British Summer Time

Hurray! The light evenings have just been made longer. This is a most welcome spring. Where I live, the wild plums are smothered in sweet scented blossom. Walking through the flurries of petals is a delight. The dawn chorus is fattening up nicely, too. On Thursday morning I counted 25 different birds, including the newly arrived blackcap and chiffchaff.

Time to make birdboxes and put them up. My neighbour runs a very good timber business. He donated a load of precision-cut box bits for the local community to assemble for a nestbox making event. We were overwhelmed. We'd run out after two hours. This government talks about Big Society as though it was something they invented. It's been around a lot longer than this ideologically bankrupt shower of hatchet swingers. Everyone donated a box to the woodland trust. Only four people chose to take a box home with them. How's that for generosity? 

So, yes, I was making birdboxes when I should have been on the anti-cuts demo with my partner. Have no fear. There will be plenty more demos. This government isn't about to abandon its economic tyranny. Our youth services have already been cut, the day centers have already closed, the education maintenance allowance has already been abolished, universities and students face an increasingly uncertain future, jobs are being axed...There will be plenty of opportunity for me to get out there and protest.

Birdboxes may seem like a small thing. They are. But small things add up. It was an opportunity for young and older people to learn new skills. It was a way of increasing our natural curiosity about the world around us. These birdboxes will last 20 years.The government, hopefully, will last a good deal less.