Hi Jules, sorry to butt in on your conversation with Brian but just wanted to say how lovely to be given your new butterfly box and bird table, I am very jealous. I do have three hanging feeders though, specially caged for little birds, and know what you mean about getting such pleasure from watching them. My lot are so tame now that I had to shoo them away yesterday so I could add more food! My recent birthday present was to have my garden "blitzed" after months of neglect so if the weekend is nice (Saturday is loooking good at the moment) I hope to be sitting out with a good book and chatting to my feathered friends.. take care  Sue x

Hi Jules,

Here is the photo I promised of my new sanding gadget and a photo of the base of a round trinket box that I tried it out on. Will post more in a day or so

 Wishing you a peaceful weekend, hugs, Brian.[[]]

Hey susu

Love others joining in chat. Am very much into my wildlife (have  not pets!!) as are the kids/grandkids. Pleased to say new bird table cannot be 'breached' by the pigeons so now my little feathered friends will get a better look in.  It is just a couple of feet outside my patio doors (hanging feeding station is at end of garden) and the robins are very cheeky.  As and when the weather turns cooler (not yet please!) I will provide more variety but for now its just  general seed and niger seed (for goldfinches).  The butterfly box is a lovely addition (hubby had a toitoiseshell butterfly in his room just a few days before he passed away and this has been chosen as his 'emblem' as far as family and friends are concerned).

How wonderful to have your garden blitzed (I watch Alan Titchmarsh's makeovers with envy ha ha) and to hope you get a good weekend to make the most of the outside.  Today is very warm and apparently tomorrow could be hotter so fingers crossed for we can both get some reading done.  Have a good weekend, take care  Jules x

Well done Brian, seems as though you have found a good answer to your sanding needs - will you offer it for sale at your next show?  Love the little bowl (am a great fan of all things wooden) and often look things over at the market (we have a couple of regular 'woodsmen' selling their wares and  I love the craftsmanship involved).  I do have a very large bowl (keep pot pourri in it) which has a rugged finish but is looking a little tired - any recommendations as to whether I could treat it?

Hope you and Mrs B have a peaceful weekend.  Take care  Jules x

Hi Jules, well, that was a bonus.. the forecast had been for cloud but obviously the clouds didn't get the memo and it has been glorious, so I spent most of the day reading in the garden and tweeting (and no, I don't mean the social media thing!) Sadly, didn't see Mr.Titchmarsh but all the pesky weeds were cleared, the plants tamed and the paths cleaned so am very pleased with the result. Hope to be joining you in the sun again tomorrow, so to speak. Happy reading.  Sue x

Hi susu

Glad you are able to make the  most of this weekend's weather (next week looking very wet but the plants will benefit as will my arms - lugging the watering can to the planters is a bit of a chore!!).  Was out and about until mid-day yesterday and then, with garden having no shade, forced inside as too hot for me to sit out.  I was however sitting close to the patio doors and enjoyed our feathered friends comings and goings plus bees and butterflies - very peaceful.  I managed a bit of reading too but still find it hard to concentrate. I used to be able to sit for several hours reading outside (hubby was an inside guy and had fair skin so stayed out of the sun and found sitting in the garden 'boring') but hopefully time will come when this once much-loved past time will return. Not sure why this happens.

In mid afternoon I ventured into the front garden and got the weeding/tidying done - everywhere very quiet as a number of neighbours currently on their holidays with their kiddies so, like you, felt a bit pleased with myself.

This morning I am being rewarded as having re-filled the bird feeders last night I now have goldfinches, blue *** and the robin busy, Next door neighbours have a rather stagnant large pond (thankfully not smelly though ha ha) and two ducks just flew down. Had brekkie outside and am off to take my Sunday walk around 9. It takes about an hour to walk to our lovely local garden centre and I Have a gift to buy for my sister in law (have seen a windchime there before so hope they still have it!) and want to get some cyclamen for the area under the honesuckle (as apparently good for dry shady areas).  With a bit of luck will get them in prior to the forecast rain arriving.  Have a good day and take care.Jules x

Hi Jules, hope you had a lovely walk this morning and also managed to find the windchime you were after?Trust the plants you got were nice & light if you had to carry them for an hour on the way home! Like you, several of my neighbours are away so I am really enjoying the quiet. No kiddies but my immediate neighbour has a yappy dog which she shouts at very loudly, it then yaps even more and so it goes on..

