I posted a blog earlier today called “Happy as Louis” which was not about paint at all, and I hope no one reading here thinks this change in topic does in any way reflect a diminishing enthusiasm for paint. Indeed I have recently thought up numerous very paint-relevant topics that I am eager to relay, and will do so soon.
But I’ve decided to write more frequently and inevitably I must add variety.
Right now as I write, the gloomy weather drags (after a teasing few days of instant summer last week) and few people want to think about exterior (or even interior) house painting.
It’s just weather though, isn’t it..? ..and all about expectations, and of course booking the right weekend for a UK break. That’s why I have a campervan. Me and my wife just jump in it and go to Dorset and beyond whenever the weather looks reliable. Such reliability is often only achieved some two or three days before the proposed weekend and hence the benefit of the camper van and not having to pre book anything.
This is not such a weekend, but not all bad because I found some birdseed that is proving very popular with all species on my garden’s flightpath.
There’s a beautiful collared dove feeding down there just now.
At least that’s as close as I can identify it. There’s lots of birds come, but it’s only a few, like sparrows and pigeons I can truly nail identification- wise.
Many of the others don’t quite match the pictures in the Collins Nature Guide. I’m getting better at identifying though, sitting up here in my office waiting for the phone to ring and staring out the window.
The collared dove down there is a pale antelope colour which might look nice on a wall.
Oh Jays I can nail them too – they’re a beautiful pale reddish- brown with some black and blue, but my affinity for them was tempered when I read they take other birds’ eggs and eat young birds.
Silly to feel that way I know, because it’s nature.
Speaking of predators, before I erected my bird feeder, I expended much thought and energy to eliminate the neighbours’ cats. Well, not eliminate altogether-just from my garden. One neighbour has three ginger toms. Yes three; and they are the most appalling social nuisance with their outrageous territorial scenting blighting my window sill many time. Plus, they ruined my favourite walking boots after I’d left them in the garden to dry one day. My wife went all over the net seeking a way to eradicate the tom cat smell from the boots and nothing worked-not bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, nothing.
I tried and tried to think of a way to humanely inflict psychological damage on these cats so they wouldn’t come back, but in the end I went for simply filling the gaps in the fencing with prickly things.
Anyway, the birds survive cats because they are very alert, which I suppose is a life lesson, even if you aren’t a bird.
Well that’s about it for now. The sole decorating tip of this blog being to look out for the collared dove if you want a nice colour for the living room.
Till next time
Joe