To Tenakani:
Interesting. My conditions also tend to be cool (temperatures very rarely exceed 75), but not so much breezy as ultra-windy. Rain is never a problem. Just 'measured' out the garden, it's got circa 376 sq ft of growing area.
A murmeration of starlings is something to behold, the plague usually starts in late summer evenings and lasts about three months. The sky darkens, the birds wheel and spiral as they gather strands of about four flocks together and then descend like a parachute invasion. I spend these evenings banging dustbin lids and anything else available which can create a loud din: this usually succeeds in scaring them away - for a very few minutes (i.e. they fly off to the roofs of neighbouring houses, telephone wires etc., gaze at me malevolently and - when I've finished the banging - swoop down again.The noise is incredible, the morning-after smell is vile.I usually end up getting the pest control men to have a look at things, however all they offer is something which they tell me is powerful enough to mask the smell of rotting corpses.
To Kitten:
The sausages for a toad in the hole are best done in the oven. I ate my t.i.t.h. alongside mashed potatoes and broccoli - hence it was a sophisticated version of bangers and mash.
