Dedicated to my very wise father

First let's step back to last night.  After a packed day I just had one last task to do which involved the hot glue gun.  The dogs were out and about and all was well with my world - until, that is, I realised Daisy had been ominously quiet!! When I called her - she was in the back garden "playing" with a pigeon.  To her credit she dropped the bird when I called her and came in - but the ground was covered in feathers and the bird, though still alive, was somewhat stunned!  This morning I nervously went to the area to see that the pigeon had gone - phew I thought, not so badly hurt - until I turned and saw it looking at me from a soft patch of grass that it had adopted as a nest.  Now I must confess that I am an absolute chicken and advice such as "ring its neck" is probably right so that it doesn't suffer - but I can't bring myself to do so and  desperately hoped that it managed to fly away (but feared that it wouldn't).

The rest of the evening was uneventful and all the requisite paper creations were completed - leaving me with just a massive clear up over the next few days - or so I thought.  As I packed up everything to take around to church this morning I spied this kit for a paper bird box wreath that I had been asked to make up several months ago -and hadn't.  So, after three hours in church, I headed home for a late lunch and another afternoon of cutting and sticking.  After cutting out the template and then one bird box I realised what a task this would be.  The cutting out was okay - ish - but then you had to cut the circle opening out - yuk!  I hate cutting out circles!  Now, at this stage, I ought to let you know that Dad has somewhat of a liking for DIY tools - he is fond of saying that you have to have the right tool for the job - which is how he explains his 30 or so drills!  As I was chuntering about the cutting out, the thought came to me - but I have the right tool - my ScanNCut machine.  True - it would have been better if I had used the template in the first place but a quick go around the edge to make it stand out, a quick scan and the next 8 boxes were quickly cut out - all with perfect circles!  Dad was right - just don't tell him will you?

So - my afternoon was spent making these boxes up - although I don't think that the wreath will be finished until tomorrow morning.  The weather has been glorious - although it poured overnight - and so the dogs enjoyed their run up at the beach - and I am beginning to see the end of this paper nightmare!

By the way - I went outside to investigate "Birdgate" just before taking the dogs up to the beach and the bird has gone - it may just have crawled into the undergrowth but I am not investigating further!  I am pretending to myself that it has upped and flown away from the nightmare doggy!