National Nest Box week

It's National Nest Box week this week!  (In England - not the US, but should be worldwide). What a nice idea!  And perfect to coincide with Valentine's day.......little love birds building their nests...

Bluebirds

I should go and count how many we have....We have a lot.  So I thought I'd dig out some photos to show you them - all hand painted by our visitors.

Whenever someone comes to stay with us, we ask them to paint a birdhouse and then put it up in the garden.  When we walk by it, it's a lovely reminder of that person.

And here are some silver ones that I've made over the years:

And here are some in use by the birdies.

Well - the great blue heron is merely using it as a perch!

 

A little blue bird wanting to stretch his wings

At peace - more bluebirds

So get out there this National Nest Box week - wherever you live - and build or buy a nesting box.  It will bring you so much joy!  And now is the perfect time to get them up in place.  There is information on building them and positioning them on the National Nest Box website. 

The best part is that you can get little cameras to go inside so you can watch what happens, and listen to all the little chirps.  Give it a try, you'll love it!

Birdhouse necklaces

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, when I was making the birdhouse earrings, the first pair I made were quite large - too big and heavy for earrings - so I decided to carry on with them and make them into necklaces.


They have the same design as the earrings - one round house with a shingle roof and one square house.

Hmmmm. Guess I need to come up with names for them that aren't just "birdhouse".... Hmmm. How about "home tweet home"? Corny, I know :-D

Birdhouses

As I've mentioned in previous posts, when people come to stay with us, we ask them to paint a little bird house for us which we then hang in the garden. They don't last forever, and if one disintegrates, it is repaired twice but then........ This way, repeat visitors get to paint another one when they return!

Yesterday saw John hanging our three new 2009 birdhouses - two were repeat artists and the third was their first birdhouse! It's lovely to wander around the garden and remember all our visitors by their birdhouses. Everyone has their own individual style too, which comes through so clearly.

This one was painted by my mum:

and hangs in the jasmine on our arbor. She wanted brown paint for the roof and asked why I didn't have any. I reminded her that I hate brown and therefore don't want brown birdhouses and so don't supply brown paint!!!!

This one was my dad's and hangs in an oak tree:

The the third was painted by my cousin Caroline (and also attributed to Jamie although I don't think he held a brush - but I'm sure he was very encouraging!!!). This one is hanging in the lovely red maple tree:
Don't they look great! Wonder how many more we will get this year from visitors...... You can see how I get inspired to create birdhouse jewelry!!!