"No. What's it like?"
"Well, it's big.....and made of wood."
This came as no surprise. Lovely Warden is very good at making anything you need, as long as you need it to be big and made of wood. The Wizard's Staff we commissioned him to make as one of our Halloween props must have been 8 feet tall. He did cut a bit off the bottom at our request, but you'd still need to be a 7 foot tall wizard to wield it properly. The bicycle racks he created could stop a tank. "Sturdy" and "robust" and "that's somewhat bigger than I imagined it would be" are the words that spring to mind when you witness one of Lovely Warden's creations.
The bird hide in question is part of the new nature walk that is being created over the closed winter months. "Do you want to come and look at it?" asked McColleague.
So I donned my welly boots and set off with McColleague into the woods.
"There," she pointed, as we reached a clearing. "Behold, the Bird Hide!"
"It's a bit bigger than I expected," I said."Yes," agreed McColleague. "When I'm inside it I can only just see out of the window so he'll need to build some kind of step for kids to stand on."
It is a good height for me, though. We went inside and waited for the birds to appear. Lovely Warden has nailed many of his handmade bird boxes to the surrounding trees and crafted mighty, monolithic bird feeders and tables to install in the clearing. If you wait, patiently, quietly, in his bird hide you may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the man himself, putting out food for the birds, to lure them to his avian Eden.
14 comments:
Truly a behemoth amongst bird-hides...clearly Lovely Warden is a force to be reckoned with...
Continuing a well-worn and now over-familiar theme, I suppose you could build some internal steps out of all the surplus mince pies you'll be moaning about in two months time!
Birds live in nests! You'd never get one to hide in there - it's too big. You've got to get up early to catch me out.
Cogidubnus - Lovely Warden thinks big, it's true. Ah, yes, the mince pies, of course! Funny how they stick around but the Easter eggs are gone by the end of the week.
Reg - damn, outwitted again!
Its certainly impressive. I admire people who are good with their hands and can rustle things like that up from a rough pile of sticks on the ground.
Birdwatcher - it is a talent I am very glad he has. We only have to sketch something for him on a piece of paper and he will make it for us. (Big and out of wood, granted, but the vision is actualised, nonetheless!)
'bigger than i expected' is never a disappointment.
If you say "actualised" again I shall come round and file your hair down!
Monica - there is that....
Reg - Actualised!
(Puts on hard hat).
To judge by the photo, McColleague is a real corker...phwoar eh (know what I mean) eh? wink wink, nudge nudge, ooh wicked!
(heh heh)
Mutley - say no more!
The last couple of times I've sat in a bird hide to watch the birds feeding, the one that arrived for a snack was a sparrowhawk.
Stitchwort - yes, I did wonder about that possibility - that the predators will surely be attracted to all the little birds. The consensus of opinion was it all makes for interesting viewing.
Does that bird hide come with a mortgage? It's huge!
Am very envious.
I'm thinking of Hagrid in his woodland hideout now!
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