Corellas Grooming Part 2.

A little while ago I put up a short video of corellas grooming.  Unfortunately, not everyone could view it.  Yesterday afternoon what I assume were the same pair came and assumed the position on the same tree branch.  This time we only took still shots.

Aren't we lucky?

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.

This week I am going back to another of my obsessions, the garden.  The tiger lilies are now about 8 feet tall and are coming out more each day.  A delight.  In the second photo I also managed to capture an insect resting on a bud - which I hadn't realised until after I had downloaded the photo.  As usual, clicking on any photo will enlarge it.

The sea holly pictured above is new to our garden, but I love the bluey grey and will plant more next year.

And, for something completely diferent, another sunset.

The more things change....

I have just read (or reread) The Autobiography of ALICE B TOKLAS by Gertrude Stein.  I say or reread because I was convinced I had read it.  However I could find no memory of it in the porridge inside my head.

Very early in the book I came across a passage which made me snort with mirth and recognition.  The year was 1907 and Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas were living in Paris.  Miss Stein had a cook, Helene.  Helene objected to people, especially french people, inviting themselves to a meal - particularly if they asked before hand what there was for dinner.  She did not, for this reason, like Matisse.

'So when Miss Stein said to her, Monsieur Matisse is staying for dinner this evening, she would say, in that case I will not make an omelette but fry the eggs.  It takes the same number of eggs and the same amount of butter but it shows less respect, and he will understand.'

And, more than a hundred years later Helene is still right.  What a wonderful way of saying politely to people other than family and close friends, that inviting yourself to dinner is out of line.

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 while now.  I think this will probably be my last post exclusively devoted to birds for a while at least.  The ones I am featuring today are, while perhaps not as brightly coloured as some of our other birds, still more than welcome.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them larger.

We visit the first three birds pictured rather than them visiting us.

 Magpies do swoop people in spring it is true.  I think they more than make up for it with their enchanting gurgle all year round.

We have a large flock of sparrows who are usually to be seen and/or heard in the garden.

 Blackbirds are fairly regular visitors too.

Crested wood doves or Crested wood pidgeons we see every day.  They choose to walk across the road rather than fly and when we are putting seed out for the birds they are so reluctant to move it bounces off their backs.

Celebration

Yesterday was vilely hot, but we went out to lunch anyway.  We chose a brasserie down by the lake which I like for a number of reasons.

The first of my reasons agreed that it was too hot, and were deep in shade perhaps two hundred metres away from our lunch venue.

Clicking on any of the photos will enlarge them.

We only stayed long enough to admire them and take some photographs before going on to the brasserie where we were having lunch.  It was a cool oasis.

Lunch was pleasant as always.  I really like the way that a very small place caters to the dietary needs of carnivorous omnivores, vegetarians, vegans and the gluten intolerant.  They also cater for dogs - who are very welcome.

Lunch over, we ambled back to about a hundred metres away from the kangaroos - who were still lounging in the shade as only kangaroos (or cats) can.

We had brought some bread with us to feed our next encounters.  Who were very happy to see us, and not gentle about snatching it from our fingers.

Despite the heat it was a very pleasant interlude.