Month: June 2023

The Woodpecker and the Blue-Tits

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For the past number of years I’ve had the great joy of watching birds nesting in a box on our house wall. We have a wee video camera inside the box which is linked to our TV. Some years it’s been Great-Tits, other years Blue-Tits.

This year it was the Blue Tits again!. I didn’t think we had any nesting this year as the foliage around the box had been pruned back and it wasn’t well camouflaged. Also – the camera seemed not to be working.

One day I noticed some Blue-Tits coming and going and we managed to get the camera working again… only to discover the nest had been built, eggs laid and there were 3 growing chicks!

They are nearly ready to fledge and I think will be away in the next few days!

BUT… 2 days ago I heard a knocking and I couldn’t work out what it was or where it was coming from. After going outside and watching for a bit I noticed the woodpecker that lives in the woods coming and trying to make the entry hole bigger. My TV screen showed it popping its head into the nesting box and I realised it was trying to get the wee chicks… PANIC! I could scare it away… as long as I sat and noticed when it was coming around, but I couldn’t sit there all day!

Last night I woke a few times and was convinced that it was attacking the box to get the chicks again … This morning … all was well, chicks intact and Mum coming into bring grubs etc. to feed them. But I noticed the hole had been pecked at and knew the Woodpecker was still about.

Mark managed to order a metal hole guard to protect the hole from any more damage and put a temporary metal strip over the pecked part.

You see, last year, we had Tits nesting there with 6 wee chicks and one morning when they’d been hatched for a week or so, we found the  opaque glass window smashed and no baby birds there. I have to admit I was really sad, but really had no idea what had happened… until this year!

I hope we’ve managed to protect the chicks from Woody, this year, so they are able to fledge and do well, but it got me pondering again!

How it is that when we are unguarded, the attacks of Satan come to steal kill and destroy what is developing in a good healthy way. Like the Woodpecker, Satan has no other intention than to steal, kill and destroy… no care that the chicks have been carefully tended and nurtured until they are almost ready to fend for themselves… and how tragic when he succeeds in his mission.

I realised that we need to be always alert to the “woodpeckers” in our lives… Those thoughts, those people, even, who come to knock us down, belittle and destroy our confidence. we need to continually guarding our minds and what we allow to settle there so that one day we can really find freedom and fulfilment in being who God created us to be.

Psalm 147 tells us that God strengthens the bars of our gates… so we can stay secure in His Word and protection… gates being the places of entry and authority.

Let us make sure our entrances and windows of our lives are firmly secured…take up the full armour of God that we can stand against all the schemes of the evil one! Then we can grow and fly at the right time!

A Job Well Done

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Spring comes round and I don’t know if you’re like me, but I see all the jobs that need to be done in the house and garden! I make a list and don’t know where to start.

This year, there seems to be more than usual, as during last year lots didn’t get done for various reasons!  (All very legitimate reasons I must say!)

 Anyway – I have been known, sadly, to bemoan the fact that there are loads of jobs to make things look and feel better.  To “sort out” clutter, to get rid of unnecessary stuff, to paint walls and freshen up rooms… you know how it is. Mark also makes lists of things he wants (needs) to do, and sometimes we have the same items on our lists!

Mark is very good at not being troubled at the huge lists and begins to work on various jobs to shorten that list!

He does outdoor stuff when the weather is good and lots of admin when the weather is not so good. This season there’s been a lot of admin done! And that gets to me!  Because I have a list of indoor jobs that include him but don’t include admin!

So it seems to me that things take a VERY. LONG. TIME to complete!

Today, on my list was a lot of regular housey-type things… shopping, a few loads of laundry, ironing, planning meals as well as work I needed to do for Church and our Coffee Shop! Pretty mundane and none of the “big” JOBS THAT NEEDED DOING!

Anyway, I was hanging out my second lot of laundry when I had a sudden “moment” of happiness that stopped me in my pegging!  I thought, “How lovely is this- a sunny day and the pleasure of hanging out laundry and getting it dried in the sunshine!” I had a flashback to when I used to hang terry nappies out when my babies were wee (disposables were a luxury). I was really overwhelmed with a sense of achievement and gratitude that I could actually do this- hang the laundry outside, as I realised  this actually constituted arm workouts and leg stretches ( I know I’m stretching it- bad pun!)

In all this mundaneness, I was grateful that I had accomplished something and it made me see that it is so easy to gripe about jobs not done and the long list still waiting, instead of taking joy in the moment of a job ( albeit a small one) well done.

 I hope I’ve learned this lesson… to be grateful for small achievements as well as bigger ones… Life is full of the “little and often” and I forget… they are still worth doing!