Memories and the persistence of nature to inspire.
We have a high walled courtyard off the main bathroom. When my children were preschoolers, they planted a branch of cypress there. Surprisingly, a pine tree grew. It must have come up from a seed on the stick. The kids thought themselves master gardeners, especially when a pair of Willie Wagtails built a nest in the pine.
We gravitated to the bathroom, watching the birds sit tight on the tiny bowl. Once the eggs hatched though, the Willies became the mother of all birds.
You rarely see something so enchanting it seems like an illusion, but that’s how it was last spring. Outside, checking the blooming Bottle-brush trees, a red pompom zipped past me. Didn’t see much, the bird was so fast it blurred.
Poetry Sunday
Woke to see a red sun
sitting on the ocean
first honeymoon morning
shimmering fire
in the half-light predawn
a pause in real time
you sat up and glanced
then pulled me back down to bed
saying I was more engaging
my body better to see
hotter than the sun
kissing with closed eyes
your red hair backlit
golden and glowing
lips soft
insistent
flesh pliant
giving
just married
tangled all up in you
over excited by it
I hurled the pillows
to the floor
kicking off sheets
laughing like a maniac
in a frenzy
of excess
of desire
lovemaking…
I heard a plaintive cry outside the lounge room. It usually means the finches are in danger, that either a goanna or a snake threatened.
Looking outside, I couldn’t see either. Then, 8 finches flew up from the wheel-barrow. October has been incredibly warm, but there was a cold snap at end of September. Firewood is still stacked outside.
Next to the cut logs was a tiny Double-barred Finch. It’s wing looked broken, though I wasn’t sure. Completely motionless, the bird must have hit the glass door. Its family flock were encouraging it to fly.
A let down.
Seems like overwhelming disappointment.
I got so into the characters I would dream plotlines.
Then allow doubt to infiltrate all the premises of my novel.
Spending a decade writing something, only to save it in 4 places.
To let it sit, to rot and petrify in multiple folders and thumb drives.
Tried to give the draft a final editing push, but fall back again. It seems like trash, hardly worth the effort to whip it into shape. Who am I kidding, no traditional publisher would want this crap? I’ve been neglecting the manuscript again, a bird with…
My orchard is a place to step out of myself and into nature.
Rainbow Bee-eaters are back from wintering in north Queensland or New Guinea. They’ve returned to our farm to breed and gobble bees. And the best place for bees is our orchard.
In the first week of spring, apricots trees blossomed and bees swarmed.
Blurry blue-eyed babes
the big milk guzzlers
with tubby tummies
snagging teeth
always hungry
biting ankles
pulling laces
nipping tails
pouncing
chewing
suckling
barking
playing
pooing
peeing
pups
How to bliss out from a viral world in twelve easy steps.
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters have come to my home again. Unlike the world wide travel ban, they’ve been enjoying six months of warm weather in arid central Australia; now they’re back for breeding.
These birds have pink beaks with black tips and blue eye rings. Tufts of yellow feathers stick out like whiskers on their cheeks. They like to hang out upside down, or sideways, sipping the sweetness from new spring flowers.
Therese Ralston
Writing about the real life, farm life, reading life, birdlife, wildlife, pet life and school life I have in my life. My blog: birdlifesaving.blogspot.com
