I’m not very good at carving pumpkins but by chance I saw a recipe, or rather an idea what to do with a pumpkin.

As I don’t like to waste any of my precious pumpkins I decided to make two things out of one pumpkin.

Not sure what came first, both of these creations were made during one morning. I think I’ll start with my pumpkin pie. I’ve never made one so this was a step into the unknown.

The recipe was easy, yet again BBC good food came to my rescue. That done I could concentrate on making my bird feeders. I had to remember to cut the pumpkin in such way that I would have two reasonable halves. One sharp knife was enough, the flesh was scooped out and cooked as the recipe said.

So far so good. Now the next step – make a bird feeder. I read about it in the latest issue of the magazine Grow your own. The scooped out halves of the pumpkin were fine, all I had to do was to make four holes along the top edge and thread a piece of string in such a way that it made it possible to tie the ends together and hang this ‘basket’ on a bird feeder. Of course, it has to be filled – the best is to melt some lard and mix bird seeds in. Cool it a bit and then fill the half with it. Hang it up and wait – the birds will take a while before they trust it enough to feed from it.