November 2008 Archives

With banks crashing all around our ears, interest rates going up, all the supermarkets offering cheap, cut-price, bargain, discount and value food to keep body if not soul together, pensions plummeting and high falutin' government officials stating that we are due nothing but misery in the future, it's easy to forget about the things that really matter. The continual forecasts of doom and gloom are, at the moment, threatening to overshadow everything that we normally hold dear and important.

Now, I'm not going to deny the fact that money - some money - is important, and quite a few unlucky souls are going to have lost a lot of their hard-earned cash, but, given a reasonable level of income, there's an awful lot more in this world which contributes to our happiness and sense of well-being.

There's a Jamie Cullum track, "I'm glad there is you" which includes the lyrics "In this world of overrated pleasures and underrated treasures, I'm glad there is you" (It's probably a cover version, although I'm far too young to remember who sang the original...) Well, I think it's time to decide what is an overrated pleasure, and what is an underrated treasure - what are the small things in life that we take so much for granted, but would sorely feel the lack of, were they to disappear? For me, those include a decent cup of tea, chocolate, Marmite, the Mamma Mia soundtrack, "The X Factor" and watching birds on the multitude of feeders in my garden.

I remember somebody once describing a bird feeder as "the thinking person's television". It's true. All the dramas of life, love and the daily struggle for survival are played out on that little tube of steel, wire and perspex - squabbling chaffinches, nervous little coal tits, robins fiercely defending their territories and the blink of an eye flash past of a sparrowhawk, hell bent on murder - or is it just lunch? The occasional woodpecker or jay puts in a guest appearance. I have two goldfinches called Phil and Grant, because their bullying ways constantly remind me of the Mitchell brothers from Eastenders.

Feeding the birds is compulsive. For me, it is both addiction and therapy. Addiction, because it is something I have to do, every day, morning and evening, rain or shine. When I get home, I feed the birds before I have fed myself, my cat or my partner. Therapy, because there is a soothing peacefulness about watching the comings and goings, the turning of a world almost oblivious to our own. A balm for the soul, an antidote to our overwrought existence.

Feed The Birds Day took place at the end of October. This annual RSPB event takes place all over the UK, as a reminder to everyone how important it is to keep feeding the birds, especially through the cold winter months. Thousands of people took part, in guided walks, demonstrations, and by buying, making and putting out food. Small fingers were actively engaged in the time-honoured ritual of bird-cake making, or cutting up old plastic bottles to make recycled feeders. But feeding the birds isn't just a day...it's for life. Nip along to RSPB Conwy, just off Junction 18 of the A55, and get hold of some seed and a feeder. Watch the blue tits munch. And, just for a while, forget the credit crunch.