Wet and Aggressive Corella challenges Magpie

Wet and Aggressive Corella challenges Magpie

Sunday 29 June 2014

Sunday Selections #178

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.

Like River I usually run with a theme.  This week it is a galah coloured dawn which fed my soul.  A chilly, but beautiful start to the day.  And yes, mad woman with camera dances were involved.



And then some galah photos so you can see what I mean.  The match is not exact, but they are certainly grey and pink like the sky and the distant hills.




And then a slightly brighter dawn.  More dances.




And, at the other end of the day, vibrant colour as the day drew to a (stunning) close.





Monday 23 June 2014

Sigh.

I am having difficulties with my blog at the moment.
When I go to my dashboard it tells me I am not following any blogs.   Eventually, after much refreshing, it will admit that I am following blogs.
And will show me the blog of the person who posted most recently.  And only that one.  When I hit 'view more' it declines.
Hiss and spit.
Hopefully this glitch will be fixed sooner rather than later.
I will be back viewing your blogs when I can.

Sunday 22 June 2014

Sunday Selections #177

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.

Like River I usually run with a theme. This week I was getting ahead of myself and had my Sunday Selections mostly complete by Friday.  And then on Saturday morning Fran published a post about kangaroos - and how they got their pouch.  Great story - and some wonderful cartoons too (and the link will take you there). 

Trawling through my files for photos to send her I realised I really, really needed a kangaroo fix.  So when the skinny one got up several many hours later we headed down to the lake.

Bliss.










And there were swans too.  Double bliss.





Thursday 19 June 2014

I plead guilty


I was anxiety girl, then anxiety woman, and I suspect anxiety crone will be (or is) an accurate description as well.




Sunday 15 June 2014

Sunday Selections #176

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.

Like River I usually run with a theme.   We have had some grey days this week, and some welcome rain fell on Friday night and Saturday morning.  In a break in the rain, I headed outside, and went for a wet wander through the garden.  It smelt delightful, and I do like looking at rain washed plants.

The first photo is of the spot where a glorious crab apple grew.  Sadly the heat and the drought over summer killed it.  A helpful (not) person from the street 'pruning' it with a chainsaw to get a better view for himself didn't help either.  Over the last little while I have been chopping down the crab apple (grieving) and weeding under it.  Then planting.  There are now many, many bulbs waiting to blaze.  As an aside I finished planting all our bulbs this week - and the skinny one ordered some more.  There will be over 2000 squeezed in, and I am hoping for magic.

As always clicking on the photos will magically embiggen them.




A grevillea - which I didn't think would bloom for another month or two

Euphorbia


Abutilon



The next photo is the evidence of my industry.  I have found ripping, tearing, pruning and weeding remarkably cathartic.  There is some more to do yet (isn't there always?).  When I finish (or more likely give up) I will hire a skip (dumpster).



And the final two photos are of the sky.  Both yesterday.  About two hours apart.

The first was shortly after my morning walk.


And the second just before I headed out to do more weeding.  More rain was predicted - and fell.



Wednesday 11 June 2014

Letters of Note

Yet  another post about my greedy reading.  Please feel free to skulk away if you are over this obsession of mine.  This book was one which was given to me earlier this year.


It was a gift from the skinny one - who knows my reading tastes well - though he doesn't share them.  At all.

It is a collection of over a hundred letters, ancient and modern, covering a huge range of topics and emotions.  Some, like Virginia Woolf's suicide note, I had read but most were new to me.   Another gem.

Mind you, I wouldn't classify all of them as 'letters'.  Written correspondence perhaps.  A minor quibble.

I hooted with mirth at the letter from Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie and Clyde fame) to Henry Ford saying among other things '...the Ford has got ever other car skinned and even if my business hasen't been strickly legal it don't hurt enything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V8'.

I was fascinated to see the expression OMG used in a letter to Winston Churchill - in 1917.

I winced at a letter from a Japanese 'kamikaze' pilot to his children.

