Post 127: Mostly birds and sky.

There was a news item in my inbox this morning about the research of Associate Professor Amanda Ridley of the University of Western Australia into the behaviour of Australian Magpies.  Amongst other things, she has established that the females make more noise than the males, and that they can sing up to 80 decibels, and for periods of 70 minutes at a time.

When I emerged from my dental appointment around 11.30 am, there were a couple of groups of Magpies feeding on the parkland in front of my parked car. They were not making a noise.

There was a very promising hole for a nest right in front of my car.  This is the beginning of their breeding season which peaks in August with nesting and swooping on intruders. I shall take care when I return to the dentist in September.

There was also a rainbow lorikeet keeping an eye on the Magpies from a nearby tree. It isn't that often that you see a single lorikeet. Perhaps this one was the sentry.

My dental appointment was for a small filling on the edge of a crown. The clinic has efficient, thorough and well-managed Covid precautions. Very reassuring. I went on to Unley shopping centre to post a parcel. I also bought some lamb cutlets, lamb shanks - and blueberry scones. 2 scones kept me going most of the day.

Yesterday I had notification from Beating Around The Bush that my refund had been processed. It hasn't arrived in my account yet, but I'm impressed with the efficiency of their processes once the decision to cancel was made. I look forward to seeing the offering for 2021 and 2022.

I was getting concerned about Myrtle and Turtle. I hadn't seen either of them for 3 days, so hadn't put out any seed. Around 1 pm Myrtle turned up, staying less than a minute. She is always nervous. I put out some seed. She returned a  couple of hours later, ate some seed and had a good drink.

I'm pleased to see her.






The moon had risen, long before the sun went down. It is a bit easier to capture a moon image in the daylight.


I have a backlog of books to read - for Book Club, but mostly for interest. I started Death in Transit, a Keith Moray murder mystery set on Uist. This is delaying my reading of a Robert Gott historical Australian crime on Overdrive and a pile of hardcopy embroidery books. The three books I ordered from the Old Girls Union newsletter are also on their way. My father used to say, when we put too much food on our plates "Your eyes are too big for your belly".  There must be a book equivalent.

I have, nevertheless, been focused on working on the Orange while watching the news of our Covid progress/regression unfold. 

I went one shade darker on the lower centre of the far right leaf and also kept the stitches a bit sparse.

I need to do a bit of repair on the rope stitch stems. These were the last thing I worked on tonight and my eyes are giving out.

Nevertheless, it's coming along nicely.

While working on the Orange have been using the chatelaine I bought in Stratford from Phillipa. It works well. However, if I bend down for any reason, the scissors are inclined to fall out. Last night, when I bent down to take my dinner out of the oven, the scissors fell into the oven. I couldn't see them and was worried they had fallen into the gap underneath the open door and into the space underneath the oven. This morning I pulled all the shelves and trays out of the oven and lo! the scissors were at the back of the bottom tray. While this was a relief. I like those scissors and didn't much like the idea of them lost under an oven. The downside was that I ended up scrubbing all the oven trays and racks!