There Goes the Neighborhood!

While looking out the window this morning, I realized that I had completely forgotten about my own little piece of backyard dereliction.

A number of years ago while in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, we purchased a lovely handcrafted, pastel, two-story wooden birdhouse. We placed it on a tall pole at the edge of the backyard and hoped that there would soon be some tenants. Within a year, however, squatters squirrels evicted the birds and began remodeling. They enlarged the entrances and windows and then abandoned it. So here it sits, years later, atop its tall pole, long-forgotten and well hidden by the privacy bushes that have grown much taller than the birdhouse. Unfortunately, it is long past the point of restoration.

To get this shot, I had to take a broomstick, forcefully hold back the wet foliage and shoot one-handed. It’s amazing what we go through to get a blip.