The Birds! The Birds!

This was me at the flower field at the weekend. Well, all right, it would have been had I got there early enough to actually witness the devastation wreaked by those bloody crows! The entire row of Honesty plants, first sown last summer and nurtured ever since, and the only things on the field to have reached the flowering stage, have been completely stripped. No flowers left, no side shoots, not even any leaves – just a long row of stalks sticking up from the ground.

Wise Uncle Gerald (brother of Wise Uncle George) says he has watched crows bouncing on the top of his fruit cage to stretch the netting until it’s saggy enough for them to reach the fruit below. And, of course, we’ve all seen those clips of crows using tools. My local posse have obviously expanded their capabilities to include mobiles. You know how you sometimes hear a bird imitating a mobile phone? That’s no bird call – they’re just getting a text. “Hey, get over here quick! The flowers are ready! You must try the pink - it has a wonderful raspberry aftertaste…”  

So… after much cursing, frustrated foot-stamping and a bit of a weep, I’ve decided I’m going to have to net the whole plot. It’s a big area (the irony of getting a field and then enclosing it has not passed me by) but, with the advice of WUGeorge, I’ve decided on what I think will be the cheapest and easiest way to do it. We’ll see.

In other news: I’ve ditched the idea of buying a petrol mower  (all available funds redirected to the netting project). The Kindly Smallholders, misguidedly as it turned out, lent me one of theirs yesterday. All my fears about not being strong enough to pull the starting handle proved true (Oh, the shame!) but  I hadn’t anticipated getting huge clumps of long grass and, at one point, a wooden stake (I know!) stuck in the blades as well!

Maybe the crows could give me some tool-using tips.