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  • Scenes from a rainy day

    Scenes from a rainy day

    One day last week

    I walked along the river, one second under the yellow light from the lamppost above, the next, swallowed in the darkness of a sky clearer than it’s been in the past month.
    It is cold, somewhere around 1°C. Perhaps not as cold as this time last year, but with the many rainy days we’ve had, cold nights don’t happen often; only mornings made of fog and misty winds.

    As I looked up, the norsken [nothern lights] had started their dance; one that I could gaze at for – almost – hours.

    This morning

    We woke up to rain. Coffee, bread toasted in a cast-iron pan, salted butter, and hjortronsylt [cloudberry jam].

    We lit candles around the flat to warm the soft blue tint of the clouds projecting on our walls. And dreamt about an old house with wooden walls and a deep ceramic sink; a kitchen window and unsteady floors that crack at every step.

    One month till the first snow. May it be so! We crossed our fingers under the table.

  • The macramé coconut bird feeder

    The macramé coconut bird feeder

    We’re in Åsen for the week. With a very limited internet connection, but this kind of thing doesn’t matter when you have for only alarm, the soft light of the sun through a forest of birches, and the mésanges‘ songs .
    There are the woodpeckers too, not unlike a ticking clock.

    Yes, we’ve seen many birds perched in the trees that line the forest, but mostly blåmeser [blue tits] and talgoxer [great tits].
    And I wanted to find a simple way to feed them as I know for the fact that they’ll be heading north soon.

    So this morning, I made a quick coconut bird feeder. Kalle was still asleep. And a loaf of sourdough bread was getting brown in the oven, later to be sliced while still warm (a guilty pleasure of mine) for breakfast.
    I took the coconut that Kalle sawed last night, and some string we had in the kitchen; and really, I liked the first one I made so much, that I took some pictures to show you.

    Notes

    Fresh coconut flesh is ok for birds to eat, but please don’t feed them any desiccated coconut as it can be harmful.

    After I took the pictures, I asked Kalle to drill a hole at the bottom of the eye-less shell, pictured here, to make sure water would drain in case of rainy weather.

    You could make it way fancier, adding more strings and braiding them; but I just wanted to make something easy, fast and durable. However, I’m pretty sure, I might make more macramé holders soon, perhaps for plants.

    Macramé coconut bird feeder

    Material:
    – a coconut – sawed in half and with holes drilled at the bottom of each half for draining purposes
    – kitchen string
    – hooks (optional, to attach the coconut bird feeders more easily to branches)


    1. Cut 4 strings, each measuring around 60cm.


    2.Group the string by 2 and make them meet in their centre.

    coconut nest-3

    3. Knot them together tightly.

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    4. Separate in four strands again and tie simple knots, around 3-4cm from the centre.

    coconut nest-5

    5. Place on top of one coconut half. And group two strands from different thread together, as shown above. Tie another simple knot, 3-4cm further. And repeat with the remaining strands.

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    6. Repeat this process one last time (or more of you have a large coconut) to that the final “line” of knots reaches the rim of the coconut half.

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    7. Place your macramé coconut bird feeder upright and pull the strings, trying to centre them. Make a knot. Add a hook.

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    8. When the birds will have eaten the coconut flesh, refill the feeder with seeds and grains of your choice.

    macrame coconut bird feeder

    Which birds do you have in your garden these days? Lots of love, X Fanny.