Our World & World Bird Wednesday - Christmas is coming . . .

Christmas is coming

and the geese are getting fat . . . all except this one which has

been dieting for two months sitting on a clutch of nine infertile

eggs and fiercely protecting them until I snuck in the other end

of the shed and managed to hide the stinking things while she

snatched a few mouthfuls of grass. No, she certainly will not be

Christmas dinner.

Today I must make a foray into the big smoke to locate a few

elusive presents. Haven't managed any Christmas baking as

yet and have a birthday cake to bake before Friday. I hope all

of you are better organised.

How can I get anything done when I have little distractions like

this Superb Blue Wren around?

Or kangaroos checking me out as I stalk a bird or two,

like these Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos, a few couples of which,

in our twenty years here, have passed through on their annual

pilgrimages. Last year a small flock decided this was a good

spot to linger and colonised one of our paddocks. This year

there has been a population explosion and we have well over

a hundred of them screeching between our houses. The noise

of feeding and begging babies is deafening and they, together

with a flock of Galahs, are stripping our Eucalyptus trees where

they roost and snipping off new shoots on ornamental evergreens.

At least some of them hide their heads in shame . . .

And so, with a few meadow flowers sunning themselves, I wish

all my dear blog friends wherever you are, a Happy and Blessed

Christmas and/or Holiday Season. May those of you in cold

climates stay warm and those in hot ones stay cool. Enjoy your

time with family and friends, be they two or four legged.

Stay safe on the roads, everyone else drives like a maniac!