A month or so ago my neighbours had the wall that divides my front garden with their drive rebuilt and that now gives me the confidence to get rid of some of the bushes and plants that are on my side. I had noticed that the old wall was a little bit bowed and worried that if I were to pull some bushes out then I might have been seen as the cause of a collapsed wall.

So, now that the new wall is in place I have set about to do a bit of tidying up on my side and the first job was to get rid of a spreading clump of nemesia which protected a healthy bramble with a tendency to spread across the lawn in the growing season. Once this was done and I could see the improvement and its potential then it would be all the easier to attack some of the more difficult areas.

It wasn't long before I was joined by a robin, not really very surprising as a freshly dug patch of earth acts as a magnet for them every time. He stood on the wall for a while with his head cocked on one side and I could see he was in admiration of my work and clearly holding me in great esteem. He saw me as his own personal chef and lunch would soon be served.

I could imagine his mind savouring the tasty morsels that were within sight of him and it was not long before he hopped down, threw me a quick glance and pecked up a fat little grub then flew back to the wall to savour it in safety. Down he jumped again, glanced at me, pecked about and returned to the wall. Meanwhile I was standing still, my feet about a foot apart just watching him, happy to have a rest really.

He then hopped down, faced me and came forward, stopped, cocked his head to one side as if he was in thinking mode then advanced and stopped right in between the toes of my boots. I wondered what his next move was going to be. Was he going to walk between my feet or was this as far as he dared to go? He took one final hop and was now right between my feet, stood there a few seconds, turned and hopped back to his lunch.

I thought about this and reckoned that he was unsure about me at first and that hindered the enjoyment of his repast so that this daring little advance was really just to satisfy himself that no harm was going to come to him while he concentrated on foraging.

So the question is - is the robin brave or fearless?

In this case I think it has to be said that the robin was not fearless enough to peck about without backward glances to confirm his safety. He was brave enough to embark upon a test of his safety and resulting from that his new found knowledge allowed him to be sufficiently fearless to fill his little tummy without a care in the world.

So there we are, now I'm going back out there to uncover some more grubs for my new friend.