Festive Food for Feathered Friends

It's that time of year again when our hearts go out to all the little birds as they struggle to survive the winter. Winter is particularly hard for the small birds as they can very easily die from the cold. In fact, according to the RSPB site "The smallest birds, like blue tits and goldcrests, have to effectively feed throughout the hours of daylight in winter and consume a vast quantity of food - as much as 30% of their body weight - to make sure they build the necessary fat reserves to get them through the long, cold nights." That's a lot of food! So today we have been busy making festive treats to help them survive the cold.

(Some of you may remember us mentioning this idea to you last year but it's nice to be reminded. We also like to share our photos with you ... so here's how to make 'mince pies' that the birds will enjoy, complete with pics).

First we should say .. this recipe needs no mincemeat! All you need is to keep the little foil trays that your mince pies come in.

 

You will need one block of lard and any or all of the following;
Mixed bird seed
Dried worms
Peanuts (please only the un-salted variety)
Porridge oats
Grated cheese
Sunflower seeds

Simply allow the lard to soften at room temperature (you don't need it to melt completely) and cut into small pieces. You can then soften it further by working it with a fork. Then the fun begins! Stir in plenty of seeds, nuts, etc and mix well. Spoon it into your foil cases and leave to set in the fridge. Once they are set, place one or two at a time on your bird table and see who comes to visit. We were able to make 12 'mince pies' from one block of lard so, unless our friendly squirrel gets there first, we think the birds will have plenty to tuck into this winter.

For more ideas on how to help the birds, see our blog Tweet Treats.

Homemade Halloween

Halloween is great fun and we love to celebrate it just as much as you do, but it saddens us to see people stocking up on plastic trimmings just to throw them away a couple of days later. So this year we thought we'd share a few ideas for a home-made halloween. Each of these projects uses materials you will already have in the house and they are a lot of fun to make. We think they look great too! See what you think.

Ghost Mobile

For this project you need some empty plastic milk cartons, scrap paper, a felt tip pen, scissors, thread, and a spooky looking twig.

First cut out the flat areas of the milk cartons. On the scrap paper draw a few ghosts until you get one you really like. Cut it out and you have the template for your mobile. Using your template to guide you, draw 5 or 6 matching ghosts on the plastic and cut them out. Attach your ghosts to your spooky twig with thread and hang your finished mobile where everyone can enjoy it.

Halloween Lanterns

You will need some empty tin cans, a felt tip pen, a hammer and a nail. And, of course, a tea-light.

First fill your tin cans with water and put in the freezer - this helps the cans to keep their shape. When they are frozen solid remove from the freezer with a cloth. Quickly draw your design onto the cans and, using the hammer and nail, punch holes along the lines of your design. This takes a steady hand and the cans will be wet and slippery, so be careful. If the ice starts to melt, you might want to return the can to the freezer. When you have finished your design just leave the can in the sink to thaw. You can attach a wire handle to hang outdoors, or place on a heat-resistant surface indoors. We decided to decorate ours with stars as we want to keep them for our mid-winter celebrations too.

Witch Jars

This has got to be our favourite of the three projects and probably the most creative. The idea is to create jars that might look at home in a witches house.

All you need is some empty jars with lids, some scrap paper and a pen, some time to spend in nature and plenty of imagination.

Take a walk in nature and gather any materials that appeal to your imagination. Do a little bit of research - some natural objects already have magical sounding names. What do the materials you find suggest to you? Can you find a skeleton leaf?

Will you be lucky and find a hag-stone?

If you live near a beach you might even find a mermaid's purse.

Perhaps the seeds you've found suggest pixie wings?

Spread your findings on a piece of old newspaper to dry and to give any creepy crawlies a chance to escape. While they are drying you might like to imagine what magical uses they might have. When they are dry, simply put them into the jars. If you wish you could also label the jars with your findings or write a secret spell onto a piece of paper and pop it inside one of your jars. In no time you will have a collection any witch would be proud to own. Happy Halloween.

(For more ideas for an eco-friendly Halloween, see our last blog 'Ideas for a Green Halloween'.)

Ideas for a Green Halloween

Just few thoughts for a green halloween...

1) Play apple bobbing or alternatively tie the apples on strings and let your guests try to take a bite.

2) Crochet, or macrame, your own cobweb. (we're not sure how you'd do this but feel pretty sure some of our clever friends will know).

3) Use natural, found objects such as bare twigs, autumn leaves etc to decorate. maybe even combine them to make a mobile and drape with left over wool for a spooky woodland effect.

4) Freeze peeled grapes and drop into drinks.

5) Make masks from paper plates or using the card from a cereal packet.

6) Buy your costume from a charity/thrift shop or maybe host a 'costume swop' in the weeks before?

7) Over to you!! What ideas do you have for a spooky green halloween?

Eco-friendly Pixie Dust

We know that all pixies love faerie dust but of course glitter just isn't good for the planet. So what is a pixie to do? Well here, as promised, and as a big thank you to all our facebook friends, is the recipe for our eco-friendly 'Pixie-Dust'. And the secret ingredient is, quite simply, egg-shells!

First you will need to wash and dry the egg-shells thoroughly. Next you need to break them down as finely as possible. A pestle and mortar is ideal for this but you could try using a bag and a rolling pin.  If you want to sprinkle it on your garden you could leave it quite crunchy - it may even help keep the slugs off your flowers. But with a bit of persistance you can grind it into a light dust which you can apply to your skin. Maybe dab a little on your nose for a cheeky pixie look?

