Wet and Aggressive Corella challenges Magpie

Wet and Aggressive Corella challenges Magpie

Monday 26 December 2011

Not a bird post this time

Lately I seem to have been posting pictures of birds or whinging.  So I decided a change was in order.

This spring and early summer have been wetter than usual.  It is also warming up.  Both my garden and my MS thrive in warm and humid conditions.  I do not.  I do however love my garden and the beauty in it.  So a trade-off.




















We have planted many, many liliums - mostly the heavily scented ones which cause River and others a lot of grief.  There are more coming into bloom each day.  And some of their stems are over six feet tall, with up to fifteen blooms to a stem.  I have never seen them grow to that size before.









So is the increased pain and fatigue and decreased mobility/flexibility worth it?  Hell yes.

Sunday 18 December 2011

Sunday Selections




Sunday Selections, brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, is an ongoing theme where participants post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

Anyone can join in, just post your photos under the Sunday Selections title, link back to Kim, then add your name to her Linky list at Frogpondsrock.

I have been featuring the birds who visit us  for a little while.  This week the birds I am putting up today are ones who shouldn't visit us, as we are well away from their usual homes.  Needless to say we welcomed them.

The first is the yellow tailed black cockatoo.   These birds are more likely to be found in eucalyptus forests or woodlands, but came to visit in the last severe drought, when food in their natural habitat was scarce.




The next visitor also dropped in during the drought.  It is the aptly named Superb Parrot.  They are now listed as an endangered species so we were particularly happy to see them.




And my final bird for this week is the Rainbow Lorikeet.  I believe they are quite common in Sydney (a couple of hundred kilometres away), but we don't get them here.  Well not often anyway.  Someone else featured them in their Sunday Selections a little while ago, and I hope they don't mind me putting them on display again.




Aren't they all an enchantment? 


Sunday 11 December 2011

Sunday Selections




Sunday Selections, brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, is an ongoing theme where participants post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

Anyone can join in, just post your photos under the Sunday Selections title, link back to Kim, then add your name to her Linky list at Frogpondsrock.

I have been featuring the birds who visit us for the last few weeks and, judging by my huge collection of bird photos, could do so indefinitely.

I am going with Eastern Rosellas today.  They are quite small birds, but bring vibrant splashes of colour when they visit.  The female is slightly less bright than the male, but they both seem to bring the sunshine with them.  Not really birds with character oozing from their pores (do birds have pores?) but enchanting just the same.  They apparently mate for life, and this first couple do look to be deeply attached to each other.









This is not strictly within Kim's guidelines, but I hope she won't mind.


Wednesday 7 December 2011

Another week goes by

This has been another interesting week in the 'may you live in interesting times' way.  I have always thought that phrase was truly ominous.

Monday was way too busy.  I cleaned the kitty litter tray (not high on my list of preferred jobs) and vacuumed.  Then we went into town to take the smaller portion's clock to the clock doctor.  Hooray.  To the stoma clinic for next months supplies for himself.  Then to pick up bird seed (another 20 kilos), garlic, cinnamon and milk.  Home for a cuppa.  Then to the post office to send things overseas.  A big queue which is unsurprising.  I am still unhappy that if you are sending things to the US of A, an additional $9 'security charge' is added to the postage if the article weighs over 500 grams.  Which gifts for my nephew, his wife and their children assuredly did.

Then to the doctor because both of us had prescriptions which needed renewing.  Here is where it starts to get weird.  I have been seeing this doctor for over a decade (and will find another as soon as I can, but that is another story).  For the first time ever she expressed sympathy for the way I am feeling.  It is true that I was/am feeling crappy, but that is often the case when the weather is all over the place.  I went in to get my scripts renewed and she upped the dosage on all of my painkillers without being asked.  Then she took my blood pressure and her concern deepened.  I usually hover around the 120 over 80 mark.  On Monday it was 90 over 80 which goes some way to explain why I have been spinning out a lot.  She checked and it isn't an effect of the medication I consume.  A mystery.   Who knows where it comes from.

She hoped it was temporary.  A wish I share.  Give us this day our daily whinge.

Sunday 4 December 2011

Sunday Selections




Sunday Selections, brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, is an ongoing theme where participants post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

Anyone can join in, just post your photos under the Sunday Selections title, link back to Kim, then add your name to her Linky list at Frogpondsrock.

I have been featuring the birds who visit us for the last few weeks and, judging by my huge collection of bird photos, could do so indefinitely.

I know I posted photos of Corellas quite recently, but this long billed Corella appeared during the week and virtually demanded his photo be taken.  So I did.  We also get the short billed Corellas who don't have this bird's splashes of pinky-orange on their heads and breasts.










Isn't he (or she) gorgeous?