Author: Mrs Madden

I hope you like it Charlie – I tried my best.  Mrs.  Madden.

The baby swallows fledged this morning – the nest is now empty.  I took one last photo of them yesterday because I knew it wouldn’t be long before they began to fend for themselves.  I hope they manage to survive the rest of the  Summer and their long flight back to Africa.  Mrs. Madden.

 

I have taken a couple more photos of the swallow chicks.  Look how much they have grown!  I think they will fledge soon.

As promised, I have been keeping an eye on the swallows nesting in Millie’s stable.  The chicks have hatched and I managed to get a photo of them.  I also took a couple of photos of one of the adult birds when it was visiting the nest.  Mrs. Madden.

I am feeling quite pleased with myself because I was able to get a photo of the larvae of a Green Dock Beetle, so now I have photos of all it’s stages.   Mrs. Madden.

I spotted a male Orange-Tip butterfly (the females have no orange).  They spend the Winter as a chrysalis and emerge in Spring.

 

 

 

 

 

I also spotted a Cockchafer or May-Bug – it was caught in a spiders web and had died.  It is quite a large bulky beetle (20-30 mm in length).  It flies at night and often crashes into lighted windows.  It can usually be seen between May and July.  Mrs. Madden.

Origami Bookmark

I know that some of you will already know how to make one of these because we have done it at school but others may not, so I am going to go through it step-by-step.  You will need a square piece of paper, a glue stick, a white sticky label or white paper, a pair of scissors and a black felt tipped pen.

 

 

 

 

 

I started with an A5 piece of paper (that’s half of an A4 sheet) and created a square by lining up a vertical edge with a horizontal edge, creating a diagonal fold (as I showed you in my previous origami blog).  Fold your square piece of paper diagonally to make a triangle.

 

 

 

 

 

Fold up the bottom right corner of your triangle so that the corner touches the top corner and the edges line up and crease it.

 

 

 

 

 

Do the same as above with the bottom left corner of the triangle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfold then fold the top corner of the top layer of the triangle down so that the corner touches the centre of the bottom edge.

 

 

 

 

 

Fold the two bottom corners of the triangle up again and tuck them in behind the fold you have just made and crease (make sure they are tucked all the way in).

 

 

 

 

Now you are ready to decorate your bookmark.  This example is of a frog I made.  I cut out two white circle and stuck them onto some green card.

 

 

 

 

 

I cut out around the white circles leaving some green card showing and drew on some eyes with a black felt tipped pen.

 

 

 

 

 

I stuck the edges of the eyes to the back of my bookmark and drew on some nostrils to make the frog’s face.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some other examples.  I know of one young man who may like the fox and I think another young lady could make a wolf bookmark.

 

 

Sorry I’m late with my whittling post this week – I have been working at the hub this morning.

Today I’m going to show you how to whittle a small bird.  The one I am making is officially Britain’s smallest bird, the Goldcrest.  I have used a hazel stick.  I sawed an 8 cm length off the end of my stick.

 

 

 

 

I used my hatchet to take a little wood and bark off the sides of the piece of wood to form fairly flat sides.

 

 

 

I stripped the rest of the bark off using my whittling knife and drew an outline of the bird I want to make.

 

 

 

 

I used my workbench to firmly hold my piece of wood while I cut off the larger areas of wood outside the outline I had drawn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wore my cut resistant glove and started to make small cuts with my whittling knife to, gradually, shape the little bird.  I use a photo of the bird to keep referring to as I whittle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have some swallows nesting in Millie’s stable.  They nest there every year and this one is no exception.  I am pretty sure that some eggs have been laid in the nest as the swallows have been sitting in it but I haven’t managed to get a photo of them doing that.  This is the nest and I’ll keep you posted on what happens.  Mrs. Madden.

I managed to get some photos of the sparrow that is nesting in my nest box on the side of my house.  I had to be very patient as the sparrows weren’t keen on me being there.  I took the photos through the glass on my patio doors so that is why they are a bit hazy.  Mrs. Madden.