Claire's blog

My grandparents arrived on Friday without any problems, and we’ve had a good time this weekend. I’m still feeling a bit off from my cold, so on Saturday we took it pretty easy, going for a mooch around Galway. We strolled down to the harbour to visit the swans… …before walking back up into the […]

I was due to fly back into Galway on Monday, but due to a horrible, horrible cold I ended up staying home until yesterday to give me a chance to recover. The journey back went fine, right up until I was a few miles outside Galway when one of my front tyres gave up the […]

This is going to be the last picture I can take of the chicks, as I fly back to the UK tomorrow after a very enjoyable Festival. They’re very active now, and I shouldn’t think they’ll be in the nest for much longer. The poor parents have been run ragged trying to keep them fed! […]

Aren’t the chicks getting huge? Definately six visible in this picture.

Spent some time today in the sun putting out stakes and posters to tie balloons too for the Festival tomorrow, along with tidying up the studio and admiring the marquees. It seems a bit strange that it all starts tomorrow! The chicks are still growing well though, and now all have feathery wings with distinct […]

The plan was to take today off, spend some time at home, and go shopping, but with the Festival looming ever closer we popped into Patchings for half an hour to tidy up a bit. I know things don’t kick off until Thursday, but Mum will be driving down to Heathrow tomorrow to pick Dad […]

Spent the day in Patchings preparing for the Festival. The marquees are going up now, and everyone is getting very excited. The chicks are still getting larger (and still eating non-stop), we can now hear them cheeping quite clearly. The nest box is in a laburnum tree just outside the studio at Patchings, so we […]

The chicks appear yet bigger! But we’ve only spotted 8 of them today, so we think we might have lost the smallest one. Several of the ones that are left now have little wings, with markings on the feathers. Everytime they hear a noise all these beaks open up hopefully, and we can now quite […]

I was teaching a beading class at Patchings today, but we couldn’t stop looking at the nest-cam. The chicks look bigger today, we’re sure of it. I guess they’ve got to get up to the size of their parents before they leave the nest, and they only get 2-3 weeks to grow to that size. […]

I’m back in the UK, so I spent the day in Patchings working on some handouts for the bead course I’m doing tomorrow. This meant I’ve now seen the chicks on the nest-cam for myself! They look so strange, like little aliens, but are adorable nonetheless. Their eyes aren’t open, but every time they hear […]