sparrow?

I am not an expert in birds, but to me it looks like blackbird.

could very well be right - I don't think I've seen a sparrow, or at least known that I've seen a sparrow, for ages. The pic had be cropped tightly to get the bird big enough, so it's on the edge of being fuzzy.

looks like sparrow to me... well the silhouette of a sparrow...and a house sparrow... not that it matters really...but i just wanted to say i like sparrows... and nice capture...

My vision's pretty bad, and I took this on full zoom, and then cropped and "improved" it in Paint Shop so it could really be almost anything short of an albatros!

there's been a dramatic delicne in sparrow numbers, not sure whether House or Hedge, possibly both; they used to be the most common bird, but now it's damn air-rats!

sounds like a different world to me..we have so many kind of birds and squirrels...but no problems to contend with like yours at all...

hope I will once I've moved - mind you, i'd have to get pretty close or use a telescope to see them - and then comes the identification! but oh, it'll be a very happy puzzle to work out.

lol problems are relative: i'm unlucky compared to some, but blessed when compared to others!

you seem very positive!!! and a doer... do you like the scents a lot in plants then?? smell and touch are wonderful senses too... i do no know what makes me ask you that...but i tend not to use my sense of smell as much as i should... i think!!! unless someone says sniff this or can you smell that... ive seen written on here that one can recognize a plant by its perfume...

our sense of smell is the most "instant" and evocative of all our senses - one whiff of a scent and we're instantaly transpored back twenty years ago. The other senses can do the same, but not as strongly as smell.

Humans tend not to appreciate their sense of smell - shows we used to be sight-hunters, not scent-hunters! there's an old experiment: get someone to close their eyes and hold a slice of onion under theirn ose while feeding them a slice of orange; the scent will overpower the taste. lol when we get a cold and say that the food tasted like cardboard, that's how it always tastes! it's just that we can't smell it any more.

When I was a volunteer at a local disabled centre, I wanted to make an "all-senses" garden - some for touch, some for scent, some for the rustle in the breeze, as well as to be looked at. Sadly, their budget didn't match my imagination - probably just as well, as i didn't have a garden at this time and a lot of my ideas would have been impractical, if not impossible.

But a garden should engage all the senses - a shrub is not much use to me if it only has the occasional small flower, it'd have to be covered in them. And foliage colours need to be strikingly different - sadly, I'm not much good with subtle changes, though at a small distance these can be "sensed" rather than seen directly, so I know there's something about them even if I can't put my finger on it.

But scent! ah, there's the biggie! I did start listing roses by strength of scent, then it occured to me that too strong a scent wouldn't be much good - in a small space, one would overwhelm the others. better to have "local" scents, slight but noticeable, and different in each area. I've yearned for a Mock Orange for years; read that this is one of the strongest scents - that'd go in the front garden, to lighten the street. And of ourse there's got to be Night-scented Stock under the bedroom window.

Sound is very important, too: gently running water is what brings a garden fully alive for me - I don't like those big gushing noisy waterfall things; i'd like a stepped fall, so that each section makes its own note - I posted a report that had been written in the 1800s, abott waterfalls and what notes they mostly sound on - lol my fantasy is to get a small fall, tuned to notes that will make a happy chord!

I'm not a big fan of windchimes, either - at least, not the metal ones that make a nasty clang. I've got a couple of wooden ones that gently shimmer (not that they have here! even with the windows fully open, there's not enough breeze to stir them). The sound should blend with the rest of the garden, not draw attention to itself.

Sorry, I've gone on a bit, but you did ask!!

are you thinking of may be using some of your ideas in your own garden like the ones you had..the more practical ones..

lol the only way to find out which are practicl and which aren't is to try them all and see what works and what don't.

I'd very much like some raised beds: apart from being easier on my back and bringing plants closer to my eyes, it'll add variety by changing levels - and maybe divide it into sections, so I can try a different feel to each. Prob is, once raised beds are set, they're there to stay, so I have to make sure they're placed exactly right. I did think of trying Snoopdog's large deep troughs (have you seen that pic? excellent work), then I can adjust and tweak the placement until it's exactly what I want.

Also want a bit of a private "chill-out" space, so maybe put the planters in a small cirle with "spokes" making small bays around the outside - should be able to get many more plants in that way.

But got to find homes for the extant plants - and the dryer! unless I put my "space" around the dryer so it can open and be used - lol don't know how "chill-out" it'll be to have laundry flapping overhead!

i might do a raised bed....or small pond and rockery...my next door neighbour has a pond its lovely...no fish but frogs all the small creatures that would inhabit a pond...i so love the dragon flies that visit....plus he has a few Italian blue bells (very vibrant) which surround partly the edge of the pond on one-side... you can but imagine the flicking light on the bluebells and the reflected water on them...beautiful sight to see.. normally i sit in their garden and paint on canvas but i spent a lot of my summer taking photos for on here :-))) (as i was not well enough to do much physical work) mind you after saying that i walked and biked miles to get some interesting shots to share...(thought to contribute that way) so others get to know me and i them....otherwise i would have been a profile with no activity..... yes i saw those what snoopdog did... great i thought...i liked another members hedge hog boxes too...

iam a bit lost about the dryer....you like to have all around you in your home too??

I'd like a pond, or a mini-pond - it'd have to be raised, partly so I could see it and reach it, partly for safety - much less chance of kids or shaky old people falling in. it'd be nice to have a seat by it, maybe one of the walls, to sit and look at it.

lol there'd also need to be an "escape ladder" - even in my "pond" here (cecycled plastic baby bath!) i tried to get a something over one side so that anything that fell in would have a chance to get out again.

And it'd need to have one side ramped so non-flying animals could get in and out - can't see frogs etc accessing a raised pond otherwise.

And maybe, with more diect sun than I get here, I could have a mini-water feature - a tiny waterfall at one end, something like that. Did think of it here, but solar power no use here, and didn't fancy running an electric lead out of the window from the nearest socket indoors! did try to find out about battery-operated motors, but kept been shown solar powered batteries, sigh

lol or maybe a pond on two levels, raised for me, ground level (or very near the ground, only slightly raised) for them. would make a lot bigger waterfall! couldn't have marginal or background plants around a raised pond, unless the "platform" ws huge or the pond was tiny. Of course, plants on the ground might work as "background" from some angles.

I'd love to see pics of your bluebells round the pond! sounds very atractive. There are some terrific artists on GoY, some have posted some of their work, any chance of some of yours?

at the moment I have three floor-standing airers, but nowhere to put them indoors where they won't be in the way. So I got a small airer and put it on the shower cubicle; i can hang clothes from that to dry, and the bigger airer can also go in there for sheets and stuff that won't hang well. it's out of the way, no way I can trip over it, but I have to phase my laundy to fit in with my showering-hair-washing schedule!

I'd probably hae the same prob with indoor drying in the new place; which is one reason I want a covered outdoor space.

i see what you mean now about drying...got a bit confused there for a moment....

may show my work one day....or some new stuff...not really to sure to be honest if staying on GoY is the best way forward for me...even tho iam talking as if i will be here next year!!!!

anything you feel ready to show, when you feel ready to show it ...

:-))