3. Yes the eggs in the nest can hatch in the birdbath sometimes which is a nuisance. It's happened to me a few times, even before the gold chicks. If you have a magpie or cuckoo egg in the nest & the gold chick hatches in the bath it doesn't crack the egg, it remains intact in the nest but if it's a regular chick that hatches in the bath then you lose the egg. I need 3 crane and 5 cuckoo for my eggs and there's not a lot of very well set up gardens. However I don't want to keep wasting underwater seeds in the hope the gold chicks will hatch in the birdbath (with no eggs) so I'm just going to concentrate on the easy quest just now while I keep looking for birds. It's too nice to sit indoors today though so I probably won't do much hunting today. It's a relief to get all the vases finished and not have to hunt chicks any more x

2. I suspect Octopus will estimate our had bikes from our use in previous years but if I think they are charging too much I will query it as we used the log burner last winter so didn't have the heating on quite as much. At least now you know what your pressures should be so you can ask them on each visit. I'm glad Charlie had settled in well at uni. I'm sure he must miss you too and it's nice he keeps in touch regularly. My new laptop is coming today. I don't know much about computers but wanted something speedy with plenty storage. Battery life & weight doesn't matter as it's only used in the house. I spent a couple of hours researching then, reading reviews etc and it's an Asus Vivobook 16" screen. It's an Asus I have already but I didn't go looking for that make, it just came in the top 3 on a lot of sites I looked at. I wouldn't have cared if it was Dell, HP, Acer, whatever, as long as it scored well. An apple macbook seemed to come out top a lot but I've never had apple. I think the iPhones are overpriced & 'm happy with my android phone. A friend always has apple & says it has built in security which saves you money in the long run as you don't need to pay extra for Norton but when I researched that, it said that although apple does have good security that it's best to add your own antivirus as well. And I think I'm better sticking with what I'm used to although, on saying that, I live the automatic car & didn't think for one minute I would every have one. Lol x

Yes, the one which showed up in the birdbath will have hatched the egg.  It's a bit of an unfortunate side-effect of using the birdbath when you also have an egg, because if it happens to get programmed onto the birdbath whilst the egg is in the garden, it will go to the egg and so mean you're less likely to get twins, unless your food is also due at the same kind of time :)

Hi Linda, I'm just home after dropping Colin off at work & doing some shopping in Tesco. It's a beautiful day, warm & sunny. The car says 16 degrees but it feels much warmer than that. We had a nice enough time last night. It was just sitting round a big table in a private room in the hotel chatting, no music or anything. We did get tea & sandwiches which was nice. I wasn't drinking as I was driving & Colin only had 3 ciders as he was working at 1100 today. Colin's mum was really tired & getting a bit sore sitting on the chair so we took her home about 2230 & then came home ourselves. It's Les's 60th birthday tomorrow so Fiona & him are off to Edinburgh today with Les's son and daughter for a few days. None of Les's sisters turned up last night, just Fiona's 3 brothers with wives, and his Dad was admitted to hospital on Friday with hearty problems so he obviously wasn't there either but Fiona & Les did go to visit yesterday afternoon x

Hi Linda, how's things? Has Charlie settled in at Uni? I am almost finished my chick vases thank goodness. I spotted the blue jay chick in your bird bath which was a wonderful stroke of luck. I was down to Blue Jay or SBL and thinking I'd have to set up eggs for both to see what I needed. I am just going to attract the blue jay the old fashioned way in the nest....unless it comes in the current bird bath. My other 2 vases are in storage. I still have to attract the last gold chicks from both. How are you getting on? It's a beautiful day here, warm and sunny so I am just going to take the dogs away down the river because dusk is coming in quickly now about 6pm. My laptop is on the blink, flashing off & on constantly but it's over 8 years old now so I'm just going to replace it. It's not as easy or as quick doing FL on the phone. Our gas meter isn't working. It's a smart meter & not connecting with Octopus so after 6 weeks of fighting with them to get an engineer out they have eventually agreed to send someone next Friday. Their customer service agents are very polite & courteous but constantly asking the same questions every time you get in touch. We are now over £1000 in credit bec

Hello, hope all is well. I have just thawed. Tuesday was so busy I didn't have time for FL until about 2200 by which time I really couldn't be bothered. I knew my shroom would go RFH in the wee small hours so decided just to freeze & stayed frozen yesterday. That's not so good about your eyes. I'm not surprised you have lost confidence when different specialists are saying different things & then you get a prescription saying the opposite of what the specialist said! I hope you don't have too long to wait for an appointment at your local hospital. Eye appts here have always been very slow but since the new NTC opened (which caters for eyes & orthopaedics) things seem to be much quicker. I was at the Health Centre today for my first annual BP review. I have lost 11lbs in weight which is good, my BP was fine & I'm hoping my blood results will show that my cholesterol has improved since last December. I was at the hairdresser as well but I will have to wash and dry my hair myself before dance class as the girl doesn't really style it to my liking. Apart from that it's very wet here this afternoon so it will either get wet or squashed flat under a hood when I take the dogs out later. Y

Morning Linda, I have just had to agree to FLs rules to get back into the game as someone read  & reported my posts to you below. I'm afraid all that has done has made me even more disillusioned with the game and less likely to buy more gold. Bah humbug x

Hello, it's lovely to see you back. All well here although we did lose a hen last night. We had Elizabeth, Alison & Helene for dinner so we didn't check the hen house. We don't need to as it has an automatic door which is set to close at 1930 just now. When Colin took the dogs out this morning he found a hen with no head at the bottom of the garden. He thinks it was probably a pine marten as they are vicious little things, very destructive & kill just for the pleasure of it. We're not sure why the hen was in the garden & not in the coop with the others. They have the run of the riverbank & the field (not our garden) and all we can think is that 1 of the girls that own the horses left the gate open at the top of the field momentarily & she escaped, then she wouldn't be able to get into the big hen pen to get to the coop. It's sad & very annoying. I'm vexed about it. Even with the automatic door I usually check that they're all in at dusk. We had torrential rain all day yesterday but it's been a beautiful dry sunny autumn day today x

Hi Linda, hope all is well with you & the family. It's not like you to be frozen for so long. I have just reopened this afternoon after 8 days off. Colin was on holiday & we were out and about & I couldn't be bothered with FL & these blooming chicks by the time we got home in the evenings. We had Thomas all day yesterday & overnight as Lynne & Ben were at a wedding. He was as good as gold but was wide awake at 0530. He still naps through the day for 2 hours so I think if I was them I would be trying to cut down/stop the naps & get him to sleep for longer in the mornings. I took him home about 1230pm today & then did some grocery shopping. I've caught up here now but am no further forward with my bouquets so calling it a day in F. I can only hunt chicks for so long before getting fed up xL

Thank you for spotting my Nightingale Chick xx