MY OCTOBER COMPANION

WHEN THE RED RED ROBIN...

This is my garden Robin who presents himself whenever (seldom enough,dear friends)I do a bit of gardening. These pictures of my red-breasted earth friend were taken this morning, a lovely sunny first day of October ,which lured me into the great outdoors. As I am recovering still from my Spanish Point caper (see blog for Sea-side Shuffle) I am gradually this week trying to re-introduce my idle muscles to the concept of movement and manual strain. So the beneficiary of my resolve to be active was my much neglected garden shed whose sun-scorched exterior has been screaming out for attention. I lashed on the Fencelife to the craggy wooden walls and just hope I haven't left it too late...some of the timbers are in a very delicate state indeed.

Here is Robin again perched just over my head as I negotiated the difficult painting of the roadside wall of the garden shed,the difficulty being the space constraint even for my nimble(ahem!) frame. The little bird is a real companionable creature and darts around after me as if he craves the contact. Now I know there are readers of this blog who are too cynical for their own good and already their minds are forming the thought.."poor deranged blogger,the bird is following you in case you do a bit of digging and turn up a tasty worm". Let me face this attack head on...nonsense, the last time the Robin (or anyone else for that matter) saw me digging was...well a long long time ago. In fact in light of the little birds short life span he/she would probably have to consult great-great grandparents to verify such a sighting. Anyway, whatever the gainsayers might posit,I am convinced my garden Robin is a good buddy who delights to see me enter his natural realm on occasion, and extends the courtesy of a flighted escort to accompany me on my way. So there!

Gerard O'Shea