SEASONS GREETINGS

THE SEASON'S GREETINGS.

Just a few warm words of friendship to my blogging friends I send you all good wishes. May this festive season be filled with happiness, good health, laughter, and love, and the New Year bring you everything you desire, and loads of love because you can never have too much,  Warm hugs to everyone.

THE COAL tit periparus ater and The Great tit parus major

Dear fellow bloggers due to my computer getting spoilt, I have been unable to blog or explain why, but now I am using a familiar computer which used to belong to my late husband, it isn't new, far from it, but it works better than mine used to do. It has taken such a long time to start blogging again because my late husband's computer was absolutely full, and it had important items of information which had to be sifted through, and I also had too many photos that hadn't been deleted.  It was so frustrating because I missed you all so much and many thanks to those of you who stopped by just to say hello  and wish me well. it was so nice of you to think of me and I am looking forward to visiting your much appreciated blogs. It really feels good to be starting a post today. I hope you enjoy these few bird images. The Coal Tit and Great Tit are birds I see more frequently, but the Great tit is so timid that it is extremely difficult to capture on camera, and whilst the Coal tit is usually most confiding, it is also beginning to exhibit the same kind of behaviour, so I haven't taken many photos of either bird.

 

The Coal tit.

The next 6 images are all of the Coal tit.

This photo and the next are my favourites

This and the  following photos are of the Great tit

The male

The female.

The female.

The male

There you have it,  birds that visit my balcony in the dozens every day, but fly away with food to eat elsewhere.Now that the trees are bare of leaves you would think it would be easy to see them, but they hide in bushes and in conifers, but I'm hopeful that other species will eventually appear so I can also share them with you. See you soon! Warm hugs to everyone.

MINIATURES

Thankfully it has been raining heavily for two days, so now the fires are well and truly out, and the garden has also benefited from these downpours.We have also been experiencing very unpleasant blustery winds that lift the fallen leaves swirling high up into the air, and there is also an autumnal chill in the air, so there has been no chance of being outdoors in this sudden change of weather. My daughter Eva takes me to physio and drops me off at the door and picks me up afterwards. Nothing much is happening on my balcony, a few birds quickly fly in to the feeders but just as quickly fly away, so I was without inspiration and at a loss as to what to post, until I thought of all the animals that I have collected over the years, so I hope you will enjoy seeing the miniatures and regular  sized animal ornaments I have in my bedroom

 

 

Each square measures 3x3cm

Probably best seen like this

Some miniatures only just fit, but most measure 2 cm or less

The doves on the top of the bird cabinet were the decoration on top of the cake when my late husband and I  celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary

I keep birds in this cabinet

 

 The tail feather of a buzzard is behind the birds.

On shelves and cupboards

There is also a cabinet full of ornamental rabbits and other miniatures, but it's a little more difficult to see them clearly because of the reflections of my paintings on the facing wall.

Statue of  St Francis of Assisi, Patron Saint of animals.stands on top of the cabinet

This is all for today, I will be linking to Saturday's Critters, and if you would like to check it out, go to my right sidebar and click on the Saturday's Critter's icon which will take you there, where you can see fabulous real live creatures from all over the globe.

FOREST FIRES AND MOSTLY BIRDS

Yesterday the smoke in the air was horrible, the sky was a dark yellow and so was the light. Severe fires are burning in the north of Portugal and the ferocious wind is spreading the fires out of control. The largest fire is 50 km from where I live, but even so ash is falling everywhere. Yesterday afternoon I took a photo of the sun, It looked so strange.

I have not enhanced the colour of the sky at all.

There are a hundred of wild fires all over Portugal, the main ones being in the north and centre regions These deadly wild fires have pushed the firefighters to their limit and much needed reinforcements from the Military Emergency Unit from Spain arrived yesterday to assist with the forest fires. Over 62' 000 hectares have burned already. Everything is so dry after months of intense heat, that as you can imagine I am constantly on alert for there is one in Santo Tirso very near where I live. A concerned  neighbour sent a message to say that his water tank was full should it be needed on my property as a fire had broken out over the ridge of the mountain  and it is still raging today  I went outside in the dark  last night to see if there were signs of flames, but although the sky was reddish, no flames were visible, however there were 70 firefighters combating the flames last night and aircraft's also this morning The sky is clear this morning but the smell of smoke pervades the air, and I can hear the helicopters passing over my house because the fire is not out yet.

