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When they first saw this apartment, they almost said yes on the spot when they saw the balcony. It looked out onto a pretty little courtyard with flowers beds and neatly cut lawn patches and a towering oak tree in the centre of the apartment complex.
There was enough room on the balcony for a couple chairs and a little table, the inevitable potted plants and maybe even some hanging baskets.
They left that visit with ideas of game nights in the summer evening air, hot chocolate on cool nights wrapped up in blankets, spring mornings and long breakfasts.
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They hadn’t exactly started their balcony ownership in the best of ways, what with the angry letter from their landlord. Their neighbours had apparently started complaining about the mess pigeons were leaving on their balconies because the new neighbours insisted on leaving food out for them.
“It’s not the pigeons fault, they have to go somewhere”
“I think that’s their point, Phil.”
When the mess began to extend to their own balcony, they decided it was time to kick that little habit.
(It took a little kicking though, especially when the pigeons eyed Phil from the trees.
“They’re hungry, Dan!”)
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Then there were the squirrels. They saw them most days during the summer, hopping between branches of the tree. They decided there were three of them in total, after spending many an evening sat out on deck chairs watching the comings and goings of the happy little creatures.
“That one’s definitely smaller, Dan”
“See, that one had more white on its tail”
“And that one has a pointier nose!”
“They all look the same Phil”
They eventually stopped seeing the squirrels, as with most of the creatures that passed them by.
(It was pure coincidence that someone with a cat had moved in across the way. At least, that’s what Dan tried to believe.
“But you don't believe in coincidences, Dan.”)
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The wildlife wasn't the only life that frequented their balcony. Theirs was probably the greenest of the entire building. Phil was very proud of this fact; he brought it up at least once every time they sat outside.
“That one just needs some colour” he’d whisper, pointing to balcony opposite theirs a couple floors up to the left.
“And all theirs are dead!” he’d whisper again about another on the right. The shrivelled petals of the row of flowers hanging over the side blowing off in the breeze, falling down the several storeys to the ground below.
"Not everybody has your green fingers, Phil." Dan said, choosing to ignoring the steadily increasing number of plants that had perished at Phils hand, also the fact that most of the succulents in their apartment had been adopted into Dan’s care if they knew what was good for them.
---
They had started with an agreed upon limit of the number of house plants they would have for the entire apartment, including the ones that had survived the journey from their old place.
Slowly, however, this limit was being stretched, leading to new areas of greenery sprouting up in practically every room of the house.
Impulsive buying would have Dan question Phil about a plant he could have sworn wasn’t there yesterday.
“That’s always been there, Dan” Phil would say with an innocent smile “Honestly Dan anyone would think it was you who needed glasses.”
Dan would just eye the plant with suspicion and walk away.
Or a habit of not exactly reading the labels would have Phil taken aback when he happened to walk past one that had become as much part of the furniture as the table and chairs.
He’d stop and look at it, as if for the first time.
Dan, sat across the room at the dining table, blew an amused breath “You really need to start reading the label on these things before you buy them.”
Phil was still staring at the plant. The plant that had been barely passed his waist when it arrived, which was now at his eye level.
This revelation seemed to quel Phil’s plant-shopping desires for a little while.
Until one day, when Dan got to the door before phil and took a delivery with the familiar logo of their favourite online garden centre.
He shut the door and turned around to find a sheepish Phil behind him.
“Another one?”
Phil burst forward and took the box from dan’s arms then turned around and sped back down the hall. Dan followed a little ways behind and found him in the kitchen waving a pair of scissors around in one hand while trying to tear the brown tape off the box with the other.
Dan took the scissors out of his hand for fear of injury and put them down on the counter.
When Phil finally got through the layers of tape, ripped open the flaps, and threw the foam padding on to the floor, Dan was finally able to see the contents.
Phil pulled out of the box two wire baskets and held them up with a grin for dan to see properly.
“We don’t have any of these, Dan.” Phil said “and remember the other week when you said the balcony would look nice with some hanging baskets”
Dan sighed. He had said that.
During the next couple weeks, they spent some time researching what type of plants would suit best, and what type of lining they should use.
They decided on some nice winter baskets. Dan was more picky with his colours, trying to keep to a theme whereas Phil just threw in anything that looked pretty on the packet, hoping to be surprised when they flowered.
They both found themselves taking the task unnecessarily seriously and spent an entire saturday in late september planting a basket each. By evening they were hanging the finished products on either side on the balcony doors then ended the day with a glass of wine while admiring their handiwork.
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Now it was early March, and days spent in tour planning mode had meant they were too tired and preoccupied to spend much time sat outside, the snow was only a few weeks clear and it was still too cold to be worth it.
So when Phil first pointed out the little black bird Dan wasn’t too enticed.
