Feed the Birds & Happy New Year to You All

Today provided  a lesson in squirrel ingenuity as it dangled by its back feet to gorge on sunflower hearts. It is, as you have to remind yourself, all part of life’s rich pageant. I don’t actually mind feeding squirrels in moderation, but I do mind that they will spend the spring trying to break into nests and take the eggs and chicks.

I’m thinking that a little strategically placed chilli might make it move on to a neighbouring garden. This will allow nature to carry on, but save me money and allow the birds unrestricted access to the feeders.

The pigeon spent some time on the floor picking up spilled seed – one of things the squirrel is good at – there’s a constant fall of seed as it eats from the feeder. It was interesting to see, as we have a floor feeding station located near the feeder, which it seemed to ignore. Eventually it realised the feeder was there and cleared it. We don’t put much out on the ground so we don’t encourage rats, so it was good to see it cleared. The other birds I think of as ground feeders (robins, dunnocks and blackbirds) are either trying their luck on the hanging feeders or picking up from the spillage. Something else to consider.

My sister is coming round for New Year and I am thinking of ideas for snacks. The subject of cheese and pineapple came up. Then pineapple on pizza. I’ve never understood why people get so worked up about pineapple on pizza. It’s not like pizza hasn’t already been made to suffer a vast number of indignities. I like it. I also think anything that gets more fruit and more variety in the average diet is a good thing.

So I ordered pineapple on the weekly shopping. I also ordered cocktail sticks and a block of moderately priced cheese. The cocktail sticks, I was told, were unavailable. Then the cheese became unavailable. I was able to reorder slightly different ones. They became unavailable. I currently have kebab skewers coming and will use cheese I already have. What was going to the that childhood favourite – cheese and pineapple on sticks – has become cheese and pineapple kebabs. I assume that New Year is a busy time for purveyors of cocktail sticks.

In fiction they have all sorts of food problems, including cannibalism, but you very rarely seem to see a plot that hinges on the availability of cocktail sticks.

Time to go now. I may be busy tomorrow, so Happy New Year to you all.