Appearances can be deceptive.

Today's bird, the cockatiel, also known as the Quarrion in Australia, is a small parrot which is fast overtaking the budgerigar as the most popular companion pet. He does look like a little clown but only those who have seen a flock of the birds on the wing can appreciate their aerial acrobatics. It seems like a good metaphor for how we view the people we meet. Flamboyance may disguise a rare talent or innate intelligence, best not to judge a bird by it's feathers!

A cockatiel named Karma is one of the stars of the Etegami Fun Club, appearing in photos of work posted by his owner, he is a well loved bird!

Today's bird.

Today's bird is a little Topknot pigeon who searches quietly in grassy areas for seeds. At our old house they would eat the seeds from our huge liquidamber tree which shed enough to keep a whole flock happy.
The most distinctive thing about these unassuming birds apart from a parrot like crest is the loud whirring sound made by their wings as they take flight, a sound I associate with happy times in my childhood, sitting alone in a paddock silently watching and dreaming. The colouration of the Topknot is quite subtle and beautiful with a slash of peacock blue-green feathers on wingtips.
I don't think I have done justice to the little chap but he brought back nice memories while I was painting and carving.

Today's bird.

The little Blue or Fairy Wren is tiny but fierce, he protects his band of wife, daughters and immature  males with a pit bull like tenacity. He is not averse however to skipping the fence into another wren's territory, looking to spread his genes a little wider. The joke is on him thought, while unguarded his wife is known to stray as well! A frequent backyard visitor the wren shelters in bushy shrubs and provides hours of entertainment to those lucky enough to host them.

Not sure if the words would qualify as a haiku but that was the intention!

Tweet!

A couple more bird stamps. Stamp carving is proving to be addictive, so much so that I have had to sally out to buy more carving medium.
The admonition on the first card "sing every chance you get" is something I seriously believe despite having a singing voice that closely resembles someone using a saw. Singing cheers the heart and it is difficult to be miserable if you sing, hum or whistle a tune.
I am particularly prone to "earworms", those repetitive phrases or snatches of song that pester you for hours, demanding that you vocalize them. I sometimes wonder if the fact that I suffer from tinnitus makes me prey to them. In any case it does help to belt out the occasional tune (first clearing the area of sensitive souls).

The little skinny shore bird occupies his own special niche in nature, just as we all do.

Anybody out there?

Naughty me, letting the real world eclipse my cyber world but it is back to business now that we're settled into the new digs.
Life here is unbelievably interesting and having lived in the semi 'burbs for ten plus years I am loving all of the activity going on around me. Ships in, ships out, fun runs along the waterfront, a constant parade of people strolling along the boardwalk and the merry chatter of diners in the restaurants below in our building. Thankfully the noise doesn't annoy me as many of my friends have predicted it would, they are happy noises although the party two floors down was a worry on Saturday night, it shut down at the civilized time of 11pm.
Our state has been ravaged by bushfires for the past couple of weeks and the air is thick with smoke, not good for the dodgy lung people but I can always close the doors and put on the aircon, so lucky we can do that.
One of the lovely things about living on the fourth floor is that we see "eye to eye" with the birds  and fruit bats that fly by. Maybe that is why I have decided to carve bird stamps. The birds here are mainly sea birds but the ones I am carving are rather generic at the moment,  not sure where I'm are going with it but fun to do anyway.

I love the cheeky poem, thank you Philip de Vos.

Boo!

Back again and it is nearly that time again, the time that dentists love, Hallowe'en. The usual stamp, firstly for my brother who likes this kind of stuff (attested by the large tattoo in Gothic script on his forearm) and whose birthday falls on Nov 2 the day Mexico celebrates the Day of the Dead. Secondly for my correspondents in California who also observe the day and thirdly, well, just because!
I did think of using a line from the old spiritual "Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones but went with something that would round up all the ideas about Hallowe'en.

Don't eat too many lollies (candy, sweets)!

A door closes and a sliding one opens...

To my lovely new view!

