SHARING NUTS WITH MY BALCONY BIRDS

I hope you enjoyed the festivities. We did, and after we had eaten and opened our presents we played two games which my son Marco Paulo brought with him, and both Eva and I laughed so much until our sides ached. They were really fun games and everyone had a great time. I just can't remember the names of the games but when I do, I'll let you know..We celebrate both the Eve and the day as a family, so today was a day of rest for me and this morning after saving some dried fruits and nuts left over from Christmas to eat with my Weetabix breakfast, I  saved half to share with my balcony birds. They really enjoyed the Pine nuts, Walnuts and  Hazel nuts I mixed with the peanuts. It also attracted some more birds to the feeders Robins, Blackcap  and Jays. I didn't manage to capture a photo of the male Blackcap however. but here are a few that I did manage to photograph. If some of these images are out of focus put it down to the consumption of too many naughty but nice glasses of Champagne drank over these three days. :)

The European Robin in the shade with a broom handle on the right, :)

                                                        Two Eurasian Blue tit images

                                                                    European   Robin

                                                        Two Eurasian Blue tit images

Green stinkbug on the balcony

Eurasian Jay

                                                                                 European  Robin.                       

                                                                                Coal tit

                                                                    Eurasian Blue tit

Eurasian Jay

My Jade Plant  Crassula ovata has been in flower for weeks now and shows no signs of  fading, there are even buds yet to open. It's a pretty sight on my balcony.

                                                        A male Chaffinch seen from my balcony.

Crested tit

Same male Chaffinch.

                                                    Greenfinch which only eat the sunflower seeds.

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.