This summer, a pair of robins built a nest on top of my back porch light, right outside my backdoor, and consigned me to using only the front porch for the whole month of June.  And I (and you) got to watch as the eggs appeared, and the babies hatched and grew.  It was magical thing to witness so close.

Also this summer, the family next door moved away.  As she was in the middle of the chaos of packing up her house, my neighbour mentioned to me one day that she always collects a bird’s nest from every house that she lives in.  But her husband had already started his new job on the other side of the country and she was having to pack up the house and move the (5!) kids all on her own, and I suspected that she never got a chance to collect a bird’s nest.

And I have a beautiful nest sitting empty right outside my back door…

So today, we very carefully took it down.

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It came away without too much difficulty and all in one piece.  It was made from sticks and leaves, as you’d expect, but I was intrigued to see string, yarn, and bits of dried grapevines (complete with old grapes!) tucked in there as well.

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We put the nest into a bag to keep it safe.

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And then wrapped it in tissue paper…  just because.

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And packed it up with all the love and care that I package my yarn.  More, probably — this is precious cargo!

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And, just like that, the little nest that gave three baby robins their happy start in life was ready to travel all the way to the other end of the country.

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Where, I do believe, it will be absolutely cherished.