And We’re Back!

Back from a nice long trip back to the homeworld, which is where we got a picture of this little fella. This picture really encapsulates the heat and colour of Karachi for me – and the ubiquitous mynah with it’s cocky attitude really drives it home, so to speak.

Will share more findings from Pakistan soon, for now I’m busy holding on to the thought of 34 C temperatures while looking out the window at the chilly UK rain.

Christmas Tree

It had to be done. When you wake up to big ol’ fluffy flakes of snow cascading down over the back garden, you must acknowledge the magic of the season. So here is a Christmas tree with some of the best presents ever! Of course such presents bring with them much joy and excitement as well as unavoidable ‘accidents’, hence the little widdle 🙂

Season’s greetings everyone!

Sunny Umbrelly!

So much depends upon the weather.

But something sunny, someone funny, can always make it seem a bit brighter.

 

Catnap on a Sunny Afternoon

Don’t you just love afternoons like these?

Garden Visitors of the Bird Kind

Since I moved to the British countryside I have learned to appreciate the wealth of wildlife that surrounds us here. I never (ever) expected that whole afternoons would be spent watching the flutterings of our little friends, listening to the variety of birdsong in the garden and talking about the latest happenings with the bird families that have made our garden their home. My husband, an avid ‘twitcher’ (the very British term for birdwatcher) is much to blame for this state of affairs. He spends a lot of time, come rain, snow or sun, making sure his feathered friends are well fed and happy. This involves many trips to the garden centre for bird food, and related paraphernalia, as well as the construction of bird houses dotted around the garden and the maintenance of the trees and the hedges. In winter he makes sure their water bowls have warm water, refreshed multiple times a day.

I have to admit I was slow to come around to ‘twitching’ but I have been won over and now prowl about happily trying to capture these frequent visitors on film. I apologize for the graininess of some of the shots, having been taken at a distance and through glass to avoid disturbing the birds, but I hope you’ll enjoy them.

The Thrush

The Pied Wagtail

The Chaffinch

The Robin

A Starling and a Blue Tit

A Starling fledgling and some sparring Starlings

A Wren and a Thrush

We are indebted to the RSPB’s ‘Bird Identifier‘and I am indebted to my twitchy husband for bringing this little wondrous world to my attention. And in case you missed it – here’s the data from the 2011 Big Garden Birdwatch.

You Call This Hot?

Ah yes – the globe is warming up – it’s incredibly hot in the homeworld, with soaring temperatures draining the life out of everyone. There’s a drought here in the UK as well, and my husband has mastered the Urdu words – ‘bohut garmi hai – itni thori baarish!’ (it’s so hot – such little rain!) in order to be able to discuss the weather (another English pastime) with the desis at work .

But me – I got chilblains a few weeks ago (caused by poor circulation, together with temp. fluctuations). My hands and feet (and nose) are perpetually frozen. I don’t get dressed in the morning so much as throw on everything I have and top it off with a big ol’ housecoat. So fashion is far away and the flip-flops, the linen kurtis and the flowy skirts of yesteryear are sadly no longer applicable as standard uniform.

Of course opening the door in my gear is always a bit embarrassing – usually for anyone on the other side. And my best friend thinks I have developed a marked resemblance to some homeless folks she’s chanced upon – but really, what is a popsicle to do?

Its hard to find anything that a) fits me at all b) isn’t hideous or hideously uncomfortable or c) warm enough for me here. But this post by Jo Klima at August Empress was inspiring, do I decided to look around a bit to see if I could still be salvaged! So today’s virtual-window-shopping time was spent on trying to dig up ways to stay warm while maintaining some sort of dignity for my friends and family. It wasn’t super successful (and I’ll whinge and whine about this at length given the chance), but I did find a couple of potential wardrobe warmers.

Like these – fair trade and fleece-lined wrist-warmers from Ethic Trade.

And this (apparently super-soft) sweatshirt from Joules.

And some snug shoes from Aldo‘s clearance sale:

Also saw these cute sandals there – but unless wearing them with thick socks suddenly becomes acceptable in polite society, its not going to happen.

*Sigh*

I want to walk around barefoot again.