A visit for christmas by the Manchester contingent of Patti’s family saw Santa a little confused as to where he should leave this little fellas presents, all worked well in the end though as you can see by the smile on his face. Rumour has it that he is a clone of his dad at that age, a bit noisy too they say?(sleepless nights I remember them well).

An invite to dinner of our friends from the Sluice Sid and Lil saw Lil back to her normal self after her ordeal on holiday in Benidorm,two extra weeks she got in Hospital having her Gall bladder removed(she says she’s going to charge em for it) gives nowt away this girl?.the old fella managed to get through it as well, he’s also back to his normal cunning and scheming self they managed to bring two wanted posters of Carol and I for Jedburgh castle jail and a set of handcufs (God knows what they’ll do next).

Productive Walk

Quite a nice morning as I was trimming the front hedge, might have a walk down the dene when I’m done thought I, take a bit of bread and some seed so I can top up the bird feeding station that I had spotted on a previous walk.First up was a nice Grey Wagtail flitting about on the path in front then gliding effortlessly onto a stone in the faster flowing waters of the Burn, incidentally the Grey Wagtail has the shortest legs and the longest tail of all the Wagtail family.Nearing the feeding station we could see the birds flitting about way before we arrived Great/Blue and Coal tits made up the numbers( in that order) but as I was sprinkling the seed etc along the trunk of a fallen tree Carol was calling look above you, stay still and it’ll come down, I took a couple of paces back and down came this beautiful male Nuthatch the largest I have ever seen shortly followed by his mate, it was a real pleasure to stand and watch them both feed for a short while (sorry no pics batteries dead). Continuing our journey we came across twoTree Creepers a Grey Heron and would you believe another Nuthatch on the other side of the dene but still no sign of the illusive Kingfisher, however we are going to do the same walk again in a few days with live batteries this time so who knows ?.

Thats got ya stumped has’nt it, it took me about four hrs to do it , guessed it yet?.Here’s another clue “tit for tat” you must be there now, anyway its Help My Mate Mot and thats just what I was doing putting some beading around the new laminate floors that they have had done, very smart too I might add.

Patti’s bathrooms all done now, just waiting for yours truly finishing a wall cabinet and that will be all spick and span for Christmas, well done Patti your getting there.

Bruce is still his normal self I think,(hav’nt seen him this week tho).

Angela and Dan had a heating crisis this week when the boiler decided not to work, but “Dans ya man”he grasped it by its silicon chip, gave it a shake and “Bobs ya uncle”its working again. PS he also renewed its circuit board, well done that man.

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Ingredients
1 large onion
¼pt water
1oz margarine
3 teaspoons dried sage
3oz white breadcrumbs
Seasoning

Method

Peel and dice onion and cook in water until softened
Add margarine , sage and breadcrumbs and season to taste.
Use to stuff poultry or bake in a dish in a moderate oven until browned.

James and the giant peach has nothing on this, “this is “Joe and his giant parsnip. Discovered just before lunch today at an allotment in the northwest corner of Holywell Village, location of which is not being disclosed for security purposes, co-owner of the plot Carol Lister said on interview “it nearly took an Archaeological dig to unearth this.”

The dimensions are 16″long 17″around the top and weighing in at 3lbs 8oz not bad eh, or should I say “bon appetit” (is that right Bruce ?).

Yes just look at him a star in the making, he just loves the computer he spent neally five hours on it the other day acording to his dad only stopping when the printer ran out of paper. Its all grandma Carols fault she’s the one whose tutouring him and he sure is a fast learner so “watch out Mot”you could have some competition!

Yes thats right its been rather slow locally on the birding front with very little movement at all even had a look down at St Mary’s on Wednesday with no reward,although we have’nt had the best of weather with those strong winds it tends to keep the smaller birds down in the undergrowth.
My mate Bobs been having better success on his recent visit to Thornley Woods he managed to take this great photo of a Jay, apparently this was the best of about eight shots because these guys dont stay still very long.

Fancy a nice brisk walk down the Dene to clear your head of all those cold bugs was the request from my good lady it’ll do ya good says she, ok I’ll get ready was my reply just put hat and scarf on when she notices little rain drops on window I think it’ll blow over!. One mile into walk when little voice says its raining heavier now,two miles into walk when little voice says its running off my hair and down my neck, how are you says she? same as you dear the scarf I put on is soaking up the rain from around my neck, with another mile still to go yep you guessed it sopping wet as we arrived back home.The moral of this story is wife not always right and is now suffering from water on the brain.

Arrangments had been made by Scott and Diane(Billy) to have Carol and I round for a meal on Tuesday night, although I had suffered a bit of a relapse from my head cold (still not moaning) we decided to go ahead with the arrangment anyway as rumour had it” it might be steak”. Calling at Sainsburys on the way to pick up a nice bottle of red to accompany it in antcipation, as the flat door opened I knew we wern’t going to be disappointed the smell was terrific, Billy had been late getting there but she had Scott well organized, then came the call “how do you like yours” medium just showing a bit of pink in the middle was the reply and boy I wasn’t disappointed, it was beautiful.Thank you both for a lovely evening.