COCKATOOS !

Those lovely, cheeky, funny, raucous, destructive birds that we love but cannot encourage. I would love to encourage them into my garden but in view of their destructive habits, there is no way I can because where I live, some people have done just that and have lived to regret it. They have put food out for these birds day after day and then gone away on holiday but naturally the cockies still turn up for their handout and a bored flock of hungry birds can get up to all kinds of mischief - such as excercising those beaks (and what beaks !) on the nearest wooden windows, doors, sundecks, fences, etc. One family returned home from holiday to find roughly $40,000 worth of damage to their house.

So, unfortunately, cockatoos are banned from my back garden although some still seem to find their way here.....but they fly off very quickly when they see me heading towards them - leaving it until I am within 3 or 4 feet of them before they do, though !



The best way to see these birds is to go to the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, and to take a bag of sunflower seeds with you. In the picnic ground at Audley Weir in the National Park you will usually find at least one cockatoo hanging around and as soon as he realises you have FOOD with you, he sends out the word and before you know it there can be over a hundred of his mates flocking in to have their share. They will fly to you and perch on you wherever they can and the only problem is how to keep them from digging their claws into you and to avoid their beaks as well !









You can see what I mean from the photos above.

What a difference a week makes ! These photos were taken at the same beach as those a few days ago although now the surf is a lot calmer. The weather today has been perfect with the temperature around 26/27C and cloudless skies. After hardly anyone on the beach last week today was very different with the complete stretch of the sand from Wanda to Cronulla, a distance of over a mile, littered with the young and not so young soaking up the sunshine now that winter has left us.














Sometimes you are up............

......and sometimes you are down !

There are four surf clubs along this stretch of coast; Cronulla, North Cronulla, Elouera and Wanda. My husband was a member of the Wanda surf club, where these photographs were taken today, and he helped to set up the radio network for the New South Wales Surf movement back in the 1970s. On a number of occasions he acted as a relay for the Police Helicopter, relaying their messages back to their base when they were too far down the coast for their radios to work well. The colours of the Wanda Surf Club are navy blue, army red and air force blue because this club was founded by the returned servicemen following WW2.

A few more of my treasures.



When my parents were married, one of their wedding presents was a lovely green glass dressing table set. It always fascinated me from childhood and I can remember rearranging it on the dressing table in their room many years ago. It now sits on my dressing table and the colour scheme of my bedroom was chosen to complement it.

This lovely biscuit barrel belonged to my grandmother and it, too, brings back memories of my childhood......such as sneaking a biscuit from it while my mother was in another room. Well...the biscuit barrel wasn't airtight and I couldn't let the biscuits go all soft, could I ?


As someone who is interested in the age old craft of lacemaking it follows naturally that I would be interested in the antique needlework implements that can be found in many antique shops. In this photograph there is a small bone cotton barrel (bottom right centre)which is dated roughly as being made around 1790. Inside the barrel, with the handle sticking up through the lid, is a tiny shuttle onto which was wound the cotton or silk thread with the end threaded through a hole in the side of the barrel. This sat on the table alongside m'lady. When the thread ran out, m'lady's maid was despatched back to the shop to have more thread wound onto the shuttle because, heaven forbid, m'lady couldn't possibly do this job for herself ! Other items in the photo are needle cases, a pin cushion (next to the cotton barrel), star shaped silk winders, bone and mother of pearl stillettos and bone and metal crochet hooks. The bone implements are dated from the early part of the 1800s and could have been made in China for the beautiful work boxes of that era while the mother of pearl stilleto would have been made in the latter half of that Century. The scissors date from approximately 1820/30 and are still very sharp. The tiny scissors were made before WW1 and believe it or not they do work. At the top of the photo, the bone fansticks (early 1800s again) are waiting for me to make a new leaf of lace.

I have been looking through a few of my treasures and photographing them.....so I am going to bore you with them.

This needlepoint belt was made by my Grandfather when he was in the trenches in WW1. The date on it is 1916 and he was killed on 1st October, 1916, in the Battle of the Somme.



A close up of the embroidered cards sent by my grandfather to his family....they still have the small cards with them.


