Half a century.

Today marks a half century since the Prof and I tied the knot. While it seems but a blink of the eye, a picture tells a thousand truths. This is me on our wedding day. I will spare you the current view!

 Oh callow youth, how could we have embarked on such a momentous odyssey at such a tender age? Oscar Wilde once remarked that "marriage is a triumph of optimism over experience" and it is clear that we were all optimism, certainly lacking experience!
However, despite a very few minor squalls, our ship has found calm waters and our optimism it seems was well founded. Two sons and four granddaughters make growing older more bearable, that and for the Prof, his Ipod on random play with all the Motown hits of the 'sixties while I busy myself making, doing and painting in our haven by the harbour.
We are enjoying our peaceful retirement and hope that our luck and health hold for a few more years.

Advantages to living small;

Perfumes fill the small space, flowers can be seen from all angles and things are readily at hand.....Disadvantages to living small; well apart from the obvious converse of the smell thing, I haven't found any yet.
Inspired by the perfume from some ripening peaches filling the apartment, the first of the season, I have been drawn back to the world of traditional etegami.
It is a darkish grey, rainy day, leavened only by a long walk to my favourite fabric store, listening to Herman Wouk's magnum opus "The Winds of War". The delectable smell of the peaches greeted me on my return and brightened my day. Summer is truly a'comin' in.

Don't be a galah!

Maybe this expression is becoming obsolete but I heard it many times in my youth. It was usually said with an ironic slightly affectionate ring, much like the expression "you silly goose".
Why the galah has been libelled in this way is quite obvious when you see them in the flesh. They have a slightly goofy air and are given to screeching and panicking at the least disturbance. All this despite their gorgeous rosy pink and grey colouration.
Galahs do make good companion animals and can be affectionate but it is a shame to take them away from their natural habitat where they flock in large numbers, wheeling and screeching all the while.

I have a feeling my bird stamp carving phase may have run its course....we shall see.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. I met one of my Facebook friends Carolyn from Melbourne in person and we shared a chatty lunch, afternoon tea and gallery visit together. I felt very connected to Carolyn online and happily that connection is now a personal one.
A funny thing happened when I returned home though, my 12 year old twin granddaughters gave me a stern lecture about people you meet online and how to protect yourself from predators. The education programs at school are working!
All in all a good week.

On the subject of opportunity...

It has been said that "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" probably meaning "take what you can and don't hold out for more in the future". Seems to me that our whole lives we are holding out for more and isn't that what life is all about? For some it is a promise of Heaven, for others it is for material things, for me it is friendship, developing a relationship beyond the superficial, so maybe being a "holdout" isn't a bad thing.
Todays nondescript little bird, a kind of generic sparrow type says that settling for the now, may lose you the opportunity for better things.

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)!