"Hope is the thing with feathers"

In an earlier post, I was lamenting the fact that I couldn't scan in an illustration of a blue tit from my favourite bird identification book, as I didn't have the right leads to make my scanner work. Well, two trips to PC World later (have mercy on my soul) and an hour long tech-support session with my brother over skype whilst we tried to download the correct driver, I now have a fully working scanner!

I love this book so much! I got it for 50p from one of the few charity shops that will still sell you worn out, written in books for under a pound, rather than brand new/barely read books for nearer a fiver. On the front page, it says "To Daniel, with love from Bristol Granny xxx" and the spine is coming off, but this only endears it to me further.

I was tidying up my utility room recently, and I came across a bird feeder and a large unopened bag of peanuts I bought in the winter. I decided that if I hadn't at least started the bag before I moved, they would have to be thrown away. So I filled up the bird feeder and hung it up from the porch in my back garden, easily accessible to the bird community, not so easy for my adorable cat to pounce.

And at the weekend I saw a blue tit feeding on the nuts! The glee, the excitement, the unadulterated pleasure that I felt! It was better than getting a parcel through the post, or getting a splinter out my hand. The once-full feeder is now only three quarters full, and I am so happy that I will be able to give the peanuts away one at a time to the birds, rather than keep them in a cupboard and ultimately throw them away.

The subject line of this post is taken from Emily Dickinson's poem "Hope"

Hope 
   

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.