This metal box contains a small New Testament with an inscription inside the front cover by Lord Roberts.



War - what a waste of all those young lives that were so precious to themselves and to their families.......and we still have not learned.

KOOKABURRAS

The Kookaburra, or Laughing Jackass, is another favourite bird of mine and he can be heard from far enough away when he starts his maniacal laughing. He can be very silent, though, and not so long ago I didn't realise one of them had landed in a tree in my front garden until he started laughing at me.







On another day, a large shrub had been drastically pruned to admit light to my sunroom and one branch of the tree was left looking a little bedraggled and ragged sticking up into the air. When a kookaburra landed on the railing of my sundeck, I quickly went inside to get some meat for him but when I went outside again I thought he had flown off - I should have known better ! He had perched on the tip of the pruned branch from where he could fly down to catch the thrown meat before it could touch the ground !

I must be known throughout the bird world as being a soft touch........







....but the pleasure I get from watching the birds makes up for all the trouble.

LORIKEETS

I love the colourful, noisy and cheeky lorikeets that visit here, especially the babies.



I am surprised that this baby wasn't abandoned by its mother - it had chased her all over the tree calling out for food. No matter how many times she flew to another branch or tried to get away from it, it followed her !


This baby was very curious about that hook ! He thought it may have been edible but I don't think he liked the taste of it in the end.

After a few days of wild, wet and windy weather, I decided to head down to the beach yesterday and check out the conditions there. The surf was rolling onto the sand and there were the usual diehards out catching the waves but most people decided to obey the directions of the lifesavers and they stayed out of the water.

Because of the dark skies, patches of sunlight glittering on the water and windy conditions, a lot of the photos I took look almost monotone in colour. With some of them I was able to brighten them a little and add a touch of colour but on the whole they reflected the grey of the skies.

Cronulla Beach - usually fairly safe for the family.


Bate Bay looking towards the oil refinery on the Kurnell Peninsula - Botany Bay is on the other side of the Peninsula.....and yes, that is a surfer mid left.

The rock swimming pools between Cronulla and North Cronulla beaches. It would have been very dangerous to swim in those pools yesterday.

A couple walking their dog along the beach. Last week at this time, the temperature was around 26/27 degrees celsius but yesterday it took it all its time to reach 16C so jackets and long pants were the order of the day.

Looking across to the oil refinery again, the surf was increasing in size by the minute.

BUTCHER BIRDS

One of the regular visitors to my garden is a Butcher Bird named Butcher for obvious reasons ! He has the most beautiful melodic call but he doesn't often sing - only when he wants me to put some food out for him and I'm a little slow at co-operating. He isn't a large bird by any means, about 10 inches or so long, but the one that comes here is a real character.




Waiting patiently.........



.....but not too patiently.........


and if there is a little bacon fat beside the barbecue going spare then why not.......

Just what I wanted.

A few more photos from the Australia Zoo.


Lots of the staff at the Australia Zoo can be found wandering around the complex in charge of various animals like this baby crocodile.



Everyone's favourite.



Can't say the same for this one though.



Koalas can sleep anywhere - just wish I could !

I was sad to hear of the death of Steve Irwin yesterday. The last time I was in Queensland I visited his Australia Zoo which is well worth a visit if ever you are in the area.


Plenty of kangaroos and wallabies there, naturally.



They breed them big in Queensland........



The Brolgas are renowned for their graceful courtship dancing and while this one put quite a performance on for us, the photos were not the best - too much movement I think.



This Darter took great delight in showing himself off and posing for us. Twisting his head first one way and then the other - almost as though he was saying - be sure and get my best profile !

The shrubs in the garden are starting to flower now spring has come and these are attracting a lot of the honey eating birds. With our water restrictions in force it is best to grow the native plants because these need no where near as much watering as the exotic ones.

This one is a Grevillea hybrid called Golden Lyre with the blooms being anything from 8 to 12 inches long - the birds love it. This photo of a Red Wattle bird was taken by a friend of mine who was visiting from the the USA.

The plum tree is in glorious blossom at the moment but later in the year a few of these birds will discover that the plums are ready to eat long before I do. They are welcome to some but I wish they would leave just a few for me !