Barmy Blue's Bland Blog

Well. I think it’s supposed to be a shepherd, since the little piece by piece story behind every door is a slice of this Christmas story and today says “Shepherds were living outside the town, guarding their sheep”. But it has a cute little moustache and a big round nose so it looks more like an otter playing dress up. But I think it’s definitely supposed to be a shepherd. Not sure what he’s holding though. It’s too square to be a sheep.
I was a shepherd once in the school nativity so I know. You’re supposed to come in, kneel to the baby Jesus and present a sheep. I was the only one who knelt, kind of. I sort of lost confidence in the action when the boy playing the other shepherd didn’t kneel and just placed the stuffed sheep. Why would the baby Jesus need a sheep anyway? Aren’t there already sheep in the little nativity scenes? Also, what happened to the rest of the flock? Are they sat outside the stable patiently like good sheep or are they running around the countryside because the shepherds have wandered off? Paying homage to the new-born messiah is all well and good but is it really worth it if a wolf eats your livelihood while you’re doing it?

Anyway. I’m a bit more odd today than usual. I’m tired but don’t feel sleepy but I probably am sleepy.
You see. Today I actually got up a little early. Nothing serious. Just a little. But this is still a big deal because I’ve been oversleeping terribly lately, for no good reason at all. I go to bed thinking of all the things I still have to do and don’t want to do them when I get up. But today was a very productive day.
I fed the birds. We got a new bird food (I believe I already mentioned it) and a feeder for it. It’s sort of seed and mealworm suet nuggets. I didn’t think the birds would go for it right away. It normally takes a few days for them to show an interest in a new feeder. But I was pleasantly surprised to see the great tits (yes that’s what they’re actually called) eating from it pretty much as soon as I got in. Seeing them out there so soon was a great surprise in itself because they usually wait a while after I’ve gone inside. They’re wild birds after all. They’re wary of humans, even the ones who feed them. The bravest/most cocky one by far is the robin. That little guy will sit just a foot out of your reach and watch you.

When I went out I was surprised to see a cat sat in the undergrowth. This was on the ground underneath the thorns where the kitten sits, taunting me. I think this cat is the mother. I saw some kittens in my neighbour’s garden a while ago now (I believe I already mentioned it) and there was a bigger black and white one (which still looked very young to have kittens but she might just be small. Though cats are able to breed from four months old so have can have their first litter at six months old. That’s disturbing. If that were a human that would be all kinds of wrong. In human terms it would be around the age of 12, 13 in my case. Why are people so irresponsible with their pets?).
Anyway. I assume it’s the mother because I didn’t see any other sign of a mother at the time. Could possibly be an older sibling or just a random cat but mother it most likely. So I assume it’s a female.
Well. She sat there looking at me. Too deep in the undergrowth for me to reach but seeming interested. Just like that evil little kitten in the branches, this one teased me. I crouched low, held out my hand in a non-threatening gesture and made all the noises you do to summon a random cat. She took a few steps towards me and stayed there, just out of reach. I tried to entice her with a stick. Not interested, just like the kitten. I was worried because a few birds were flitting about, perturbed that I was stopping them eating. I worried that I was encouraging her prey drive and that she would definitely go for my birds if I kept trying to play with her. I hoped that, even if I couldn’t encourage her out for me to say hello to her properly then I could at least get her to play and drain her energy so she’d leave my birds alone.

In the end I gave up. It was cold and I was wasting my valuable time so I got on with feeding the birds. We got a suet filled pinecone but we ended up getting one without a string. I searched for it really hard. Definitely no string. I originally planned to put it on the bird table but had an idea. The tree next to the house had two little branches quite close together. I could try to wedge it in there. It didn’t go as well As I’d hoped but it is there so that’s good.

I didn’t bake anything yesterday but I just finished making gingerbread. So that’s another one off the list. I don’t think I’ll bother with pumpkin spice after all and we’ll see about doing the vanilla and/or cinnamon ones. Mum’s only in until Friday so I’d better get a move on for this plan to go ahead.