Birdhouse fun

Our eldest son made a birdhouse in industrial arts in 8th grade. It was more than just woodwork, they had to research birdhouses and birds and design one to fit a specific bird, writing a short report on the process. That was about three years ago. He brought the birdhouse home afterwards and we hung it in the main tree in our backyard, the only one we can easily see from our dining room.

He warned us that no birds would touch it for quite a while because it smelled like people (and varnish). So we've pretty much ignored it. It remained there during our year in Australia and we continued to ignore it when we came back. 

But in recent weeks we've seen action. Lots of action! We have residents. A pair of Parus Minors or Japanese Great Tits who appear to have chicks that have hatched inside. We don't know how many, but mum and dad are very busy. It's lovely to watch them darting in and out, especially during breakfast. They've very acrobatic, fast and hyper alert. That is, hard to take photos of!

Here's the best one I've managed.

Someone else with a high quality video camera (and probably more patience than I) took this short video:

Living in the supercity of Tokyo we aren't completely without wildlife, but there isn't too much that we see in our daily lives. Crows and pigeons are probably the most common birds. Cats and dogs. Cockroaches, mosquitoes, caterpillars, butterflies, ants, and cicadas are probably the most commonly seen. The latter being very noisy in later summer. Mosquitoes are very bothersome when it gets warmer, and not just at dusk, all day long.

So it's fantastic to have our own little nature show right outside our dining room window at the moment. I can't wait until we see some of the chicks start to emerge.

Too Windy

One very calm, probably summer day.

It is windy again in Tokyo today. It just seems we've had more very windy days this year than in previous years, I'm not sure if I'm correct, I can't find any confirmation. Scenes with bikes blown over like this person photographed are quite common.

I'm struggling to keep clothes on the "line" outside. Actually most of our clothes are hung on poles on our narrow 2nd floor balcony. A couple of years ago I wrote about doing laundry in Japan. This morning I found some of my washing dragging in the dirt that's coating the floor of the balcony. The pole had blown out of the metal "V" it sits in. I brought the washing inside after that.

Most of my "laundry hangers" have
their own "pegs" like this.

Last Wednesday I also brought the washing inside after I found one of my plastic "hangers" in the garden. The gusts were terrible that day, I had to walk past the fields near our house four times and could feel the grit hitting my face. At this time of year the fields don't have much planted in them and the soil is very dry, so it just blows everywhere.

But the gusts that day must have been especially severe. It isn't common that my "pegged on" hangers blow off the pole. I'm just thankful it landed in my garden and didn't sail into anyone else's or onto the road. That evening when we went to karate, I saw someone else's hanger "hanging" on a roadside bush a long way from its original position.

Washing in the bare post-winter garden.

Thursday, the day after the big gusts last week, it rained. We really could have done with the rain first, so then all the dust coated surfaces became mud-coated. On Friday I was in and out of the house all day. At one point, when I came home between errands, I found a little pile of dirt and rubbish in my gutter (see photo). My elderly neighbour is a little fixated on gutter sweeping, as I've written about before. So, I dutifully swept it up, as well as the rest of my gutters. I think she's augmented the pile with some of the dirt from the gutter outside her house.

The pile of dirt my neighbour "kindly" swept
up and left on my side of our boundary.

An Australian equivalent would be my neighbour mowing part of my slightly neglected lawn and dumping the clippings (plus a few of her own) on my lawn. Not very subtle!

I could really do without the wind. Thankfully I don't have allergies as many here do. Nor do I have a cough that's irritated by the dust, but I feel sorry for those who do. And also for those who must be out in it more often than I.

While I'm glad that this heralds spring and warmer weather (I don't even have a heater on at the moment, it is around 18 degrees inside, wonderful), I'm inclined to think that spring without the gusty winds would definitely be more enjoyable.

I'm also hoping that our camping trip next week will coincide with a slightly calmer day, otherwise it could be a challenging trip!

Backyard

Someone commented about our 'large' backyard in my previous blog entry. Actually that was our front yard, which was big enough to park bikes in, plant flowers and require weeding and grass cutting (by hand); but not much else! Our backyard was much smaller, just a strip of dirt, really. Here are a couple of pictures. There is not much more to see that what you can see in the first picture. The wooden slatted things were for privacy. Just to the right of the photo was our dining/kitchen and lounge floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors. Just to the left of the picture was the front door of one of our neighbours. The second photo was taken from our tiny balcony on the second floor, looking straight down. Can you see the fence dividing the neat gravel from the dirt? That was our back fence. At the bottom of the photo is our house. We are LOVING our new backyard. I'll post some photos soon. Big enough to play a bit of cricket and to run around. Someone gave us a small swing set and someone else found a free small trampoline by the roadside and gave it to us. Amazing!!! Not to mention privacy. NO ONE can see us eating or even playing in the backyard. No one can see my washing hanging on the line. Oh, yes, I have a Hill Hoist-type line! Amazing!!! Praise God for Australia and wonderful blessings!