Birds birds birds (and a squirrel)

This weekend was the RSPB's Great British Bird Count - you sit in your garden, or look out the window, and count how many birds of what species you see in an hour. We did it this morning. You need to count how many you see at any one time in order not to double count - which adds a degree of complication to things. "Was that a blue tit?" I ask Neal. "Which one?" he responds. "That one," I say, unhelpfully. "That one?" he replies. We have no idea what we are taking about. It was fun though - sitting outside for an hour, wrapped up in woollies, drinking steaming coffee, and re-remembering how alive the world is, outside.

In squirrel news, the window baffles seem to be doing the job - even though we have put up two new feeders on that window, it remains un-molested. Not so the other window. Mid-morning, the distinctive sound of squirrel belly hitting glass caught our attention. There he was - balancing - just-so. He moved back and forth, reaching up, tapping on the glass as if he was testing for surface density. We came right up to him on the inside of the window, but he just looked back at us evenly, un-fussed, and continued his calculations. After a while, he paused a moment, then jumped decidedly back onto the fence. I looked up later and saw him sitting on a tree branch, staring at the window, plotting, You could practically see equations floating over his head. We may need more baffles.

I sewed the collar into the bunny shirt yesterday. It was tricky. Let's just be grateful that collars fold outwards and leave it at that.

bunnies a go-go

The bunny shirt is going well so far - as long as you don't require any anatomically correct bunnies. I only even attempted to pattern match on the front, and left the rest to fate. So far one shoulder seam has given us a rather startled looking 4-eyed, 4-eared bunny head, perhaps to make up for the (at least) 2 headless wonders elsewhere. I've been following a generic tutorial youtube video as well as the pattern instructions - thank goodness - I don't think I could have managed at all from only the instructions. Sewing patterns are like the old Mennonite cookbooks I get from my Mom where they consider "mix and bake" to be perfectly ample, reasonable, and thorough instructions at the end of a list of ingredients. The pattern in the videos is a little different so I've been trying to figure out how and why and if I need to do anything about it. I've done the sleeves and sides and am just heading into the collar and I just can't figure it out and it's driving me crazy. I mean I can understand the basic construction, but I can't get my head around how the centre seam can be the same on both the right and left pattern pieces when one overlaps - that can't be right can it? I must have missed something. I'm concerned that my bunnies won't match even where I was trying to.  Well, to be honest, I don't really care about the bunnies, I'm just annoyed that I have probably not understood something, and that I don't even understand what I haven't understood. I think I also may be deficient in the whole spacial imaging thing. I have been assessing, folding, glaring, and swearing at the collar pieces for an unimaginable part of the afternoon  (as in all of it)  and I still can't figure out which way it needs to go in order to have the bunny ears on the right side.

IT CAN'T BE THAT DIFFICULT.

can it?

insert bunny joke here

 

I've cut out my very first shirt today - is that fabric not the best ever? I have attempted to pattern match the bunnies in the front - we'll see how that goes. Could be.... interesting. I've been sewing quite a bit - it's a good mix of challenging and interesting. I made Neal a pair of boxer shorts last week (fly construction - WTF??? It took me a good two days of puzzling and confusion to work that one out).

Lockdown continues - I am quite content for the most part as long as I don't think too far ahead or, to be honest, think too much at all. It looks like it will be many more weeks of this before we are allowed to be out with people again so we just get on with it. We can go out once a day for exercise, so we make the most of that. Yesterday we went on a long 3 hour morning ramble through fields and orchards, and were treated to an amazing close up view of a very large hen harrier - (or a marsh harrier - I'm not exactly sure) These things go a long way. So did the mud. 

We did rather lose our minds last night and ordered another completely unnecessary batch of bird window feeders. We are going to have the fattest birds in Kent. When we opened the door yesterday morning, Jacques the robin was waiting impatiently on the doormat - just sitting there right outside the door as if he was getting ready to complain about the service. He is pretty comfortable around us (!!) so I've ordered some suet pellets and I'll see if I can get him to hand feed this spring.

Stay safe everyone - be careful out there x

 

Tenacity

 Well, squirrel fans, the squirrels have upped their game. 

warning: squirrel nuts

Shortly after this, he (and there is no doubt that he is a "he" now is there?!) succeeded, swinging off the feeder by one paw for a very long drawn-out  second before squirrel and feeder crashed to the ground. Neal and I were to busy watching and laughing incredulously to capture the inglorious moment.

So steps have been taken.

Behold my Beautiful Baffles

Wait - I can hear you say - aren't those just page protectors with cardboard inside, thumb-tacked to the window-sill? Why yes they are. Only the best here, I assure you. They do flap up in the wind which is unnerving for birds, squirrels, and humans alike, but so far they seem to be doing the trick.

Over to you squirrel.