Verona Strauss.comjust because life is fun! …

listening to the singing fire

This morning Mummy told me that the fire could sing! We have a wood burner and it was roaring hot with orange flames.

I asked her why, because I was surprised that a fire could sing. Whoever heard of such a thing!?

Mummy said that a wood pigeon was sitting on the chimney warming his bottom and I laughed because I thought it was funny.

Later on, Mummy heard the pigeon, but as soon as I came in front of the fire it stopped singing. I stayed there quietly and at last I heard it, making its funny pigeon noise.

It sounds like it is sitting in the back of the fire calling, but I popped outside and checked, and I could see it sitting on top of the chimney. I guess it’s nice and warm up there!

bird box made by me and Daddy

This week is National Bird Box week. It started on Valentine’s Day, so as well as showing our love for all the people we care about, we can show our love for the birds too!

National bird box week is older than me! It’s been taking place for 10 years. Last month we took part in the RSPCA’s Bird Watch week. We saw lots of birds and we even saw two of them that were on the more ‘unusual’ list!

The main birds we have in our garden are blackbirds, sparrows, blue tits, robins, wagtails, long tailed tits, starlings, thrushes and coal tits.  We have also occasionally seen a woodpecker, wrens and kingfisher. We feed them every day and it’s a great way to reduce food waste - you can feed them old bits of stale bread, cheese, seeds, burnt toast, meat scraps and Mummy’s cakes and biscuits. They love Mummy’s baking! The robins have very round tummies and I think they have a sweet beak like Daddy has a sweet tooth.

We don’t have to worry about our cat any more. She only chases cat biscuits now, but she has jumped up onto the small log to gobble up the bird food, especially if there are meat scraps or baking out there. Mostly, she just lies and watches them with us.

For bird box week, people are asked to put up a bird box in their garden. We decided to make ours, so Daddy rummaged through his rather messy woodshed and he found a piece of log with a hole in it and a little bit of room inside; just right for a Mummy bird to come and lay her eggs. The hole had been made by a woodpecker, so I think it’s just right.

The log had a hole at the bottom and top, so me and Daddy went to find the right pieces of wood to fix on it, to stop the eggs falling out of the bottom and the rain coming in at the top.

We nailed them in and then went to show Mummy how it looked. She was very pleased and said it would probably do, so this week we are going to put it up. I have my own tool kit with real tools in it and I did some sawing, nailing and found a sanding block so there are no rough edges for the baby birds to hurt themselves on.

Our bird box was made from old scraps of wood, so I think this was a good way to reuse them and I hope the birds do too.

One of the baby goats - born at the end of January

One afternoon a week I go to Poppy’s farm. When I grow up I want to be a farmer, so I need to practise some things I am going to do when I have my own farm.

She has sheep, cows, puppies, some lovely baby goats, geese, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens and cats called KitKat, Samuel, Star, Whacky and Baggy.

When I’m there I usually feed the goats some milk from a bottle. One of the mummy’s isn’t being very kind to her baby goat. I’ve taken some of the sheep for a walk and taken one grown up goats for a walk. usually KitKat sits on my shoulder with her enormous fluffy tail in my face.

I’ve cleaned out the chicken’s house before and given the cats their dinner. Once I looked after the guinea pigs and rabbits while Tilly cleaned out their cage. Tilly had a little crate for the animals but it was quite low down, so I had to stop them jumping out.

I only needed to stop one because the other was too frightened to move. The other one had very large, fluffy ears, a bit like a rabbit.

I have drunk Primrose’s milk before - she is their cow. It tastes lovely and sweet and I was once given a bottle of her milk to take home with me. My Mum gives them cakes back in return to thank them for taking care of me at their farm.