You could also try using coloured sugar (like the type used in cake decorating) for your arts and crafts projects, not forgetting a little on your faery cakes of course. We can picture your pixie parties now - and all 100% eco-friendly.

Bee Kind - Plant a Faery Garden

'Where the bee sucks, there suck I, 

In a cowslip's bell I lie'

William Shakespeare (sung by the faery Ariel in The Tempest)

Photo by Lisa Jones

Did you know bees are essential for the production of one third of the food we eat? That's one in every 3 mouthfuls - so it is important we do all we can to help them. One simple thing we can do is to plant pollen rich plants for the bees to enjoy. It may not be the right time of year to plant cowslips but there are lots of plants we can use to create a beautiful bee-friendly faery garden, including herbs as well as flowers.

Simply find a corner of your garden (or use a large pot ot tub) and plant some seeds or plants such as those in the link above. If you are starting your garden from seed you may want to cover the pot with a sheet of clear polythene to encourage them to grow. It means waiting a little longer but it is exciting to see the seedlings appear. In the meantime you can collect some little decorations the faeries may find attractive such as pretty stones and shells. You could even turn a flower pot upside down and sit the saucer on top for a mushroom house.

You may be surprised to know that some of the plants that attract bees (and faeries) may already be growing on your lawn - including primroses, clover, daisies and dandelions. You could make your whole lawn a faery garden by allowing it to grow long! If this isn't possible you could rescue some of these plants from your lawn and replant them in your faery garden.  Have fun.

Click here for more info on gardening for bees.

We Love Upcycling

We all know it's good to recycle, but we think it's even better to upcycle. Upcycling is all about taking things that would have gone into the rubbish, or the recycling, and giving them a new lease of life. It can be fun to look at things before you throw them out and see if there's another way of using them, and there are plenty of ideas on the internet to inspire you. So with Valentine's Day approaching - we thought it was time to show our love of upcycling with a pixie twist. So here's an idea for an upcycled faery wand complete with a ribbon of hearts for a little Valentine's day magic.

Make Your Own Faery Wand

You will need - scrap paper, an empty plastic milk bottle, a coloured plastic bag, a garden cane or drinking straw, scissors and glue dots.

First cut the flat areas from the milk bottle. Then draw 2 different sized hearts on the scrap paper and cut them out. You need to make sure that the largest of these is no bigger than the largest of the pieces of plastic you have already cut.

Using the paper templates, cut 2 large hearts and 5 small ones out of the plastic bottle. Then cut 2 more small hearts out of the coloured plastic bag.

Layer three hearts together so you have the largest one on the bottom, then the coloured heart and the smaller milk bottle heart on top. Staple them together and bend the smallest heart in a little. Repeat this stage so you have 2 matching layers. Then staple the two layers together leaving a small gap in the centre for the cane to go through.

Cut a 2cm wide strip from the plastic bag and twist this around the cane fixing it at either end with a glue dot. Push the cane into the piece you have already made.

Cut another strip from the bag and attach the 3 remaining hearts. Tie one end onto the cane just below the layered hearts. Allow the other end to hang loose.

You are ready to make a little upcycled Valentine's magic of your own.

Frosty Weather for Frogs

 

In our last blog we were talking about how spring seemed to have come early this year, infact we had Primroses in January! Then a couple of days ago we spotted another sure sign of Spring - frogspawn! However since this first appeared in the pond the weather has turned much, much colder and some of the frogspawn has become trapped in ice. It was worrying to see and, though we hope that some will survive, it did get us thinking how vulnerable frogs are. So here are a few tips we'd like to share to help them as much as we can.

1. Keep your eyes open when out in the car in wet weather, lots of frogs are killed on the roads.

2. Build a garden pond but don't add goldfish as they will eat frogspawn and tadpoles.

3. If you aren't able to make a pond - make a compost heap. Frogs spend most of their life on land and they love to hide in compost heaps.

4. Make a frog-house from stones or an old flower pot and tuck it away in a damp corner of your garden. This will give any frogs that visit your garden a place to hide from cats.

5. Make a log pile or a rockery.

6. Try to resist the temptation to keep tadpoles in jars. Unless you happen to have found them in a puddle, or other very shallow water which might easily dry out, they are better left where they are.

7. Take care when mowing the lawn!

8. Allocate an area of your garden as a wildlife area - and try to resist the temptation to peek!

As we saw today, frogs are vulnerable! Let's give them all the help we can.

Wild Awake

 

We love Primroses, so imagine how happy we were when we spotted these in our garden earlier this week. They remind us of spring and they got us thinking about those animals that might soon be waking from hibernation such as dormice, bats and hedgehogs.

You may know that hedgehogs usually come out of hibernation in March, which is also when we usually see Primroses, but they sometimes wake early - particularly if the weather is warmer than normal. This time of year they can need a helping hand to find food, so we thought it might be a good idea if we were to put out a little bit of dog food and a shallow dish of water, just in case one wanders by. (Please never leave them bread and milk as it can harm them). As hedgehogs are nocturnal it's unlikely we'll actually get to see one, but we do have the pleasure of knowing that if one is passing through, it won't go hungry.

Maybe you'd like to do this too? We hope so.