There is a letter from John Lennon's killer, Mark Chapman, to a memorabilia expert wondering about the value of the Double Fantasy album he had autographed by Lennon earlier in the afternoon - before he shot and killed him.

In 1784 Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter, enclosing money and suggesting that in time, rather than repaying the loan to Franklin himself, 'when you meet with another honest Man in similar Distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to him...'  Paying it forward has been around for longer than I knew.

Did you know that one of the first telegrams sent after the Titanic hit the iceberg said ' Underwriters have message from New York that Virginian is standing by Titanic and that there is no danger of loss of life'...?

But one piece in the book has haunted me.  I know that obituaries of prominent people and celebrities are prepared in advance.  Often years in advance.  I am even moderately comfortable with the concept.

I wasn't at all comfortable with a speech prepared for Richard Nixon 'IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER'.

The speech assumes that the landing was succesful, but that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had become stranded on the moon - never to return.  A contingency plan of sorts I suppose.

The part of the speech which distresses me is a little addendum to it.  I have reproduced it below.

'PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT:

    The President should telephone each of the widows-to-be.

AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN;
    A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to 'the deepest of the deep', concluding with the Lord's Prayer.'

Tacky, tacky, tacky.  Not the speech so much (though it is high on hyperbole), but that it was considered necessary to remind the President that he would need to contact the 'widows-to-be' before he talked to the nation and the world.  And the use of that phrase to describe the astronaut's wives also makes me feel unwell.  I am not comfortable with the idea that they would essentially be left to die alone either, with communication cut while they were still alive.  Perhaps I am naive.  Certainly not comfortable with this speech.

Mind you, this was the only correspondence in the book which did make me feel unwell.  Some of the letters were beautiful, some hilarious, and others sad.  Many were very very moving.  The sub-title to the work is 'Correspondence deserving of a Wider Audience' - and I would wholeheartedly agree.




Sunday 8 June 2014

Sunday Selections #175

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.

Like River I usually run with a theme.  I have been a tad distracted this week so there are far fewer photos than usual.

Part of a delicate sunset.





 A cockatoo watching me watching him.


And a short video of corellas toughing up pigeons.  There is a spot towards the middle where I wince.  I apologise for the sound - himself was watching something (I know not what) on television at the time.


Friday 6 June 2014

Hooray

Finally the results of the biopsy came in.

The skinny one has a cyst.  Which could be treated with antibiotics - or perhaps not.  It can be surgically removed - or perhaps not. 

If that doctor sits on the fence for much longer she will get splinters in her behind.  He/we have opted for doing nothing for the moment.  And if it is ever removed I think it should be cast in gold.  It has been a very, very expensive cyst.

Snarkiness aside, it is wonderful, wonderful news.

I knew I was stressed, I knew I was worried.  I knew that I was only just holding it together.  It wasn't until we got the good news and the tears started to fall that I realised how stressed and worried I had been.  My bones and both of my brain cells have turned to jelly.  Painful jelly - but happy jelly.


And some laughter to celebrate.





Sunday 1 June 2014

Sunday Selections #174

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.

Like River I usually run with a theme.  At the moment, for something completely different, the skinny one has a health crisis.  A new and different one as well as the existing one.  He has 'fessed up to having a lump inside his jaw.  A lump which is growing and changing texture.  And which has been there for months.

We are having a scary, frustrating and expensive time trying to find out what it is.  He has had two inconclusive scans.  On Thursday he was to have a biopsy.  When he got there they realised he has a beard (which they hadn't noticed while they were doing the scans).  Apparently they cannot do a biopsy through it.  So today he plans to shave as little of his beard as possible and the biopsy has been rescheduled for tomorrow.  With another scan.  Hiss and spit.

I am frazzled and frantic.  So when this dawn materialised a couple of days ago I rushed outside (in bare feet and dressing gown) to do the mad woman with camera dance.  Such a hopeful augury for the day.  The serenity and the beauty eased my soul and made my heart sing.