A little birdhouse for the soul...

As Google reminded me this morning, it’s my birthday again. This one is number fifty-eight, and there I was convinced I would live fast and die young. Of course I’m not complaining. Every day above ground is a good one and I still have so much to do – at least, when I get around to doing it. Despite it being my birthday I decided not to let myself rest though. Yes, generally the wicked are not allowed rest and I am no exception.

Most days I set myself a task, it could be anything from doing the hovering using my Gtech air ram (an early birthday present to myself) to potting up begonias in my new cold frame (another early birthday present to myself). Today’s task though was one I’d been toying with for months and today, my fifty-eight birthday, seemed to be the day.

If I’m honest it’s these tasks that keep me going completely bonkers and today’s task, just in case you were wondering, was to build a nesting box.

Just why I felt the need to build a small house for birds to nest in was a mystery even to me; after all you can buy a very good one for two pounds and fifty pence at Wilkinsons at the moment. An even bigger mystery was why I decided to ignore my electric saws and cut the wood by hand. Maybe I was thinking that it would be better for my soul to make a home for birds with nothing more than my bare hands, a hammer, and my trusty (if somewhat blunt) coping saw.

The wood I used was some off-cuts given me by a mate who used to build sheds for a living. It’s good solid stuff and after a couple of hours of measuring, sawing, and hammering I had a pretty good, if rather heavy, nesting box, one that I’m sure could survive a nuclear explosion and may even stand up to the Welsh weather even at its wildest.

So there you have it – my birthday nesting box, a little birdhouse for my wicked, wicked soul. I’ll be putting it up in the trees at the back of the cottage the next time we go to Wales. I have attached a rather cunning bracket thing at the back of the box to hang it with.

All I need now is a pair of birds who want to raise a family.

Happy birthday me - tweet tweet.