Phil had been stood peering through the blinds on to their balcony for quite sometime, no doubt nosing on some neighbours Dan had thought.
“Hey Dan come look at this!” Phil whisper shouted over to Dan
Dan remained on the sofa, eyes fixed to his laptop. He wasn’t nearly as much as a social meerkat as Phil and didn’t much care to snoop in on his neighbours marital disputes. “What is it?” he asked, anyway.
“There’s a little birdy on the balcony!”
Dan pushed his laptop off his lap and walked over to stand beside Phil. Making his own gap in the blinds he saw there was indeed a little black bird dancing about on their balcony, holding a short twig in her beak. She hopped up onto a plant pot and disappear under the leaves.
They both watched in silence for a few more seconds. When she didn’t reamerge Phil said “Do you think she’s building a nest? I wonder how many eggs she’ll lay.”
Phil pulled his head back when Dan didn’t reply and found he was back at the sofa, pulling his laptop back onto his lap.
“What are you doing?” Phil asked, sitting down next to him.
“Asking google,” Dan replied.
Phil watched as Dan opened a new tab and typed in the search bar. They find out that black birds can lay around 3-5 eggs per brood and nest building can take up 2 weeks.
So over the next few weeks they watched Black Bird as she built up her nest, bringing more pieces of twigs and leaves and dirt in to the plant pot.
They found themselves becoming invested in the life of Black Bird, taking a second to watch out the window for her whenever they walked past.
They even bought a bird feeder off the internet, neighbours be damned, there were babies involved now.
The feeder hung down against the wall and had a mesh tube they could fill with seed and a wide enough base for Black Bird, and eventually Black Bird’s babies to stand on.
They installed it one day, after watching the balcony intensely for a good half an hour to be sure Black Bird wasn’t home and they weren’t going to scare her off. Dan stayed just inside the door while Phil tiptoed out, hung up the feeder and tiptoed back.
They cheered (in whispers) and high fived (quietly) the first time they saw her use it. They eventually got her a bird bath as well, but that saw more food than water.
They used the good camera to try and get a glimpse of the nest. They could get a decent view if the wind blew right and they zoomed in enough. It was grainy and hard to see, but there were definitely some eggs there. They cooed over the pictures and congratulated Mother Bird and printed off the pictures and taped them to the inside of the glass door. They showed them to everyone who visited and emailed them to their mums and put out extra seeds every day.
Another google search showed that the eggs will take 2 weeks to hatch and another two weeks before the chicks are ready to fledge.
They took more photos over the next few weeks, and they cooed even harder when the latest photos showed actual chicks, three of them, with their tiny yellow beaks in the air squawking for food. These, too, were printed and taped up proudly.
All their friends knew about the nest now and were messaging them constantly for updates, Phil had also tweeted about the chicks and they’d both mentioned it in liveshows. They were beginning to get more questions about the chicks than they were about tour (not that they were particularly sad about this since wasn’t much they could share anyway, but their management kept getting antsy about it).
By the time it got nearer to flight day, they had a camera setup to record the nest while they were out. They were determined not to miss it.
It finally happened thought during the late afternoon on day 13. Dan was taking a customary peer out the window and noticed more movement than usual from the nest.
Phil was upstairs but Dan didn’t particular want to leave nor did he want to shout and scare the fledglings. His phone was in pocket so he texted Phil in all-caps to get downstairs.
Immediately he heard heavy footsteps across the landing and down the stairs. Phil called out to Dan and Dan ran out the room to drag Phil over to the window. Phil soon realised what Dan was on about and did a little hop in excited.
They made sure the camera was recording and the lights were turned down low and sat down cross-legged facing the window.
Black Bird was hopping around the plant pot on the balcony floor, occasionally jumped up onto the rim of the pot.
“She’s encouraging them!” Phil whispered
Sure enough, it only took a few more seconds for little bird to appear from the undergrowth. It stood on the plant pot for a few seconds, then suddenly it flapped it wings and hopped down to join its mother.
This bird was smaller than its mum and had softer looking but slightly darker feathers. A few minutes past before a second and third fledgling appear to joined their siblings, these had equally softer but lighter coloured feathers than the first. Now the whole family were hopping about on the balcony floor, and up on to other plant pots. One even made it up on the bird feeder.
Phil looked over at Dan and saw he had his hands clutched to his chest and a smile tugging his cheeks. Phil leaned over and rested his head on Dan's shoulder.
They continued to watched the chicks as they explored the rest of their balcony and ventured in to the courtyard and up to other peoples balconies, who would never know the significance of their little visitors and the amount of people across the world who were rooting for them.
But nobody more so than the two guys sat on the floor of their apartment, holding back tears, and basking in the fact that they had been home to the beginning of these tiny little lives.