An enchanting story....

Now children, are you sitting comfortably?
A story for you - as told to me by my ever intuitive husband.  No names have been replaced and no references have been exaggerated to form that of a more mystical story. Feel free to derive your own opinion and beliefs but just for 5 minutes forget about all of the nasty, horrid and poisonous doings of our sometimes cruel world and allow yourself to be open to a small nugget of natural gold……


‘  When I was sitting having my cold soaked porridge this morning, checking my emails as I normally do, I heard a very light tapping on the door. Thinking nothing of it, I resumed to the screen of my computer only to once more hear a little – tap, taptap, tap, tap. Poppy (our jack Russell), gave a most melodramatic performance as chief guard dog and started to growl profusely at the door’ (she likes to make the outsider believe that behind the door is a human – eating, rabies infected brute of a hound, not a doe eyed snuggly little puppy dog who would much rather curl up in her mums duvet than be associated in any type of brawl).’ This then had me convinced that someone was trying to get my attention, it wouldn’t be the first time the neighbour’s dog or a passing small relative has made their way to our door without the assistance of a guardian.’

‘Opening the door, I was a little confounded to see no trace of any caller. Thinking that someone was trying to outwit me, I proceeded to check all the prominent hiding places where I thought my persistent practical joker may be hiding, ready to jump out and surprise me, but I found nothing.’

‘Sitting down once again and deferring from finishing my usual morning espresso thinking that the strength of it could have prompted some sort of caffeine induced hallucination, I heard the faint tapping again. This time, trying to be clever I sneaked up to the glass panel of our door and peered slyly out, hoping to catch the trickster at his or hers game. There was nobody insight.’

‘Standing there momentarily as I tried to process some kind of rational explanation, I heard the noise again – tap, taptap, tap, tap. I stood right up against the small glass window pane with my nose pressed uncomfortably against it and looked down towards the foot of the doormat.
There, tapping away rhythmically with his little beak was a proportionately immaculate nuthatch.
 With his camel coloured breast and his decoratively alluring eye makeup, he seemed to be trying to attract my attention. One look across from the archway of our door made me realise why. The newly bought squirrel proof feeder we had been keeping topped up with black sunflower seeds was empty.
Trying hard not to startle him I went out to the outhouse where the bird food was kept and filled up the feeder. The mesmerizingly intelligent nuthatch flew to the nearest perch and watched me as I tipped up the container and filled it full of his favourite food. As soon as I had returned back to the house he had flown over and started to pick out the individual black seeds one by one, all the while looking extremely pleased with himself. As the nuthatch continued to fill his little tummy with his breakfast, I sat down and continued to finish mine.’

Blackberry and Elderberry compote
One large handful of blackberries – freshly picked and washed well                                                    Around 4 branches of elderberries – washed
2/3 tablespoons of sugar – depending on how sweet your tooth is!

Carefully pull the small elderberries off their branches and place in a small heavy based saucepan along with the blackberries and the sugar.
Gently heat the berries and the sugar until the mixture comes to a small boil. Allow to simmer gently for around 10 minutes.
It is now ready for a multitude of uses. Add it too Greek yogurt for a healthy breakfast, warm it up and mix it in with your morning porridge or one of my favourite ways to eat it is to mix it in with a freshly made batch of rice pudding, good to eat at any time of the day!