When we first moved into our home all those years ago one of the first things I did was I hung a bird feeder onto the Apple Tree. It was well used until our pets moved in. Suddenly a bird feeder, cats and a permanently hungry dog didn’t become a great mix. So with the bird feeding now safely relocated to the front of the house this feeder has hung unused for years. Now it has become indistinguishable from the old tree. It is part of the tree now.

Yesterday’s snow didn’t last long. But it was wonderful while it lasted.

I often look at the old feeder and think about my life. Will the same happen to me. If I hang around here not venturing far. Increasingly tied to a house, a garden and a couple of farmer fields. With only the occasional essential journey beyond that small world. Will I become blended into my surroundings. Absorbed into the background. Camouflaged. Largely invisible to the outside world.

How knows. Maybe the first sign of that happening will be me wearing green wellies and green trousers. Bits of undergrowth interwoven into my clothes and hair, just like a sloth.

Actually the last time I fell off the ladder and landed in the hedge I was picking bits of nature off me for days. So the transformation may have started.

There’s a thought.

48 thoughts on “Transformation”

  2. When we first moved into our house there was this tree in the very back of the backyard that was covered with vines. The people that lived here before us told us their (then college-aged) daughter had planted the tree when she was in preschool and it was so special for them to see it grow into this great big tree. Three years of living here I cut down that tree for how difficult it was to mow the yard around and I held no personal sentiment towards it. And then, of course, I got the worst poison ivy or poison sumac all around my face for weeks – I couldn’t even see. I guess the trees give and take 🙂 But for you, I agree with Angie – no more ladders 🙂

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  4. A feeder, you call that a feeder? Gary!
    Last year, with not much to do for an old man, I built a bigger feeder. I did not build it so they would come, I built it because my last feeder built about 8 years ago, had gotten too small. It had a four sq. ft. base with a 3″ lip to contain the seeds. The new one covers close to 7 sq. ft., but still with just a 3″ lip. It also has an even larger roof to keep the snow off in winter. In summer the roof serves as a second feeder,but for now it just captures snow.
    For some reason the sparrows didn’t like the new feeder, they stopped coming round. But what used to be occasional visitors, Red Poles and Pine Grosbeaks, are now daily diners. When the magpies and bluejays return in spring, I’m sure they will come back to our feeder, as will the evening grosbeaks who stop to bulk up on their journey north to their breeding grounds, and return in late summer to bulk up the babies on their way to their winter homes.
    The only thing we serve are black oil sunflower seeds, so maybe other species would come too, if we put out a more varied spread, but we stopped doing that when some species started warring with the others. And here I thought birds were peaceful little beings. Most are, but some want everything to themselves.
    Just by-the-bye, while the ravens sometimes come to the backyard feeder, they prefer getting meat bits in the front yard. Cooked or raw does not matter to them.

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      1. Not a contest, Gary. I live in a heavily forested area away from pollution and clear-cutting, for the most part. We have lits of living nature around us.
        Don’t know if I told you this story or not, but after I built my first feeder, and we were experimenting on what to feed the birds, we tried a chicken scratch bought from the local farm store. We put it out one morning, and within minutes we had a waiting list of diners a mile long. There must have been over a thousand sparrows in out yard. Every possible roosting spot was taken. Whatever attracts birds to a feeder was in high gear that day. The birds had some kind of system going, everyone waited patiently for their turn to eat. What an incredible sight!
        The next day, not one bird. Not even a crow. I sure hope I didn’t poison anyone. The second day with no birds I thought I better check to see what kind of feed I had given them. It was chicken scratch all right, with an added hormone to make the chickens lay more eggs. That was probably what attracted the wild birds, and then ultimately turned them off it. I cleaned out the feeder, replaced the scratch with songbird food, and was rewarded with a nice number of birds, but never again in the thousands.
        Finally the farm store owner advised me to try the black oil sunflower seeds, and they seem to work just fine. Live and learn.

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      3. Apparently it helps keep the feathers oily, which especially in winter conserves heat. Considering today’s minus 35 Celcius temperature, I could sure use some oily feathers.

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  14. Beautiful thoughts, Gary. There’s so many times I wanted to blend into nature. Be unseen. I’ll remain still as a tree and hopefully stay rooted in faith. You’ll be beautifully transformed and definitely seen! 💚

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