Chippy our Tenant

Digesting the Daily Bread

We have a very entertaining although serious friend that lives under our deck. He arrived we think this year early summer.

We had a new deck outside of our garden quite comfortably large enough to put pots of flowers and a  rosemary bush, we call him "Chippy", and he has taken residence beneath the deck and pops out morning and evening to gather bread and sunflower seeds for lunch and dinner.

He seems to be used to us padding across his roof in the morning and we drop a small piece of bread or even better a couple of almonds down into his "porch-way".

He sometimes plays with the squirrels and surveys his property with great aplomb sitting on his hind legs and looking a bit like Winston Churchill about to make a speech !

We looked up how Chippy lives and were surprised to find their life span is only about 3 years. Their home can be almost similar to the way we live: they have an area like a pantry storing for food, we often wonder if it's neat and tidy piled up and counted making sure he has enough.

They also have a space for toilet duties and are quite fussy about keeping it clean.
The more we get to know him the more we are amazed that this little creature, often not liked by gardeners, we find gives us pleasure so what if he decides to eat out tomatoes and bury them in our pot of Rosemary, a bonus for next year for him and us if they seed!

So for us Chippy is a blessing not a curse! all creatures great or small incredible so Cheers to the animals who are in our garden may they be happy and reign over us!

Storing seeds next to the Rosemary bush

Inspiration for a Painting as well
6x6 Oil on Board by Babs

Babs