Once upon a time...

Once upon a time there was a bicycle. It was a happy bicycle, it lived in a beautiful neighborhood on the north shore of Long Island. One day the bicycle owners decided they no longer wanted this bicycle and put it out at the curb for the garbage men to collect.

Luckily a woman spotted the bicycle before the garbage truck arrived. She remembered her friend wanted an old bicycle for the garden and this bicycle looked like it might be perfect. She was a good friend, she loaded the bicycle in her car and brought it to her friends house.

The bicycle was placed in a lovely section of the garden. It's new owner place a nice straw basket on the handlebars and a birdhouse on the back carrier.

Within days a little wren came and made a nest in the birdhouse. Soon the bicycle was home to a clutch of baby birds. It was happy.


This is what a baby wren looks like (the one on the right :-)) the first day it left the birdhouse. This particular birdhouse has been an excellent shelter, raising many, many wren babies.


Many years later the bicycle was still in the garden, still holding up the birdhouse. The straw basket had rotted away and unfortunately there was only a metal basket to place on the handlebars.


Along came another friend. One of the best parts of gardening are the amazing friends one makes with other gardeners. This friend had found a straw bicycle basket waiting at the curb for the garbage truck. She knew it would be perfect for the bicycle. She was a good friend, she picked up the basket and brought it over to the bicycle's home.

The bicycle's owner went out to put the new basket on the bicycle. She brought along a shovel because there was a large poke weed right in front of the bicycle that was driving her crazy. As she got near the bicycle she heard that sound, cheep cheep cheep, the birdhouse was filled with wren babies. She decided that the poke weed and the basket could wait for a week or two until the babies could fly.


Two days later the owner went out to check on the baby wrens. Horror of horrors, the bird house was not there!!! Carefully creeping around the garden bed the owner saw the birdhouse was laying upside down on the ground. Worst of all, three huge squirrels were trying to get in the birdhouse while a tiny wren was frantically dive bombing all three squirrels.

The bicycle was sad. The owner was mad! She started to flap her arms and loud sounds came from her as she chased those nasty squirrels across the neighbors yard. (Upon reflection, she hopes that nobody actually witnessed her loss of composure.)

She carefully lifted the birdhouse from the ground. As she slowly turned it upright, the baby wrens started cheeping up a storm! Hooray!!! They were alive and well!

Only minutes had passed when the owner saw the wren arrive with a juicy green inch worm. Breakfast time for the baby birds.

The wrens were happy. The bicycle was happy. The owner was happy. The pokeweed was happy too.

The end.