Betrisher
Well-known member
- Jun 3, 2013
- 4,253
- 177
- Parrots
- Dominic: Galah(RIP: 1981-2018); The Lovies: Four Blue Masked Lovebirds; Barney and Madge (The Beaks): Alexandrines; Miss Rosetta Stone: Little Corella
G'day everyone!
It's been quite a while since I've popped in, but I was thinking about you guys tonight and thought I'd let you know what I've been up to lately.
As the oldies among you might remember, I left my mod position in order to concentrate on my studies a few years ago! Goodness! That went quickly! I'm currently doing third-year Latin (reading Virgil this year) and still enjoying it hugely.
In the intervening time, we moved house. That was an exercise! We only moved five blocks away from where we'd lived for the past twenty years, but you'd think we'd moved across country from all the stress, machinations and preparations. We've been in the new house just over a year and still haven't completely unpacked everything. My owl collection, for example, is still languishing in cardboard boxes. Turns out, the new house has less wall-space and storage than the old one did and we had somehow accumulated a LOT of - um - $#!+. This is what happens when four people share a house and pursue lots of different hobbies.
The Beaks (Alexandrines), the Lovies (Masked and Peachfaced lovebirds) and Dominic (Galah) all moved fairly easily and happily. Sadly, I wasn't able to install a thoroughfare into the kitchen from the Beaks' cage like I had in the old house (new house is on a hill). Sadly, they've been living on the back deck in their outdoor cage all this time. I have a massive (4m x 4m) aviary lined up for them, but as is usual in our family, all sorts of dramas have happened to put off the building of the aviary. Hopefully in the next month or two... We'll see...
Things that happened: my Mum passed away, my hubby's parents went into permanent care, my sister-in-law passed away (young and suddenly) and my sister and I had a massive falling-out. Whew! I'm exhausted just writing it all down! These things take a toll and they sure did on our family this past year. That's why things that were supposed to happen didn't.
Our new house (it's actually my family home, up in which I grew) has a nice garden with two massive gum trees out the back. This is very beneficial for a number of reasons: i) hordes of Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets visit every single day; ii) Little Corellas and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos visit most days; iii) Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos have begun to visit in growing numbers, roughly each week; iv) Eastern Rosellas have also begun visiting regularly and v) last week, I spotted two pairs of King Parrots in the yard!!!
We're lucky enough to have a decent-sized deck on the back of the house, so I spend most mornings and many afternoons sitting out there studying and watching my own birds and the visitors as a pleasant diversion. Other visitors that have grown rather cheeky are the noisy miners (honeyeaters that live in tribes and drive off other species), magpies (Australian Bell-magpies - gorgeous song!), Currawongs, Butcher Birds and Tawny Frogmouths (very large nightjars that live in the trees). My bird-loving soul is *very* happy in this house and I hope to put up some approved nest boxes in the big trees so that native parrots can use them.
Other things: we lost our dear old girls, Alice (bull terrier) and Buffy (longhaired tabby cat) before we moved. Both were eighteen years old and they went to the Rainbow Bridge together as both were showing signs of distressing debilities. Not long after, though, we were lucky enough to find a rescue dog, Roxanne, who is another white bull terrier. Yay! Just before we moved, I was visiting our (then) outdoor dunny (toilet) in the night and trod on a cat which had curled up to sleep in the doorway. It bit me and I wound up in hospital for a fortnight with a serious case of Cat Scratch Fever. Yes, it's a Thing and I cannot recommend it: it's painful, smelly and you can't walk. Anyway, the cat was neglected by its owners and when we moved, they asked if we'd like to keep it. We did. His name's Reginald.
I think that's all the major changes. Latin is using up most of my time at the moment, partly because it's hard work, but also because it's *amazing*. I've discovered this bloke called Pliny the Elder. He wrote a book called Naturalis Historia all about rocks, landforms, plants and animals. I'm translating the tenth chapter (Birds) for fun and maybe I'll do Honours or something with it down the track. For now, though, it's great reading and fabulous to know the ancients were just as in love as I am with the natural world. When I've done all the Latin I can, I'll probably move on to Ancient Greek. We'll see how that pans out.
