark with the usual torchlight walk through the woods, and the Spring camp fire in the light so the kids can play. Ate sausages and marshmallows. Connor and Sammy thought the new multi-story den great… but that didn’t stop Connor trying to haul a shed door up to create another floor! Paige attended her first camp fire and showed the gravity of the event by dressing as Minnie Mouse with Mary Poppins trimmings (the umbrella).
Won the first pool/darts competition of the month against sons David and John, but bombed out badly at the pitch and putt when I recorded nine shots at one hole. Nine shots! And two narrow defeats against David this week at squash, beaten 2-3 both times. If I could only squeeze a bit more skill and consistency all round I’d be champion of the world and beating both sons every week. Better hurry up though… only a year and a bit away from 60 and it’ll be all downhill from then on!
Bob Crow, leader of the RMT union, is at it again. The scourge of London Underground commuters attempted to bring the national rail network to a standstill on the back of a paltry 54% vote by members in favour of a strike. Fortunately an injunction has stopped the walkout for the time being, the RMT having balloted eleven signal boxes that didn’t exist and missed twenty-six real ones amongst other things. Good old Bob used the usual ‘conciliatory’ language on the steps of the court… ‘this is round one, there are fifteen rounds’.
The core of the dispute is Network Rail’s plan to lose 1,500 maintenance jobs, the majority by voluntary redundancy. Bob’s ‘strategy’ is to call a strike on the grounds of safety, even though the rail regulator is happy with Network Rail’s plans. We’d barely notice any difference if only the maintenance workers go on strike, so the signallers are raising a dispute, demanding their luxury terms and conditions won’t change. That’s the general theme of the RMT union… a desire for no change, still stuck in the days of steam engines.
Mr Crow is a former card carrying communist and a member of Arthur Scargill’sSocialist Labour Party, and said of his hero that he was ‘the best trade union leader we have ever seen’. Let’s hope Bob emulates Scargill’s greatest feat… the decimation of the NUM union membership. A supporter of Millwall FC, notorious for their violent fans, his pet is a Staffordshire bull terrier named Castro. Methinks you wouldn’t want him living next door to you.
Bob’s sparkling personality came through when he appeared on Have I Got News For You… click the player below to watch a summary, or click here to watch the full show. You’ll see part 1/4 first, select 2/4 onwards from the right hand side of the YouTube screen. Not sure Bob realises the audience are laughing at him and not with him.
Why does this matter? Forget the poor rail commuter left waiting on a windswept platform for the 07:45 that never arrives. Or the motorist struggling to get to work on congested roads. Never mind the bus travellers standing all the way to their destination, if they can get on in the first place. Just think about the family who’ve been saving for months to go on the trip of a lifetime. Think about my daughter Beth and son in law Chris explaining to Connor (7) and Paige (5) why they couldn’t go on their trip to Disneyland Paris on the Eurostar. A trip in the planning for over a year.
Fortunately they went in March and missed the proposed rail strike. But Bob had every intention of spoiling thousands of families Easter breaks. My sons and I have been at the mercy of Mr Crow when we were unable to get to the England v Andorra World Cup qualifying match at Wembley in June last year because of a tube strike. The RMT union wanted a no compulsory redundancies for life clause in workers’ contracts. We were lucky… the Football Association were good enough to give a full ticket refund for any fans who couldn’t get to the match.
Yes, Bob does his job well. Signal workers get £50,000 for a three day week and tube drivers earn £40,000 a year, 43 days annual leave and free rail travel for themselves and spouse for staying awake on the job. But it’s all achieved at the expense of customers. About time a bit more balance was introduced and employers given the option to dismiss staff who fail to honour their contract by withdrawing their labour, something that can only happen after twelve weeks of dispute at the moment.
Walked into St Ives this morning with Linda for the first of the 900 year celebrations. The town centre was crammed with visitors, lots of medieval stalls, knights in armour, mounted as well. Wonderful spectacle. And best of all… the first house martins just returned from Africa, flying over the ancient bridge, and chiffchaffs had returned to Holt Island. Add to that crested grebes are building a nest at The Waits. All we need is for Holt Island to be again open to visitors. Hopefully next week… we were given a guided tour by Colin to see the new walkways built since last autumn.
On the allotment this week managed to plant seeds for leeks, brussel sprouts, mimulus, spring onions and radishes as well as transplanting broccoli seedlings. In fact the greenhouse and shed are full of plants growing like mad, with lots more at home to transport up to the plot. Going to be a good season this year, with direction coming from Linda.
Made more progress in digging over part of the back plot that’s going to be the fruit cage/polytunnel, but more rain meant the ground is still very heavy. Think I’m going to start construction since my new raspberry canes are ready to plant out.
A magnificent win at pool and darts last night. With John having won every month so far this year me or David need to start winning. My tactical use of the video clip below of Jazz during crucial shots by my two sons was the deciding factor.
