The Important Things

As I grow older and, I like to think, much wiser, so the things which are important in life change. I used to worry about my job, and the house, and the activities for which I volunteered but which perhaps, really, I'd have been far more sensible not to have involved myself in.  I still find some of those things important enough to worry about - like the house - but increasingly my attention is drawn to the small things in life, like the wellbeing of the birds which come into our garden and give us so much pleasure.

At present we have hoards of house sparrows, many of them very stupid - like they can find their way into my patented feeders but not out again - so I watch them with concern because I know that some will become food for the sparrowhawk which shot across our garden yesterday, and more will succumb to the bitter chills of the coming winter.

One thing has been exercising my mind considerably these last few weeks: the absence of a resident robin. There was a time when we used to have two or three vying for the bounty of our feeders, and their rivalries gave us immense enjoyment, but they all disappeared. So I was both happy and relieved when, yesterday, I spotted this young robin on the vegetable garden wall. He definitely has attitude, so I'm hoping he'll move in and give us a winter of pleasure.