The wind is howling about the place today and it reminds me of the first poem I ever learned off by heart.
The North wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will the robin do then,
Poor thing?
He’ll sit in a barn,
And keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing,
Poor thing!
My favourite bird is the robin – little, but stout with his red bib, but fiesty! I have seen a robin set about a cat with brave ferocity. I also love their little spindly legs which, when he’s all puffed up, makes me wonder how they hold him up.
In our family we tell the children that the robin is sent from Santa to make sure that they are being good. It is always great, when a nebling is having a tantrum, to spot a robin and say, “Look! Santa’s robin is watching you!”
The sight of a robin always gives me a bit of festive warmth and so today my red-breasted chum is behind window 3 on the KB Festive Advent calendar.
Image from Internet Archive. From 1914 book, Nature neighbors, embracing birds, plants, animals, minerals
I love robins too. They are almost fearless. I remember when we were weeding MILs garden last May, there was one hopping feet away from us puling up worms from the soil we’d dug.
I’ve just received my Knitsonik Colourwork source book so thank you for such an inspiring post.
Aw, we had a friendly blackbird who would do the same. Blackbirds are my next favourite 🙂
Did you see the recent vote for Britain’s national bird? Apparently we don’t have an official one, at least not yet. The robin is a hot favourite though!
http://www.votenationalbird.com/
I must vote! Blackbirds and wee willie Wagtails are up there too, for me.
Here in the mountains of Victoria, Australia, we have wide brown paddocks, and summer heat for Christmas. But the spirit is just the same!
We have a robin who visits our bird feeder. We didn’t have one for quite a while so it’s lovely have another one move into our garden again. When he comes to visit the feeder, which is just outside our lounge patio doors, it always makes me smile. Plus my Dad’s name is Robin, so that always makes me smile too.
I love robins too, they are such cheery little birds. I have one who visits every day. He also follows me when I’m doing anything in the garden.
Ah well, our robins have gone for the winter but we are always on the lookout for the first on in the Spring and then we Know spring has sprung 🙂