The bird house at Bag End...

It started out as a bird feeder hanging from a cane.

The feeder had hung for a year from a post, brim-full with Niger seed, waiting for the finches to appear. Niger seed guarantees goldfinches or so I’d heard, but a year on from hanging and not a single goldfinch had appeared.

‘It needs to be higher.’ I decided one day, so off I went to get a cane.

Now when I look at something for a long time I begin to see its potential, and I spent a long time looking at my cane waiting for the finches. ‘Perhaps it needs a spar or two, and a couple more feeders’. So off I went again to get another cane and to rummage in the shed for the half a dozen feeders that I knew were buried under the high- piled spades, garden chairs, and barbecue paraphernalia.

It grew from there. One day it rained and the bread that I’d put on one of the feeders got soggy; ‘it needs a bread shelter’ I thought – so, three small canes, a couple of plastic plant pot dishes, and a small amount of swearing later it had one. ‘It looks a bit bare’ – so, off to the beach to collect twisty driftwood which I carefully wired to the canes. ‘The bottom needs some colour’ - out with the electric drill and half an hour later five clay pots, planted with newly bought Hens and Chickens, were screwed to the driftwood like a tiny hanging garden of Babylon.

I added a grey slate shelf, replaced a rotting feeder roof with more slate, installed a dish for water, wired more driftwood - and before I knew it I’d built a bird feeder that Bilbo Baggins would have been proud to have had standing in his garden at Bag End.

I’ve had sparrows and tits come along to feed, I’ve even had a robin - but as yet the goldfinches still haven’t appeared…

Perhaps it needs another level.