A Birdhouse Memory

As I am a regular on Pinterest, they send me a series of pins every week based on what I have been perusing during the previous few days. Today I got bird houses, crochet (of course), Christmas (why I don’t know) and mixed media collage.

I looked at all the birdhouses, from the very crude and home made to the very intricate wood shop designs...and I remembered a time from some twenty years ago.

After living in the country for so many years, I found city living too confining, too much cement, too many people, and not enough open sky and fresh air. I bought a trailer and had it set up at a park outside of the city. We escaped there every weekend possible.

But being in all that nature, as great as it was, became, not boring exactly, but for a workaholic like myself, I needed something to do. You can only take so many walks, read so many books.

I decided to make some birdhouses, or maybe they were more like bird feeders. I was inspired by this nature store at the nearby Farmer’s Market. On the drive home from the town one day I stopped at the Beaver Lumber store and raided their outside container of free wood. Then back at the park I took a walk through the woods at the edge of the park to gather twigs and small branches.

Armed with a hammer, some nails and a small handsaw, I cut the free wood for a base, and maybe three sides, and decorated with nature’s accents of twigs and found items from the woods. Rustic is being kind.

Mine were not this fancy, for sure.

What I remember most is that the trailer was long and narrow, both doors exiting on the same side. There was a roll up cover for the patio area that we could open and close as desired. A few chairs, and a picnic table made up our outside living space, and my make shift workshop.

Needless to say the kids, with their preteen sensibilities, were embarrassed by my antics. There I was, in front of the trailer, on one of the main roads through the park, having the nerve to play with wood where all could see.

I laugh now when I remember those days. I’m afraid I have this need to create again, but am saved by doing anything out front where I might embarrass myself and annoy my neighbors because of the cold temperatures. But that just means I have all this time to plot and plan.

After all, I still have that piece of wood that I drew the tree on, the one I planned to create the tree design in cast off pieces of metal and a variety of nails and screws. All that hammering is an outdoor thing.

But now I’m thinking of birdhouses, too. Who knows what I might come up with by spring?