Thanks for reading this far and love to all my good friends from parrotforums. I'll try and call in a bit more often and take part if study permits. I'll have lots of questions once my aviary is up and it's time to retrain my gorgeous Beaks.
Betrisher XX
It's been quite a while since I've popped in, but I was thinking about you guys tonight and thought I'd let you know what I've been up to lately.
As the oldies among you might remember, I left my mod position in order to concentrate on my studies a few years ago! Goodness! That went quickly! I'm currently doing third-year Latin (reading Virgil this year) and still enjoying it hugely.
In the intervening time, we moved house. That was an exercise! We only moved five blocks away from where we'd lived for the past twenty years, but you'd think we'd moved across country from all the stress, machinations and preparations. We've been in the new house just over a year and still haven't completely unpacked everything. My owl collection, for example, is still languishing in cardboard boxes. Turns out, the new house has less wall-space and storage than the old one did and we had somehow accumulated a LOT of - um - $#!+. This is what happens when four people share a house and pursue lots of different hobbies.
The Beaks (Alexandrines), the Lovies (Masked and Peachfaced lovebirds) and Dominic (Galah) all moved fairly easily and happily. Sadly, I wasn't able to install a thoroughfare into the kitchen from the Beaks' cage like I had in the old house (new house is on a hill). Sadly, they've been living on the back deck in their outdoor cage all this time. I have a massive (4m x 4m) aviary lined up for them, but as is usual in our family, all sorts of dramas have happened to put off the building of the aviary. Hopefully in the next month or two... We'll see...
Things that happened: my Mum passed away, my hubby's parents went into permanent care, my sister-in-law passed away (young and suddenly) and my sister and I had a massive falling-out. Whew! I'm exhausted just writing it all down! These things take a toll and they sure did on our family this past year. That's why things that were supposed to happen didn't.
Our new house (it's actually my family home, up in which I grew) has a nice garden with two massive gum trees out the back. This is very beneficial for a number of reasons: i) hordes of Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets visit every single day; ii) Little Corellas and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos visit most days; iii) Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos have begun to visit in growing numbers, roughly each week; iv) Eastern Rosellas have also begun visiting regularly and v) last week, I spotted two pairs of King Parrots in the yard!!!
We're lucky enough to have a decent-sized deck on the back of the house, so I spend most mornings and many afternoons sitting out there studying and watching my own birds and the visitors as a pleasant diversion. Other visitors that have grown rather cheeky are the noisy miners (honeyeaters that live in tribes and drive off other species), magpies (Australian Bell-magpies - gorgeous song!), Currawongs, Butcher Birds and Tawny Frogmouths (very large nightjars that live in the trees). My bird-loving soul is *very* happy in this house and I hope to put up some approved nest boxes in the big trees so that native parrots can use them.
Other things: we lost our dear old girls, Alice (bull terrier) and Buffy (longhaired tabby cat) before we moved. Both were eighteen years old and they went to the Rainbow Bridge together as both were showing signs of distressing debilities. Not long after, though, we were lucky enough to find a rescue dog, Roxanne, who is another white bull terrier. Yay! Just before we moved, I was visiting our (then) outdoor dunny (toilet) in the night and trod on a cat which had curled up to sleep in the doorway. It bit me and I wound up in hospital for a fortnight with a serious case of Cat Scratch Fever. Yes, it's a Thing and I cannot recommend it: it's painful, smelly and you can't walk. Anyway, the cat was neglected by its owners and when we moved, they asked if we'd like to keep it. We did. His name's Reginald.
I think that's all the major changes. Latin is using up most of my time at the moment, partly because it's hard work, but also because it's *amazing*. I've discovered this bloke called Pliny the Elder. He wrote a book called Naturalis Historia all about rocks, landforms, plants and animals. I'm translating the tenth chapter (Birds) for fun and maybe I'll do Honours or something with it down the track. For now, though, it's great reading and fabulous to know the ancients were just as in love as I am with the natural world. When I've done all the Latin I can, I'll probably move on to Ancient Greek. We'll see how that pans out.
Thanks for reading this far and love to all my good friends from parrotforums. I'll try and call in a bit more often and take part if study permits. I'll have lots of questions once my aviary is up and it's time to retrain my gorgeous Beaks.
Betrisher XX
