BIRDS AND RABBITS

I am used to work at home but today I had to go to our office. When I left the office and waited train at Pasila station, I saw birds. As I usually see when I wait a train or a bus. Those little birds came to me and looked my feets. People near me propably thought I am insane because I started to chat with the birds. I asked them how they are, are they going to fly away from Finland before winter etc. Politely they answered "tsirp tsirp".

I have allways loved animals. When I was a child and my friends took care of their baby dolls, I took care of my teddy bear. Of cource I had a baby doll too, but I never found anything interesting in that plastic object. My parents usually travelled all around Europe with my older sister and my cousins, when they had a summer holiday. They asked me to come with them, but I didn´t want to. So when holiday started, my parents took me to my aunts home in Haapamäki which is a little village in the middle of Finland. By the way, Haapamäki is situated in the most beautiful area of Finland.

Behind my aunts house there is a forest. A big forest. And in the forest I had a graveyard for animals. Whenever I found a dead bee, bird or squarrel, I arranged funerals. I gave names to all those poor creatures and took care of their "last journey". It took decades until I really realized the relation between me and animals. But we had the spiritual connection over 40 years ago.

I believe I am just part of the Nature. As valuable as an ant, a rabbit or a bear. I also believe the animal can be one of my deceased relatives or friends. That is why I want to treat animals as well as I hope I´ll be treated. I don´t want to damage animals, not even fright them. Sometimes this attitude complicates my own life and I have to change my plans. Last time that happened on April when I noticed there is a nest in my backyard. I was preparing a barbeque and when I went out I saw the nest. And the blackbird in her nest.

So I had to forget barbeque for a while because I thought smoke can fright those birds and maybe "Mr and Mrs Hubert" abandons their nest. But what else could I do? There was no sign "Please, do not build your nest here". The nest was there and eggs in the nest.

When the babies had hatched my life changed more difficult. I was just starting my gardening and I had a lot of things to do in my tiny backyard. Everytime Mr or Mrs Hubert came back with a worm in their mouth they sat on my appletree. I had to stop working, sit down on my garden chair and wait until the birds had feeded their kids. You can imagine my gardening was not very fast because there was three little blackbirds in the nest. I gave them names Lars, Leevi and Lestadius. Why those names? Once there was a Christian preast named Lars Leevi Lestadius and he represented a very narrow-minded cult. Those baby birds limited my life so much I thought those names will be very suitable.

Weeks went on and one day I noticed the nest was empty. Both parents and kids had gone. It was possible to live normal life again. Until I heard the well-known sound again. Yes, Mr and Mrs Hubert were back and there was new eggs in the nest. This time they got four babies and I gave them biblical names: Matteus, Markus, Luukas and Johannes.

At the same time I noticed the nest I also noticed that someone had eaten my appletree. Last winter we had a lot of snow in Southern Finland, more than usually. So it´s quite typical that rabbits need more food if it´s very cold and there is a lot of snow. I had forgotten to cover my tree with a fabric so it was my fault the appletree was eaten. But I was quite annoyed. When I looked out of window I saw the guilty person there... laying under a table.

He looked so satisfied I gave him name Brynolf von Appfelbaum, The Highness of My Backyard. So I had birds and I had a rabbit. And I was going to seed carrots. Fortunately Brynolf left my carrots alone, but I seed six potatoes too on a tiny area in my garden. One day I was in my kitchen and I saw at the window how Brynolf run over my potato field. That horrible beast ruined 1/3 of my potato harvest!!!!

In this summer there has been frogs and a hedgehog in my backyard too. They are quite funny because they don´t care if I am there. I only need to raise my feet so these funny animals don´t beat my toes. Maybe they don´t want to do it but I don´t want to take the risk.