After a cuppa Karina decided to drive me around to the local dog park so Holly and Bonnie could have a run, and check it out for future visits. It is a well fenced area and the girls did have a good run...lots of interesting odours to check out, but no other dogs present, sadly. It is quite a good size and there are two sections so timid types or pups can run about unmolested from more extroverted types, but because it has been so dry here (unlike other parts of Australia at present), it was very dusty and only dry grass patches. Also, sadly, many other visitors had failed to pick up after their pooches despite the availability of baggies and bins...this made the whole area a bit of a disappointment. There were several well maintained seats and plantings of native bushes, but these had been a little vandalised here and there. I rescued a small branch of Eucalyptus forrestiana which had been broken off the little tree...(useless articles that have nothing better to do than to destroy anything in their paths just because they can, need a very good talking to, in my opinion...). At home I popped it into a glass of rosemary twigs on the kitchen bench to enjoy the single red gum nut on the twig...
Sam the parrot always managed to draw me in, every single visit to auntie Gyda, and there were many during my preschool days. While the adults were catching up and having afternoon tea, I would go the rounds of aunty's other birds who absolutely fascinated and bemused me as a small child.
There was darling Sailor, the galah who would answer my questions and talk himself blue, telling Gyda to "put the kettle on, we have visitors" the moment he heard my father's voice in the back doorway, tell you to "have another biscuit darling, I don't want them, they are stale!", (so rude!), and ask Gyda "Are we going out, Gy", whenever he saw her putting on her hat in the hallway..he was never in a cage. There were also a few chattering little budgies and other birds, all very vocal, but my absolute favourite was Sam, despite his Fagan-like personality...
Sam lived in a big aviary outside in the back yard and as soon as he saw me he would call "Hello, scratch cocky", "Nice Sam", "Oh, what a lovely boy I am"...(I can hear his reedy voice so clearly even after the passage of over sixty years). I would sidle gradually closer while he kept up his line of vocal enticements, with his voice getting softer and softer, climbing down and onto the wire side of his cage so as to be at a good height for me to reach..."Go on, scratch", "nice Sam", "Nice Boy" non stop yadda yadda yadda...and I always fell for it...I would slowly reach my little fingies in through the mesh to rub him under his chin (as my father did every visit without molestation!) and he would suddenly explode into a huge violent flurry of white wings and tail, his huge yellow crest extended and shaking furiously and shrieking as only a large cockatoo can shriek...Then, to add insult to injury, as I peeled my small self off the side garden fence where I had finished up and made at high speed for the back door and safety, he would laugh like an hysterical hyena until I vanished from sight...Oh Sam, I am still rather gullible...at times, though I hope I have learned some discretion. Although I loved her birds and they had a very loving owner, I would never own a caged bird myself.
Well, that's enough reminiscence for today...things to do...bye now,
Di