And with this, I leave you

1 June 2006

Some months ago, Dad erected a plastic box on a pole near our back door. Now, I know what you’re thinking: why is there a man from Poland hanging out near our back door? Arf arf. Anyway, Dad fashioned this box into a bird-feeding paradise of holes too small for starlings to fit through, little shelves to sit on and a good layer of bird seed and leftovers in the bottom.

Needless to say, our curmudgeonly birds didn’t show a great deal of interest in the box. Apart from a couple of visits from a robin and a few attempts by starlings to fit through the holes, our bird-feeding emporium was starting to look perilously like a box of old food on a stick.

Until today! When suddenly there appeared a little diddy mouse, chomping merrily away on the seeds. John took this shot of the sweet little fellow, who was quite unperturbed by the paparazzo outside his little box. Even John’s tapping on the box and eventual gentle shaking of the pole did nothing to deter his nibbling. Mum and Dad later saw two mice in the box, before they exited and scarpered over the fence and into next door’s lilac bush. There must be a nest of little babies somewhere. I just hope I’m there to see it when the family outing to The Big Food Box In The Sky takes place.