Once upon a time, there was a little boy, lets call him Colin, who was playing in the flower beds in the garden of his parents' house in, oh I don't know, lets call the town Kensington B in South Africa, when he discovered this tiny little sapling. Little Colin was very clever little boy and was very quick to recognise that this little sapling was for a "helicopter tree". Colin liked helicopter trees, so he dug up the little sapling and planted it in a small little clay pot. He watered it regularily and it grew quite well.

Fast forward about 15 years and you'll be pleased to know that tree has moved to a new house and out grown two pots and is now planted in mum's garden where it's growing at a rapid rate.

When we were in SA recently, mum kept telling me I need to chop said tree down. "No way José, that tree's got residents. I'm not evicting a poor defenseless masked weaver family".

And it's just as well I didn't as it seems 4 more families have moved in, and we've got a serious case of "Keeping up with the Joneses". Check these pics mum too (click on them for full size)...

Weavers' Nests (1)Weavers' Nests (2)Weavers' Nests (3)

It seems this little 'hood of masked weaver nests have all decided to weave twigs that still contain leaves into the nests. How extra-ordinary. I can't say I've ever seen this before.