Ruth (BYM's wife) has sent me this link. I think you'd like to see it, Rick. It's your sort of thing. Thank you, Ruth!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-englan ... eaky-clean

Little Egrets have lived and bred in a riverside meadow in Whitchurch, Hampshire, where I live, for some years now. We can rely on seeing them every time we walk that way. They are very beautiful birds.

What a brilliant idea! Only you could have thought of that one, Rick.
I can't help thinking it would also help with the problem of hens sleeping in the nest box overnight....

hi Christine, and welcome to the forum from me, too. First of all, congratulations on the excellent care you've given this elderly girl. Not many make it to such a great age. It doesn't sound as if she has an infestation, and I think you would be able to see if this were the case. If you don't think...

Lovely gallery of pics of a worker's terraced house restored and decorated as it might have been in Victorian times. None of this new-fangled nonsense!
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesig ... n-pictures

Great news - I wonder what this year's thread will bring us?

It depends on the model you have - the better ones will heat the food to simmering point fairly fast, and then can be switched to very gentle heat to finish the cooking and keep it warm. I have one, and used to use it a lot when making large quantities of mince or stew for the freezer, but now we've...

I can't think of anything - on the whole, things for everyday living have got so much better. I remember wash day - washing the clothes by hand in the kitchen sink, then carrying them dripping wet to the outside shed and helping to turn the handle of our mangle to squeeze out some of the water. Quit...

Spring has come! New eggs are always exciting, congratulations. Are they flighty?

i always found mine to be very flighty, even the home-bred chicks who were handled gently from hatching. As adults, their defence reflex is to fly upwards from the ground level where they normally live. If startled and living in an aviary or cage with too solid a roof they can damage themselves when...