Big Garden Birdwatch - this weekend

It's the Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend - a really simple idea, and anyone can get involved. Simply pick an hour at any time on Saturday or Sunday, find yourself a nice comfy chair next to a window, and note down all the birds you see. Then you log your sightings on a website where they will form part of a national survey. Lots more details here.

I'm planning to do my 'watch' from the Cottontails office and will let you know what I see next week.

In the meantime, here are a few birdy items for sale at Cottontails...

This is the lovely wooden nest box from Moulin Roty. I really must pilfer one from stock and put one of these up this year. Am quite excited as this might be featuring in an interiors magazine in a couple of months, fingers crossed.




This is a sweet little bird feeder - I've already got (a slightly damaged) one put aside to put up in the garden but haven't got around to it yet.

And this is really lovely - a little 'sew your own' kit which contains everything needed to make three little fabric birds. And the box turns into a bird house!



Oh, and the picture at the top, that's one of the gorgeous hand made, hand painted Ostheimer birds - a little sparrow. You can see him here.

It feels like spring...

...for today at least. The sun is shining here in Herefordshire, the birds are twittering, Humphrey rabbit has even been out in his run this morning (although he is back inside lying next to the heater now).

To kick off the new year - and only 18 days late! - I thought I'd weave one of my new years resolutions into the post - which is to take time to read the blogs I enjoy. So, here are a few of the blogs that I hope to find time to read, and that I think you might enjoy too...


Catalogue Living is a tongue in cheek look at the kind of photography we see in glossy interiors magazines. You know the kind of thing - delicate glass vases balanced on open tread stairs or dainty twig displays just inches away from a roaring log fire. It's really funny, have a look.



Our New Life in the Country is Sue's personal diary as she develops a small holding in Oxfordshire. It's refreshing, honest and really very interesting. Sometimes I read her posts, complete with photos of lovely little chicks, and wish I had her life. Other times she writes about the mud and the cold - and I think again.



And finally, for today anyway, there is Sarah-Jane Down the Lane. Think countryside, garden flora & fauna, and beautiful classic children's books. Her blog is just lovely, the sort of thing I would like to create, in a slightly different life.

One of my other resolutions, by the way, is to finish the recommended toys by age guide I started back in December so expect to see a few more of those popping up shortly.