The following photos are rather dark

Three

Two

One

A closer look at the Jay looking right at me

The Wall Brown Butterfly

Pals

Camouflage at it's best

Early morning light

To finish a slightly brighter image of one of the many Great tits that visit my balcony

I will be linking up to Saturday's Critters, click on the icon on the side bar to see some amazing creatures from all over the globe.

OBSERVATIONS IN MY GARDEN AND BALCONY

Some of my plants are out of control and are very difficult to maintain whilst others receive the greatest of care, especially those on my balcony. When I moved my Hoya plant from the lounge window ledge, it looked in distress and badly neglected, and so it had been because we, the family, decidedto close off part of the house and it was only months later that I  remembered it was in there. It was a sorry sight, only had a few leaves and looked as if it was dying. I felt so guilty but within a few weeks of being on the balcony in a sheltered place a new leaf appeared and it not only survived but flourished and all I did was give it a good watering.

The Hoya Carnosa

As it grows on one side of the pot, I placed some stones that I thought looked interesting on the other side which I picked up on the farm. Stones and pebbles fascinate me, and I usually have either one or the other in one of my jacket pockets. 

The balcony is very hot in the afternoons as it's sunny from 1 pm until 7 pm but a Hoya plant cannot be in full sun, so I devised a way of shielding it from the heat with a shoulder wrap. I tied one end to a branch, and the other end to the iron gate which covers my window. The fabric is made of fine cotton material so the sun's rays can penetrate the cloth without harming the leaves.

The border of the shoulder wrap has a peacock print all the way round These wraps are very useful on cooler evenings and I have two more in different colours, also with bird prints, that can also be used as wrap around skirts Getting back to my cossetted and esteemed Hoya plant, it is thriving in it's new home, and I check it every day for new red leaves, water it sparingly and clean the green leaves with a soft damp cloth.

Some of you may remember that  my beautiful Bougainvillea was cut down to the ground last year and pulled down by the tractor. I never thought  it would regrow let alone so vigorously, but now it's out of control. It needs training along both walls when there is more time to do so,as now it is the grape and fig harvest and the men are busy.

It did flower, but I only remembered to take photographs when the flowers were past their best, but how lovely  that it flowered at all, and grew so tall. It may not look the same as it looked before but in a few years time who knows!

The  Morning Glory vine growing out of control. It needs cutting back and it will soon cover the orchard wall with it' beautiful blooms as in one season it quickly reaches a height of 15 feet. 

Please forgive me if I have told you this before. This Oleander shrub was originally a large cutting used as a stake for another plant. This plant died, and the Oleander cutting  took, and grew into this  pretty tree

This Oleander tree was pruned last year but has grown too tall and needs pruning again to half it's size or even less.

The  Amaryllis belladonna Lily              .

This blushing beauty is in flower now in the garden. It is a species native to Cape  Province in South Africa. It is drought tolerant and produces abundant nectar for the pollinators. It's long stem gives it a  statuesque appearance, but it is a toxic plant that animals avoid.

My Geranium are doing well, in spite of the visit from the Geranium Bronze Butterfly last year.

Also in  flower in the garden is the Lantana, a heat loving plant that is also drought resistant,It also attracts  pollinators but it is also toxic to animals.When I had dogs they left it alone.

I love the different pretty species of heather in bloom now in the garden. Its beautiful colour and  earthy fragrance attract the tiny butterflies and many bees to the pollen and they fly from one flower to another.

Heather is also drought tolerant, as most of the garden plants are.

That's all for now, I hope you have enjoyed this different kind of post. Photos were taken on the balcony or just outside the kitchen and front door. Linking up now to Saturday's Critters.