As I was preparing the fruit for the Gooseberry Jam this morning I was looking out of my kitchen window and there was lots of movement going on in and out of the Great tits nesting box. So I plugged in the camera to the TV and spied on them. There were the 2 little babies preening away, and then flapping their wings and flitting up and down to the ledges in the box. The parents kept coming in and out of the hole with food and trying to encourage them to come out into the big wide world. Then as I watched the parent left and the babies looked up to the hole and then they tried. You could see them working it out. They were each on a ledge, but then kept missing the hole and fell back down. Then suddenly one left, leaving the other baby on it’s own. Whether it was panic that set in or what but the final baby was then so determined to leave. I sat there in the floor of the lounge willing it to figure it out. then suddenly it was gone!! I went out into the garden and they were all talking to each other. I saw 1 baby sitting on my fence checking out it’s surroundings for a bit, and then it was off!!

Having a rest on my fence.

So now the nest is empty until next year. I’ll miss them till then. So with that all done, it was then time to make some Gooseberry Jam. I picked a load of fruit a couple of days ago, and they’ve been waiting patiently for me to make them into jam. I got my recipe from the Good Food website. It worked brilliantly, so give it a try if you would like. I did make a little film to show you what I did, so hopefully that’ll be up soon. Just got to label it now and store it away til we come to eat it.