Well, we are in the new place and it looks like it will suit us just fine. The only thing left to do is to hang the paintings and sit back and enjoy.
Amidst the madness of the big move I did find time to sit down and carve this stamp. (I find stamp carving to be a very calming activity). I thought the image and quote were very appropriate, we have left behind my big fishpond and the week has been a frenzy of cleaning the old place and painting the  new so I made the stamp to send on an etegami to the two mates, Betty and Jan (remember Jan? she bakes) who pitched in and helped us with the final clean up of the old place.

Vale Buster.

Not to go into details but the fact that I havent blogged in so long will give a clue as to how my life has been these past few weeks.
Today is a particularly sad day, our little mate Buster had to be put to sleep, he was very ill with cancer and refused to eat anymore. The vet said it was the kindest thing, so while I was out attending the funeral of my next door neighbour, the Prof took him on his last trip. I have done this kindness to other pets and now it was his turn to do the deed.
The Universe has a strange way of aligning your stars. One of our main worries when we first embarked on the idea of living in a fourth floor apartment  was how  Buster would cope. More to the point, how would we cope! That problem is resolved but I would rather have the problem than the solution any day.
This will be the first time in our married lives since we returned from California to Australia in 1969 that we have been dogless for any length of time. The house feels strange and eerily empty but I am resolved not to succumb and get another little dog, all things change and the big change is coming up for us.
On the positive side, we have the keys to the new place at last and can now start moving things in, the view from the deck is lovely at night with the harbour lights and the tugs whizzing around.
Downstairs in our apartment building there is a Subway franchise, the next  building has a Minimart and there are heaps of restaurants, the favourite of which is "The Salty Squid" so we will be able to survive in our dotage as long as we can crawl to the elevator!
This house is rapidly emptying of almost all of the furniture and everything else that  cluttered up our lives but the problem remains, will my half dozen 6ft by 4ft paintings crowd us out of the new place?
Stay  tuned!
My favourite photo of Buster and me taken late last year in happier times.

First you play...

and then you pay! A short break in Sydney last weekend left me with some much needed visual stimulation and unfortunately, a cold! It seems that crowds and I don't agree despite precautions, handwashing obsessively, avoiding obvious sneezers etc, it was almost inevitable that the lurgie would find me.
Apart from the obvious discomfort of the cold I have a feeling of being becalmed in a sea of stuff which must be dealt with before the big move... seven weeks and counting. Difficult to motivate oneself but the time does slip away. In preparation I am busying myself (if sitting on the couch and sewing and knitting can be called busy) with finishing up the backlog of crafty stuff I have managed to avoid. The tag ends of former obsessions, teddy bears, knitted bunnies and sock monkeys. I don't want to start the new life with a hoard of half finished projects cluttering up the place.
Sometimes I wonder about my liking for infantilia but mostly I just shrug it off as the end result of a deprived childhood and a liking for small things.
Another project this week has been to make cushions using some not too comfy feather pillows which should be perfect as they don't have the annoying habit of sliding off the leather couch. It gave me the chance to try out the look of stamped bees using a stamp I made for an etegami.

The linen fabric "took" the stamp well and as the ink is impossible to wash out of clothing, I am hoping it will survive on the pillows.
The weather was perfect in Sydney and I was able to make a few sketches in the Gardens and around the art gallery, heaven to be out in the sunshine with nothing else to do but sketch and look at art! I could get used to that.

This was the first outing for a new LAMY pen, very nice for thick and thin lines with the same instrument. So, no etegami today...maybe tomorrow.

Gratitude.

This week a call for etegami on the subject of gratitude made me step back and assess my life and the things I am grateful for.
First and foremost, I am grateful to BE here, grateful for this great age which we in the developed world share, the world of instant communication, Internet friendships which will never be face to face but nonetheless bring an added dimension to our lives. I am grateful for all of the obvious things: dodging death and reaching a great age, access to good medical care, children and at risk of sounding like one of those boring Christmas newsy letters, grandchildren. Perhaps it would be easier to list the things I am not grateful for but at the moment I can't think of a thing!
Oh I forgot that I am grateful that the poo pumpers have vacated our back garden and drainage wise it is "good to GO" (see last week's post).
So on to the etegami for this week......

 

 

That's the Bluebird of Happiness by the way!