Post 251 Friends and Ravens

As forecast, there was a bit of rain overnight and a much cooler start to the day. The Adelaide Hills weren't visible this morning.

I am reading Jane Harper's The Survivors, one of this month's choices for my Crime Book Club. So far it's keeping me engaged.

Somewhat to my surprise, Myrtle appeared this morning on the clean balcony, just standing, seemingly waiting. Even more surprising, although clearly wary, she remained while I cautiously opened the door and distributed some seed.

She stayed well away, close to the balcony edge, but didn't fly away. That's a first. 

It was windy but she was not at all puffed up.

As soon as the seed hit the ground she was pecking at it. apparently very hungry. There was a lot of bird noise around, really loud 'ark, ark' sounds usually made by crows or ravens. There are, according to the South Australian Dept of the Environment,, few crows found south of Port Augusta and Corvus Melior, the Little Raven is the most common 'ark, ark' bird in Adelaide.  One flew to the roof above the balcony while Myrtle was feeding. My Vergola roof was closed so the raven wasn't visible. It flew off a few minutes later. Myrtle paused while it was above, had a bit more seed, but  went to the rail to observe when it flew away. She was on alert for several minutes before departing. 

I discovered the pdf file of the book I created yesterday had indeed arrived. It was, of course, sent to the email address I used to set up the new account and make the book, an address I do not regularly use. It took a long time to download the book - all 234 Mb of it. I was still trying to retrieve it on my iPad, so I could view it in iBooks, when I decided I needed to go out.  I succeeded later in the afternoon.

I went to deliver a seated hoop to my friend with the broken humerus. Her arm is healing, but pain has increased as she begins physio on the arm. Hopefully a hoop she does not have to hold will enable her to progress some of her embroidery. From there I went on to Unley to mail a parcel and drop off some soft plastic for recycling.  When I got home there was another notice that I had missed a parcel, to be picked up at the Post Office after 4pm.

The bird noise was still loud this afternoon. Eventually I went to investigate. There were three ravens on the jacaranda calling to their fellows on trees far away. I couldn't capture the three in a single shot. I couldn't even get a clear shot of two. 

One, however, gave me a fair shot.

Eventually, one flew off to the top of a tree a couple of hundred metres away.

The parcel, when I picked it up, turned out to be the book I ordered because of Jenny Adin-Christies's review on her FaceBook page. Stitched and Sewn: the life-saving art of holocaust survivor Trudie Strubel. Just as well I managed yesterday to reduce the pile of embroidery books I needed to review! 

I captured this sunset shot while talking  on the phone to my Blue Mountains friend. She has a mystery infection in her leg, giving her a lot of grief. It didn't prevent us catching up at great length - a much better use of two hours for both of us than the ubiquitous news coverage and commentary tonight. 

I managed to finish the Rabbits while watching an episode of Lewis.  Blocking can wait until tomorrow, but I did test the last two panels together. 

  

It's going to work.