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IMO, all bets are off until: 1, the forecast upcoming financial crash is over, or 2, the Autumn Budget details are laid out in full, whichever comes first. Certainly all long term plans will need to be massively re-evaluated.

We had a pair of Green Woodpeckers in the garden today. They spent their time at the water supply / little pond, and digging in the grass banks we have, retreating to the trees when disturbed. They are great to see and hear, like a yellow/ green flash when flying, and quite showy when browsing...

It looks like the wife and I will be along on the Friday, but she doesn’t do camping any more so it’ll just be a full day job. We’ll be in a beaten but reliable dark blue Suzuki Vitara with BCUK sticker on the back door. We might be found in the beer tent for 1300 if there is one :). I’ll drive...

We’ve just had a lovely dinner including a good portion of Padron peppers each. We’ve grown peppers and chillies successfully in the greenhouse before but never tried the Padron type. The dozen we ate were from one plant, and about 40% of them were hot, but they were all tasty. I think they will...

Try elm or ash for your first few bows. In my experience elm is much more forgiving as ash is liable to chrysal if the tillering isn’t spot on. Ash is a bit cheaper though. Look for good seasoned boards with the best grain you can find at a timber suppliers - you have to sort through many boards...

You can 3D print all sorts of stuff - how about a house: ..or a racing car exhaust manifold:

I think I’d try Fiebings oil based dyes. I can’t see water based dyes really doing too much.

What, no full draw picture? :notworthy2: Very nice.

Montalbano and Il Giovane Montalbano, and Maigret for me. We also watched the Astrid - Murder in Paris series, which was quite good.

Needs an antler crown, moose or reindeer.

I sub to The Critical Drinker’s channel on YouTube. I don’t agree with all that he says, but he’s often thinking along the same lines as me with regards to films etc. There isn’t much in the new releases that I like these days, and he does come up with a few gems that I might have otherwise...

It’s a Browning Elite HP5 Spec Ops. Sounds ‘tactical’ but it’s not. It isn’t the best at short ranges (say less than 6 feet), nor the best on IR in the dark, but it’s possible to work around those things, and it’s good on rechargeable batteries

It hasn’t been our experience. In previous years the little family has left for the nearest pond - in our neighbour’s garden, presumably for a particular food type and/or physical protection from land-based predators such as foxes and domestic cats. We’ve also seen polecats in our garden on...

…And finally - The Great Escape video. Trail cam worked fine. The last minutes of their escape into the wilds of our garden.

Well, it turns out there were twelve ducklings! My wife noticed them through the lounge door as the hen bird came out for some food. She has now led them into the neighbour’s garden where there is a pond and some safety from land-based predators. I haven’t checked the trail cam yet (hope I got...

As posted in another thread… For some reason we get between three and five Mallard ducks in our garden each year. Usually two drakes and one hen. We don’t have any open water to speak of, apart from some bird waterers - upturned dustbin/recycling bin lids set in the ground. We do feed the...

This morning is a case in point. My wife called me to the lounge to say that ‘our’ wild Mallard hen is now sitting on two or more ducklings, and several/many more eggs that we knew were there. For reasons only known to the hen duck, she made her nest in amongst the osteospermums right under our...

I have a couple of digital cameras and do take quite a few photos of things that appeal. There’s plenty to look at in our corner of Somerset. I use an iPhone too but for pics for day to day stuff including Tripadvisor reviews, videos and OCR/document scanning. Horses for courses.

Mice are fine, so long as they live outside. Rats are another thing. My wife likes to feed the songbirds so we will have a few rats around no matter what. We shoot them with a pop-pop from our upstairs kitchen and I have laid baits as proscribed with the enclosed boxes etc. I did try an...

Certainly looks like a buzzard to me. Probably eating a pigeon or blackbird.