Pinkish is the new red

We finally stained the picnic table but it can be said that the colour is not reflective of the name of the stain.

I considered calling this post, “Redwood my ass” but thought better of it when thinking about what search terms would be used that combined “wood” and “ass”.

We have had the table for a year but just got around to staining it. It has darkened somewhat but not to a degree I would call redwood.

Making lists

Now that spring is here it is tough not to start making lists of all the stuff we want to do up north.

The new picnic table we built last fall needs staining. And it needs to be broken in as we haven’t even christened it yet!

We have a lot of gardening, painting, and repairs to get on with, both indoors and out. That front door needs painting and so does the bathroom.

We have also managed to accumulate a pile of stuff here at the condo that will end up at the schoolhouse so we will have to figure out where it will fit. We are never without stuff up there.

So this long weekend we are making our lists. Here’s hoping we get some of it done!

Bye bye birdies

I have never known birds of different species to flock together. The very concept is unimaginable. Why, if that happened, we wouldn’t stand a chance! How could we possibly hope to fight them?

— Mrs. Bundy, elderly ornithologist, The Birds, 1963

Mrs. Bundy didn’t know her Woodcock from a Bearded Tit. Yeah those are real bird names. Look it up.

 

This past weekend while at the schoolhouse I realized I miss feeding the birds. It was a daily chore at our house to fill the metal bowl with sunflower and other seeds and head out to the bird feeder. It made for a pretty view in the winter, with Blue Jays and Chickadees flitting about and in the spring it was always nice to see the return of the Robins of course.

And while it was a constant battle to keep the squirrels at bay, we didn’t mind when this fat fellow stopped by and ate until he waddled off after a flying leap to the nearby picnic table.

We're not sure how he got up there but gravity helped with the descent.

Here in condo land there are strict rules against feeding the birds. Though there was that one time a wayward Canada Goose made its way to a third floor balcony in search of lunch. He left unrewarded.

And now it seems a bit of a tease to feed the birds on the few weekends we visit in the winter. Perhaps come spring we’ll get back into the habit.

When I do start again I’ve found some good information from the US-based National Wildlife Federation.

Create a bird-friendly habitat

All good ideas. And as for brush piles… we’ll let’s just say we have that one bullet item covered.