Just starting to get cloudy here now after another beautiful morning and am looking forward to, and also dreading, the rain. Good because it will give the garden a soak but not so good because it may also give my kitchen one too! The roof started leaking after that dreadful rain we had the other week so they came on Wednesday and painted on some thick gooey stuff which sadly didn't work as was proved when it rained again that evening. They came back on Thursday though and had a more thorough go using cement to fill the cracks between the stone and also more sealent so fingers crossed I won't need the strategically placed towels!

Bought more goodies for the birds today so that should keep them happily chirping away for a bit.

Take care  Sue x

Hi susu

Hope the kitchen stayed dry.  Had this problem a good few years ago when got up one morning to find the rain indoors!! Sadly too far gone to patch so we ended up with new flat roofing.

Good sunny walk and ended up being too early for the garden centre so sat on the seat and watched the world go by for 15mins (obviously walked too fast ha ha).  I bought four cyclamen plants, three bags of bulbs, two bags of bird seed, two potential Christmas gifts and the item I went for in the first place, the windchime. Had a coffee and then began the walk back.  About half way home it began to drizzle and the bags were a bit heavier than I planned.  I cheated and caught a bus.  Luckily that got me home before the heavens opened,  Once the rain shower passed I got outside and and put in the plants.  The bulbs I will 'stagger' putting in over the next month so hoping for 'pretty' Spring' flowering. Even found a newt whilst I was weeding (big pond next door).  Weather outlook this week probably means gardening on hold (I am definitely a fair weather gardener!!).

Brolly at the ready for commute today(and most of the week by the looks of it).

Hope you enjoyed the peace (we also have yapping dogs ( but more annoying at night when they appear to leave them out side for a couple of hours) - other side of the service road at the back). Drive's my next door neighbour mad as he does shift work.

Am currently eating breakfast whilst watching goldfinches having theirs together with a crafty pigeon sitting underneath the feeder waiting for  'fallout'!!  Take care and have a good day.Jules x

Morning Jules,

It's raining quite hard here in Sussex and I got quite wet just visiting my neighbour. Should have listened to the brainy one as Mrs B told me to put a coat on but we men think we know better.  Still at least I wont have to water the garden. Managed to mow the front lawn yesterday before it rained. We Have now found a fourth primrose that the birds are responsible for and three of them are in flower. Think our weather has confused our plants as much as it has me. Photo attached.

was give a large piece of Cedar of Lebbanon timber which I was going to turn a large bowl to enter into our annual exhibition next month. Unfortunatly when I inspected it, I found it had splits at the bottom and top. Thought I would try anyway to see if I could glue and fill them but they turned out to be bigger once I had started turning them so will now have to make something else out of them as I dont want to waste the timber. It has a lovely smell to it.

Incidentally, when I was working several years ago at a company that produced anything in oak, I had a job to quote for a building in Jeruselem. Most times you see film of the city you see a large building with a large gold coloured round roof  which is called The Dome of the Rock. It reminds me of the top of a flying saucer. The company wanted a load of large truss type beams made for the outer part that surounds the dome. They were all to be made in Cedar of Lebbannon and were to replace one made of aluminium which were all fracturing to to the heat. Unfortunately I couldnt source enough of the requested timber so were only able to offer  them in oak. A very interasting job to quote for but we didnt get the contract.

Glad you were able to get all you wanted at the garden centre yesterday. Bet they were getting a bit heavy. So now you have planted in your garden, four sickly-men, lit up by stacks of light bulbs and smoothered with bird seed complete with a wind chime for company. We get a lot of starlings visiting our bird table and it's not until you look at them closely, you realize what a pretty bird they are with the feathers showing all the differnt colours. When I did the weeding in the back garden the other day, which Mrs B was supervising, I had a robin watching to see if I turned up any juicy worms. He got quite close at one stage but when I went to get my camera he got all camera shy and flew away just as I was zooming in. We also have a large family of Magpies that are always around.

Hope you dont get wet on you journeys to work this week for as you say the forcast doesnt look to promising. Take care, sending best wishes to you and your family, Brian.