What was the best thing you bought during lock down

A ferociously expensive soldering iron from UK. Arrived shortly before the Brex

Deleted User wrote: »

A bird feeder

Ive turned into some weird ould lad now,

Taking pics and looking up what the different birds are,and buying different types of seed for em

Yes I've had one for a while but now that I'm at home I can look at them all day.
You see the different bird hierarchies where I live, seagulls are top of the food chain and can take whatever they want whenever they want, but they don't show up that often.
Starlings are nutjobs.
I love magpies, I noticed lately that they get bits of food and they hide it in my garden for later, under bits of bark or leaves, really smart. They also dip bread and other stuff into water I leave out to make things more palatable.
The highlight of the summer was when there was a sparrowhawk ripping a smaller bird apart on my back garden wall, I nearly died with the excitement.

Blue tits are cool, I haven't seen any gold finches yet unfortunately. I love wood pigeons they're so stupid and dumb looking and fat, but any time I try and give them food they fly away and others eat everything before they come back, idiots.
Just around the corner from me we get flocks of brent geese feeding, they fly right over my house, wek wek wek wek wek wek, these fellows come all the way from Greenland every year, to Raheny of all places.
I'm going to get binoculars eventually, this is where I'm at.

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Leave out cabbage or kale leaves for the wood Pigeons, or grow them some Wheatgrass if you want to spoil them

Would they eat lettuce? I have loads in fridge. The sign in my local park says not to give bread to the ducks, give them lettuce it says. So I brought some down a while ago and they saw me and all came over, threw the lettuce in, they sniffed at it and turned the duck armada around, zero interest.

I bought a bird house feeder from https://www.electric-fence.co.uk/. I love it. I've loads of birds. I agree the thickest are the wood pigeons. The most nervous are the collared doves followed closely by the blackbirds. The blackbirds and thrushes LOVE grapes. I cut them in half to make sure they're not a choking hazzard. They gobble them up.

The tit family are the bravest. They are so fast.....

The nyjer seeds are a waste. In general none of my birds are bothered about them.

The suet balls brings out the worst in all the birds. They scrap over them even though I refill them regularly. It's like their cocaine.....

I bought an outdoor pizza oven that I love too. An Ooni Koda 16 - massive hit.

Paint !

Load of photography gear. Would have bought it anyway, but I was saving loads working at home so it was guilt free. Downside is I take landscapes, and there ain’t a lot within my 5k...

Pipmae wrote: »

I bought a bird house feeder from https://www.electric-fence.co.uk/. I love it. I've loads of birds. I agree the thickest are the wood pigeons. The most nervous are the collared doves followed closely by the blackbirds. The blackbirds and thrushes LOVE grapes. I cut them in half to make sure they're not a choking hazzard. They gobble them up.

The tit family are the bravest. They are so fast.....

The nyjer seeds are a waste. In general none of my birds are bothered about them.

The suet balls brings out the worst in all the birds. They scrap over them even though I refill them regularly. It's like their cocaine.....

I bought an outdoor pizza oven that I love too. An Ooni Koda 16 - massive hit.

we have goldfinches and siskins who love the nyjer seed. fat balls bring rats around the place, i would never use them.

pm1977x wrote: »

Wahl hair clippers back in early March, should have done it years ago, even when out of lockdown it means no more queuing at the barbers, no more forced chats about holidays/sport/weather, I can have a haircut anytime day or night that suits me, and it has already paid for itself several times over.

Ditto. Although in hindsight I should have got a wahl, I bought some cheapo one which works grand.

Build a treehouse for the kids and insulated it properly. They now spend 3-4 hrs a day in their den during winter. It is keeping me sane at the moment

Did you smash it wrote: »

Got a clippers but my best purchase was actually dyeing my hair blond. Always wanted to give it a go but lockdown afforded the right opportunity to do it.

This year want to and will get a motorbike as well as the license and also would love a racing rig for gaming but they cost 7k or something so it’s gonna hurt the pocket too much I think.

Mid life crisis?

1st lockdown - springer spaniel, just before prices went mad. he's made such a difference to all of our moods, and gets us out to play and go for long walks. The other day my 15 year old son, who is not prone to spontaneous emotional declarations and hasn't voluntarily given me a hug in years, was cuddling the dog and telling it how much he loves it.

2nd lockdown - after spending the first 6 months using a cobbled together home office set up - i bought a standing desk, monitor arms and gaming laptop. such a difference.

3rd lockdown - following months of toing and froing with Vodafone, i got an iphone 12 pro max upgrade for €250 during the week.
older kids are on a fitness kick and looking for home gym equipment. looks like i'll cave in today.

Plant pots. I try to grow plants from any seeds I can get my hands on. I have a dozen clementine seeds germinating right now. No clue what I am going to do with all of them as I live in an appartement...