So we had a family of great tits that nested in the bird box Noah built. They've gone now, flown the nest already and we miss the sound of their constant cheeping and the lively coming and goings of their parents. It was all over so quickly.
It's not all endings though, we've also been happy to watch some beginnings. We have blackbirds in the garden and a few days ago one of their chicks took his first steps and shook out his flight feathers just outside our door. We all felt very privileged to see and hear this, daddy blackbirds are very, very noisy caretakers! The downside was keeping the cat indoors most of the day to give this little family a chance to find a more suitable, as in safer, place for this to be going on.
Still, what a great homeschooling natural science opportunity! We discovered that baby blackbirds spend their first few days as fledglings on the ground. We were surprised by that because it seems such a dangerous operation. In fact its because their main food sources are earthworms and caterpillars which are found close to the ground. They keep a low profile in any cover they can find. We think our little visitor had got a bit confused and left the safety of the nearby bushes then got a bit disorientated as to how to get back. His dad kept calling to him non-stop probably to guide him back to safety and several hours later when we checked again he was gone.
Incidentally if you do come across a baby blackbird bear this information in mind before you decide he's been abandoned. We originally worried about our little visitor before reading up about blackbirds and becoming aware that the noisy blackbird in the nearby tree was no doubt dad. Here's some pictures I got of the little ball of fluff and the very protective papa.
As you can see, we have a new
hammock up and it's the kids new favourite place. But when we're not swinging in the sun, planting seeds and plants or mowing the lawn, we're building. We
had some tree work done a few weeks ago which means we have a lot of
branches lying around all over the place. And aside from future firewood which needs cutting up and storing, this is also perfect fodder for shelter
building. Our first attempt? A teepee.
The children and I spent the whole afternoon finding straight
enough branches to make a support frame and then trimming
up foliage to cover it. It was such a fun project. I love seeing
the children work like this with passion and
enthusiasm, tireless until the job is done. Really all I did was put the idea out there, help find the
right sticks and make one suggestion about using the foliage from our
Monterey Pine. And they ran with it. I love that. It's survived a whole day of rain and they were so proud to show it off to their grandparents. All in all an afternoon very well spent.
Elsewhere,
those are butternut squashes beginning to poke their heads above the
ground which is so exciting and we also have rocket, salad, pak choi,
raddish, cucumber, cornichon, courgettes, carrots and tomatoes beginning
to grow. It is very exciting to see life coming from something so
small.
We have a family of Great Tits in our bird box. As I'm writing, the window open next to me, I can hear the chicks cheeping noisily. They must be hungry again. It is unbelievable the amount of times the parents come and go to nourish them. They are tireless in their efforts to guarantee their babes survival and it is really inspiring. I mean I thought I spent my entire life feeding a brood but this takes it all to another level.
I've always found birds inspiring, their song, their freedom, flight and now their tender care of their young. Now I know it doesn't perhaps do to assign to much of our own range of emotions to what can easily be labelled survival behavior in a bird but I honestly feel that in their tireless devotion to nourishment these little friends show as much loving care as we do in a lifetime for all out fine words and lofty ideals. At the end of the day nourishing our children is probably one of our most important jobs as parents, be it physically, emotionally, intellectually or otherwise. And these little birds, well these little birds remind me of that daily.
For a long time we've been planning to make a sauce and blow us some giant bubbles. We all love bubbles, many a time I've used them to distract from an angry moment or soothe a tired and sad little soul. And so what could be better than giant bubbles?
I mixed the soup up one evening so it could sit overnight as I'd read it worked better when it was left alone for a while. The first day we tried was a blustery, coldish day with quite a bit of humidity in the air. I'd heard damp days were better but we found out that wind is a disaster, we couldn't blow a single bubble! The kids quickly got disappointed and as it was a week of single parenting I forgot all about it and left the bowl of liquid out there for a few days festering.
Well festering can't have been too bad because several days later we decided to have another go and what joy, giant bubbles floating across the garden, up and away into the sunny skies. The weather was a lot drier and their was little to no wind.
Since then the mix has stayed outside and is slowly being used up as and when anybody gets a feeling they'd like to blow a bubble.
Here's the mix I used more or less, we did have to tweak it a bit.
- 1
cup Dreft washing up liquid (Dreft is Belgian, I heard it worked well
for this so picked it up last year when we were in Brussels but I'm sure
other brands work well too).
- 4 tablespoons glycerin
- 4 tablespoons cornflour
- 4 cups water
A word about wands, we began by making wands out of string and plastic drinking straws as described in many places. They did not work at all, the mix completely failed to adhere to them. When we tried again I fashioned some largish wands out of pipe cleaners attached to sticks and these were perfect. They were much more rigid than the string and I think that's what meant they worked better.
I hope you enjoy it too if you give it a try. There really is something magical about bubbles.
