This week it has rained a lot after a short burst of sunshine. So I find it difficult to understand why people have decided that flipflops are now practical springtime footwear. In London when it is wet they must the the most manky thing to wear.
Flipflops are beachwear, not for cities. Wearing them does not make it sunny, wear some proper shoes and stop parading your tired feet around the streets. They may look cute in the shops, but have an honest look at 5pm on a rainy day.
reactions to life: April 2004 Archives
Having somewhat recently decided to make a bird table, we immediately attracted a host of very keen and hungry squirrels. This was not quite the desired result, as the squirrels were already keenly emptying the bird feeder in a most amusing manner.
They were simply climbing up the post of the table. So, we needed a cheap and easy way to stop them. A flowerpot is the answer, turn it upside down and cut up one side of it and then make a rectangular hole in the bottom of it. this hole should be smaller than the diameter of your post that holds up the table, Stretch it to fit over your post and then use some gaffer tape, or other waterproof tape to reattach the sides of the pot together. Finished results look like this picture and you get some mightily perplexed squirrels as a result, more photos to come.
Subsequently, I've had to add another pot so that the upper pot overlaps the lower one and the squirrels are now defeated, I think. Use a small nail to fix the pots in position on the upright of the table.
Now, instead we have attracted some urban pigeons. At least we do get some smaller birds and I suppose all the creatures are hungry...
Recently I have been rediscovering some springtime hobbies and have been surprised at my level of interest and my improving abilities in them. I've already mentioned carpentry, but this time it is gardening I mean. I'm starting to learn the proper names of plants and how they are best situated.
It struck me that these hobbies have a long gestation period, it takes time to gain the knowledge, especially in gardening, as the cycle is a full year or more for the plants to grow and flowers to form, then die. They comprise slow skills to learn, unlike many of the other aspects of life at the minute, which is very fickle. How many people will care about Beckham's sex life until the next time it is across the tabloids.
Photography is something else that I'd argue is a slow skill, you learn to control light to make pictures and so move from taking snapshots to creating pictures and become someone who regards themselves as a photographer.
Last year, Matt Jones asked about slow systems on his weblog, he got a range of responses, some of them were technology focused and some not
If he'd been able to ask about this a different forum, say The Guardian, then he might have been offered a range of different systems, from democracy to gardening.
Slow systems are more satisfying in many ways, a conversation over the Easter weekend was about jetskis, prompted by the noise of one whilst sitting on the beach at Brighton. I've been on one and throughly enjoyed the adrenaline rush of speed and excitement, but I think that long term it'd be quite dull.
My evidence for this is the continual pursuit of tricks and stunts across snow-boarding, skate-boarding etc. Mountain biking cross country vs "stunt", the younger you are then then more likely you are to do the tricks and stunts.
Maybe getting older makes you think more about the longer term enjoyment hobbies and less about the quick fixes. You do not necessarily stop doing the fast things, just do more of the slower things.
Slow things are deeply pleasurable, but maybe you need to be older to appreciate them, or at least clear of your twenties...
Over the past couple of weeks I have been in the garden and doing decorating, but the aspect I have been surprised at is the discovery of carpentry. Lucy and I mended a fence last year, by putting up a new fence panel, it was a lot of work and frustrating. This year I mended a fence panel, one which had broken in the winter storms. It was much easier and pretty much enjoyable.
So with my burgeoning interest in photography we decided to get a bird table. Having looked at the range of tables availble, which ranges from twee to extremely expensive, we bought a bird feeder and I decided to make a bird table.
I had a bit of a hunt via google and saw the basic idea, then set to work. Essentially the idea is to have a flat surface, which the food does not blow off, but can still drain surface water from, so you need a rim around the table. I gave myself 45 minutes to make the table and set to work with the saw. No chainsaw involved, though thinking of this did make me smile whilst sawing. I cut up some old planks and used screws to attach them together with shorter bits of wood underneath, look at the photo below and you'll get the idea. It was an interesting experience, having an idea in mind just thinking how to solve it. The other important criteria was to make it for free, just using stuff hanging about the house.
When I lived in Nottingham I used to have cable and watch a programme, which I'm sure was called the Nantucket Sawmill, but google knows nothing of it. I'm fairly sure it was on Discovery home and leisure, as a daytime programme. Full of men making cabinets and bureau and garden furniture, using thousands of dollars worth of woodworking tools, great fun and completely unattainable.
So I made the bird table and did it for virtually free, we had to buy the metpost to hold it up. Making things for free is an interesting challlenge.
Having a bird feeder and table has dramatically increased the amount of wildlife in our garden. We get robins, a jay, wood pigeons, great tits, blackbirds, magpies, coal tits and 2-3 very persistant squirrels. It is fascinating just how quickly the garden becomes a home to animals that must be around the corner, but as there was no food, they did not visit. We are now avidly using the RSPB bird guide to identify them and taking plenty of pictures.
The squirrels are a different matter, they are very cute, but chase off the smaller birds and have a good run at the wood pigeons too. I am now locked in a gentle battle pitting my ingenuity against their intelligence. Maybe as this
quite sweet American story says I just need to learn to appreciate squirrels.
