[André]

I hope you also like our small friends, the birds.

We usually puts one new "bird box" up every year.

Today I tried to make a fake roof and see if any "barn swallows" would like this one. Or maybe some other bird. I know the tiles don´t do any good there but that is just to see if I can tempt them to move in.

We have a lot of old trees in the garden were all the birds want to build their nests, but our and other cats in the neighbourhood can easily catch them there.

I hope I can send a new picture later this year with a nice birdfamily picture for you.

/André

[Gerda]

You actually put them right on your house? We just hang them in trees, have not seen a cat try to get at them yet. Hope you get a family to move in there.

[André]

It is not on the house we live in. This is a barn I have and I also have another old house in my garden. It is an old house they used for washing before they got they "new" machines. It has this big kettle and you make a fire under it. This house is also from around 1820, same as my house. On these houses we put them.

I have heard it is not good to have them on the house you live in because it could get a lot of fleas in these birdboxes and then you can get these inside.

Our cats sits and just wait the birds out if they build nests in the holes in our appletrees.

/André

[Smurfysmurf]

It looks very nice. My step-father built me a bird house that was immediately aopted by blue bird family. It's on the tree right in front of my kitchen window so Mog has a ball watching them

[André]

Last summer I managed to save this babybird from the cats.

But when it tried to fly for the third time one of the cats I didn´t see got it anyway.

/André

[Gerda]

nature can be so cruel at times

[Ritter_Schlumpfenherz]

That's sad.

[André]

I went to my parents house today and got these birds from my mother. They are made of wool. I think it is called "fulling" in english. She gets the wool from my wifes sister who has sheeps. This birdhouse I found in the barnattic and I thought it would look great inside the new greenhouse, over the door by the roof. I have to assemble the birds in some way first and add the feets on all of them. I just put them there for this picture. And the cats dont like these i think. The birds are bluetit which we have a lot of in our garden during the summer.

I have actually asked her to do some smurfs for me in wool.

I will add them here when she is finished.

/André

[SmurfingH]

Oh wow! They look so real. She's very clever.

[André]

Yes I like them too.

And in the greenhouse it will get very moistly so I wanted it to be in pure wool. The wool is almost impregnated with natural fat so it is perfect in there.

She do a lot of santas and trolls and easter things, which she sells to friends and in markets.

/André

[SmurfingH]

She could make a fortune making smurfs. I know I'd want one or two or several.

[Smurfysmurf]

They look really nice like this

What a neat idea to make birds out of wool....and I can't get over how "alive" they look

[Gerda]

These little birds remind me of some steif birds I had when I was a kid, they look so real!
btw. is she taking orders for the smurfs

[bwalters]

I don't know if we have any carpenters on here. But a lot of the nursing homes are putting in huge bird cages. They are about 6 feet high 2 meters. And about 8 feet wide 3 meters. All of them I have seen have about 10 real birds in them. I don't go to nursing homes very often but I have been to about three that have them. They are mostly glass in front with lots of tree limbs and nests. I guess most of us don't have enough room to put one but they are nice.

[André]

Hi Hilary and Gerda,

I think she would love doing them for you. But you haven´t seen how they look yet? Maybe they end up looking more like trolls than smurfs. She has never done smurfs before so maybe you don´t want them when you see them. But I will try to guide her and help her to do them as accurate as possible. She is a "pensioner" now so she likes doing things like this during the days. She actually doing these the same time she watches TV????? I would have trouble doing these things the same time. Maybe it is just women who can do two things at the same time, right???

Regarding selling them I think you know that you are not allowed to do smurf and sell. Trademark-thing I guess. I don´t know how this works???? Maybe we can say it is small blue trolls with with caps instead?

The cages you write about Bill seems nice.

The best and the easiest way is when then live in the holes in the trees and we have put some net around the holes to make it harder for the cats but we have 9 old appletrees and it wouldn´t look that good with nets everwhere in the trees. But the cats only take a few of them each year and most of them survive so it is not a big problem. And as Gerda says it is the way nature works.

/André

[Gerda]

@bill, I have seen those bird houses in the nursing homes around here too, the one my grandmother was in had one and I always thought it looked nice.

@andre, well if the smurfs don't look nice i'll take birds instead, but i'm sure they would be fine.
as for selling them I think she would be ok as long as they are not alot of them. I mean I see all the time where people sell homemade smurf like the dolls on ebay and those auctions are never pulled. But we can keep it in the forum so no one has to find out

[Ritter_Schlumpfenherz]

Hej André,

the birds look as though they were alive.

[André]

Papa with friends. Approx. same age I guess.

These trolls are my favorites. She does these for Christmas with red hats.

/André

[Ritter_Schlumpfenherz]

Awwwwww what a wonderful pic, André.

[André]

This is the size. I like it and the proportions are nice if you look at the PVC one. It is not easy to do them if you just has this to look at. 100% wool.

/André