Tawny Frogmouth Nesting!!

 Found the Tawny has rebuilt its nest on the same site as last year.. there he is, sitting on his untidy heap of twigs that constitutes the home for however many eggs they lay. We have seen them with three young ones in the past , so it will be interesting to see how many there will be in a few weeks time. The bird book says the eggs are a lustrous white but it does not say how long they take to hatch. Have made a note of the date I first saw it on the nest but of course, it may have been there for a few days already.

The wet weather has made a lot of difference to all the winter flowering plants. It has also stopped us from planting out our bare rooted roses unfortunately, the ground is so sodden it sticks to the spade. 
The lachenalias are flowering well but the wattle birds like them and are too heavy really to use the flowers for food and so the stems break and fall on the ground.For quite a while we couldn't make out how this was happening but then saw the wattle birds sticking their beaks in the tubular flowers.

 The shrimp plant is one of the most frustrating plants I have had to deal with. It is finally looking good and I love the interesting flowers but never know if it likes the sun or likes the shade, whether it likes to be wet or on the dry side... anyway it now has a northern position and that seems to suit it. My friend has hers in the garden in a fairly sunny position and it does well for her. I don't have a suitable place for it though I suppose I could try it in an east facing bed. However it would get all the fierce gully winds in the summer!!

 This female blackbird tumbled out of the Holm Oak the other morning and stayed in that position for quite a while. It didn't look ill so I left it alone and a little later it had flown off.
Was it drunk? The male black birds are having aerial combats at present which are quite fascinating to watch as they are performed with elegant precision. I think they too, are nesting now and they usually choose quite low positions for their nests or where we walk past them with out seeing them, the nests I mean.

Because I haven't been able to get into the garden much, I thought I better do something in the craft area.
So I have made a series of dilly bags with inner pockets to put a diary, mobile phone, glasses case, pen pocket, car keys, lip salve etc etc.
Have also made a batwing for myself but it hasn't turned out as well as I'd intended. I'll leave it for a while and see how I can improve it......