Garage Sale

7 garages in Fulham, London were sold for £700,000.
In view of that fact, my garage is also for sale.
It can be yours for a mere £100,000.

This period property has brick walls, 
an almost leak free tiled roof, azure
painted double doors and an enormous clematis,
which climbs over the roof and enters under the tiles, 
fills the loft space and encourages 
huge spiders and other sustainable wildlife.
Pith helmet and machete not supplied.
Sale does include:- 
a 37 year old road bike (tyres shot), 
17 loudspeakers of varying vintages, 
11 bits of carpet - random colours, 
3 lino off-cuts - fake tile effect, 
1 rusty wheelbarrow, 
2 tea-chests full of old paperbacks 
which never quite got unpacked when we moved in, 
113 random bits of timber that might be useful, 
2 broken bookcases - hence the books in tea-chests,
370 black plastic flowerpots, various sizes, snails included, 
1 box full of cables and other useful bits of vintage wire - needs unravelling, 
13 cans of nearly finished paint, in 1980's hues,
1 boot-mounted bike rack that fits neither the boot nor the bicycle 
and 
2,174 other equally fascinating and potentially invaluable objects. 
Not to mention a squirrel's nest - the squirrel would prefer to remain anonymous -
so I haven't mentioned him. Shhh!
 
I must add,  you can't drive into the garage 
because a wall has been built at the wrong angle 
blocking one door and a neighbour parks his Mini
far too close to the other door. 
… Also, the garage is not in Fulham.

Before the Age of the Poets...

Redpoll, Pictures of the Week for 29th February 2012

Male Redpoll in my garden, Grimescar Valley, Huddersfield, photograph taken this week. He is one of a group of six redpolls which seem to keep company with four siskins. He looks a bit like a linnet but I believe his small size and yellow beak confirms him as a redpoll.

lesser redpoll eating nyjer seed

The redpolls I see in my Pennines garden are very small birds, although my bird books describe redpolls as the same size as a goldfinch. My books are of course out of date, the newest is 18 years old. The native redpoll has been re-classified as the Lesser Redpoll, with visiting Common/Mealy Redpolls from Europe. These redpolls visiting my garden are certrainly smaller than the goldfinches, which often arrive at the same time. They all like the nyjer seeds in this feeder.

Redpolls are classed as finches but have a finer beak than classic finches such as the goldfinch.

This photograph shows a goldfinch on the washing line above the seed feeder, with female siskin on the left and female redpoll on the right. Male and female goldfinch have the same colouring, whilst with the siskin and redpoll the female has less bright colouration. The RSPB website implies that the Lesser Redpoll is an uncommon bird. I have once identified a mealy redpoll on the same feeder and it is noticeably larger than the Lesser redpolls. I feel quite priveledged to have these delightful little visitors to my garden.



I haven't altered or enhanced the colours in these photographs. Comments would be welcome, I am new to photographing and identifying these small birds. It's quite difficult, they live in different time to us, their lives and movements are very quick. I do also sometimes see wrens and goldcrest, haven't managed to photograph them, they lurk in the bushes and the conifers. 

The Twite is a Pennine bird I've never seen, they are rare. My friend, poet Char March, has been artist in residence at the Pennine Watershed Project, which led her to involvement with the Twite Recovery Project, to encourage this once widespread bird. The twite is slightly larger than the redpoll with a pinkish area on the lower back, no red on the head or chest.

Char's lovely book, The Cloud Appreciation Society's Day Out, was written after she found inspiration from both projects. It includes a poem called "The A - Z of Twite."  Her poems have in turn inspired me to put my redpolls into a poem, of sorts -

A Mature Garden

Missing

a Cacophony of kids

a Decapitation of frogs

a Nurturing of tadpoles

a Brazening of sausages

a Suckling of willows

an Ascension of Leylandii

a Cheerfulness of sparrows

a Murmuration of starlings

Extant

a Remembrance of rosemary

an Absence of skateboards

Tidings of magpies

an Arable of grass

a Sisterhood of cats

a Clambering of blackberries

an Eden of fruit trees

and blackbirds, bluetits, redpolls…

Wall, Picture of the Week for 2 December 2011

TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY

 ..was the title of a 2005 exhibition in

the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast;

visitors were encouraged to respond.

walls are barriers      if you want in

fences are barriers    if you want out

words are barriers    if you won’t hear

pictures are barriers  if you won’t see

      

Defy barriers!