Knock on wood

This woodpecker, a female, visits the garden nearly everyday. She likes the fat in the coconut but will also take the sunflower hearts. We also have a male, identified by the red on the back of his neck.
You make think there will be no legend to do with a woodpecker but Surprise, Surprise, there is.

A Little old woman lived all alone in a house at the top of a hill. She was very neat and tidy and always wore a shiny black dress and a little red bonnet tied around her head and a crisp white apron that she tied in a bow. Because she had lived so long by herself she never had people in for tea or coffee and never gave presents.

One day , near to Christmas, she was busy making cakes with a plum filling from the plums she had grown in the garden, they looked delicious and so tasty. Suddenly she heard a knock at the door. There stood a poor , hungry man who asked if she could spare some food as he was very hungry but had no money but would give the old woman a wish that he would make come true. The old women asked him to wait a while. She looked at her cakes but could nt give them away they looked too good. She pulled a piece of dough she had made and popped it in the oven but it turned out too good to give away ,she pulled a smaller piece, too good again and then another but she could give them away. In the end she found a crumb and gave it to the hungry man. The man nodded and departed.
As soon as the man left she felt terrible and sooo selfish. She wished that she could be a bird and fly after the hungry man and give him the finest and largest of all the cakes.
As soon as she said the words she began to grow smaller and smaller and her nose turned into a beak, her arms into wings and her feet into claws. Her wish had come true !

So even today if you are lucky you may see her. She still wears her shiny black dress with her white apron and her red bonnet on her head. She rushes up and down the trunks of trees pecking for food and you can hear her tap, tap, tapping away. The Little old lady was changed into a woodpecker !

Although this is nt quite right as it's the male that has the red patch.

Today was another nice day which I did nt expect. Mike managed to chop up the drift wood into smaller pieces so it's now drying out.

Todays Yule lad is Door slammer . He likes to make lots of noise especially by banging doors , annoying everyone in the neighbourhood !