They exist, and everyone knows them. Usually the smallest inhabitants, but also the most dominant. Our little birds love them. Bats too, by the way.
Mosquitoes are the most controversial bird food there is
There. There it is, the “M” word, which no host dares to talk about. I never talked about it for all those years either. As a host, you only give your positive points; you never emphasize the negative ones. Makes sense, right? All cleaning products also emphasize “Clean”—not how polluting their factories/packaging/ingredients are.
But now we no longer have a B&B. Not since 2020. So now I am allowed to say something about our controversial bird food. Over all those years, we have also taken plenty of measures to eliminate the nuisance caused by those little buzzers: insect screens and screen doors everywhere, mosquito nets over the beds, a warning that they are there at dusk but after that it isn’t too bad.
I love those little chirpers, who make you happy almost all year round with their singing in the morning and evening. There are hundreds of them, and many different kinds too. You hardly see them; they are just like flying mice. Rttttsss, they whiz past at the speed of light, but occasionally, if I sit very still in the morning, I see them on the feeding table. Lots of brown, but also little yellow wings, red breasts, orange beaks, and colored heads.
They all love our controversial bird food
We, on the other hand, aren’t so fond of it. Hence the insect screens and the mosquito nets. Very effective. Out of sheer desperation, I started making the mosquito nets myself. Those that were for sale – we are talking 25 years ago – were inadequate. A small circle above your bed with mesh curtains tied around it is a recipe for trouble, especially for heavy sleepers. They would get tangled in them. And they were never big enough.
A well-known Swedish furniture retailer sells “Lill” mesh curtains, among other things. Perfect for making your own mosquito net. The ceiling panel needs to be rectangular and about 20 cm smaller in circumference than your bed. Attach good strings to the corners, think carefully about the entrance(s), and let them overlap significantly. And then just make sure you don’t get tangled in all that thin white mesh while sewing.
This one is intended for the Birdhouse
The Birdhouse is available for rent, by the way, from June 11 to August 26. Two and a half months’ chance to learn how to make mosaic birds *and* to get to know the real ones, and to wake up and fall asleep with them every day.
Completely content under your mosquito mesh tent.
Perhaps you are, or know someone who would like to spend some time in Portugal? To get to know the country, to get away for a while, to recover from ….. (hopefully nothing serious, but that is also possible, like trauma, divorce, or severe disease), or to scout out a house to rent or buy.
We may no longer be official hosts, but we just can’t help ourselves ….
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(Disclaimer: I’m a bit tired of the keyword stuff and Google’s dictatorship. So here they are, and I’m also hoping for the cleverness of AI in this matter that it will still be found and read, but that I don’t have to force myself to use the right terms in the title and headings.#birdfood #mosaic #longtermrentalsPortugal )
We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal. We started to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa.You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere.Since Covid we rent the houses for a longer period of time, not as holiday houses anymore.
Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation.
In the weekend we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.