Birds

Post #120 Sunday 26 January 2020 – The fires

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Letters from America
These letters are my glamorous aunt’s posts on her adventures and her life and times as a
♦ mature Sydney escort ♦

Sunday 26 January 2020

I can’t write much about the fires: the volunteers, climate change, the failure of political leadership and will, the animals, the forests. And it’s beyond me to do an “I will donate X% of my earnings in January” thing (which a lot of generous escorts are announcing on social media), I just don’t have “the spoons” as they say.

I have deep feelings of loss and I can’t say a lot about anything.

Here is a photo of the beautiful spotted gum forest on the South Coast – it will have been incinerated. I don’t think I can get myself to visit again any time soon.

Spotted gum forest on the South Coast with the fern-like burrawang cycads in the understory.

I spent many wonderful holidays on the South Coast where my grandparents bought a hobby farm when they retired. I learnt about horses and how to ride (one of the closest things to paradise I’ve ever experienced). I had the care of a huge flighty palomino with a luminous coat. I learnt to swim, and though I always thought it was my older sister who was the water baby, my father years later said, no, I was the one they could never get out of the water no matter how cold. I am always grateful for the vivid and enriching childhood experiences I had on the South Coast.

Here are links to a couple of small wildlife rescue operations local to my new home, if you would like to donate.

1. Higher Ground Raptor Centre

https://www.highergroundraptors.com/

Peggy McDonald has been has been rehabilitating owls and eagles in the Southern Highlands for more than 40 years. This is her selfie with wedgetail.

2. Southern Cross Wildlife Care

https://www.southerncrosswildlifecare.org.au/

Howard Ralph works at a local hospital as a medical doctor to fund his life operating a volunteer veterinary hospital in Braidwood with his wife Glenda. No plans to retire.

I have been directly affected by the fires too. I’ve been told to evacuate by the local RFS four times now. (I did go promptly the first three times, the fourth time I dragged my feet). We will just have to see how February goes. It’s very dry, hot and windy. There are two fire fronts active close by: one to the South about 12 km away and one to East which has been as close as 5 km when it has been on the move. This is the fire map published on Friday evening:

The hotspots fire map on Friday 24 January 2020

It’s Australia Day though, so it’s barbeque time, and here is one version of the case to change the date (CW: this Youtube video is probably, as they say, entirely “off brand” lol):


A metaphor for unreconciled life in modern Australia – the shared house. For those who have never done it, “you’re not missing anything”*.
*Peter Sellers, The Party

xx MG

Post #117 Saturday 26 October 2019 – Whitsundays

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Letters from America
These letters are my glamorous aunt’s posts on her adventures and her life and times as a
♦ mature Sydney escort ♦

Saturday 26 October 2019

I am back from lovely holidays sailing with friends in the Whitsundays. I have an excellent tan to show for it. I actually didn’t want to come back. The South African guy at the charter yacht company was no help either, just suggested I read the book with the self explanatory title “Sell up and Sail”.

This was the outlook when anchored overnight in a place called Refuge Bay:

In the evening I could hear a slightly mournful bird call. At first it sounded like a dove but it was too insistent. It turned out to be a couple of pheasant coucals calling to one another. (Don’t ask me how I figured it out, it was intuition confirmed by internet searches.)

The call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lluJIiLuuFg

Here are some images of the bird itself which I borrowed from Google:

Flying … (this type of feet first flying, good for short distances only)

I put this second image in because it has the fence wire for size. I have actually seen these birds and I can warrant they are concurrently large birds and small dinosaurs.

The “sell up and sail” caper is something I like to enjoy vicariously these days by watching youtube channels. My favourite channel is one called Free Range Sailing. It’s a youtube vlog maintained by an Australian couple who are cruising in a very modest yacht, mostly in tropical waters. Apart from the sailing, they do quite a bit of free diving on the reefs, spearfishing and exploring on shore. Pascal is a very good and resourceful cook. She also seems to be the creative lead in making the vlog – which is high quality well edited video. Her partner Troy is an excellent hand at keeping their 30 foot 50 year old yacht on track and in shape. He seems to handle the inevitable breakdowns of gear in good form and has a droll sense of humour. They are of course, “free range” so it all appeals to my tree hugging temperament. You aren’t going to find them zapping around churning up the peace of the natural world on jet skis any time soon. Highly recommend! And here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbU2ulPD3rJ4OZCNH7-gjjQ

xx MG

Post #91 Saturday 16 June 2018 – At home

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Letters from America
These letters are my glamorous aunt’s posts on her adventures and her life and times as a
♦ mature Sydney escort ♦

Saturday 16 June 2018

Well I was a sorry lot this week.  I had a bad flu and lay in bed almost the entire time.  I got up to do one massage (as I love doing massage), but expired again immediately after.  Everything else was cancelled for which I am very sorry.  The chances that I was contagious were high and there was no good risking other people as well.  It’s times like this past week I miss my kittens especially (now in kitten heaven), they were always such sweet company if you were laid low.

I did watch some television on my laptop though, propped up in bed.  As some of you know I don’t own an actual television (and haven’t owned one my entire adult life).  I finally got to see the BBC series Wolf Hall which was every bit as excellent as I had heard (and I’d loved the book).  I also watched some of Anthony Bourdain’s travel and food diaries.    So it’s been a quiet week for me.  The only thing that didn’t slow down was the rate at which I am obliged to feed the lorikeets.  If they know I am home they come and peer in at the windows and gently tap with their beaks at the glass doors.  They are absolutely relentless.

Your glamorous aunt

MG xx

Trying not to feel sorry for myself…

Post #92 Sunday 24 June 2018 – Flowering trees and the allegory of the unicorn

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Letters from America
These letters are my glamorous aunt’s posts on her adventures and her life and times as a
♦ mature Sydney escort ♦

Sunday 24 June 2018

I haven’t posted about any flowering trees for a little while. My flowering tree this time is a lemon tree, not from local life but from a set of French medieval tapestries that have been on exhibition at the Art Gallery.

I specially like this tree because it accurately depicts that habit which many lemon trees have of flowering and fruiting at the same time.  And the flower of a lemon tree has one of the most evocative scents.

The context of the tapestries is the age of chivalry in the late Middle Ages.  But there is no trace of darkness or punishing cloistered religious life that I for one, so often associate with the Middle Ages.  Instead it’s a sensual paradise of garden, music and luxury.  The mythical unicorn appears in all the tapestries together with the virgin maiden.  The story has it that the unicorn is only tame for the virgin lady.

Curiously I found in my investigations that the original unicorn figure – a mythical wild man from Mesopotamia – was civilised only by the temple whore.  I was interested to  learn in that social reality the temple whore was a respected figure herself, charged with the responsibility of making men into better versions of humanity (than they were when left to their own devices).

Your glamorous aunt MG xx

Post #68 Sunday 7 January 2018 – Rejuvenation grout and the New Year

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Letters from America
These letters are my glamorous aunt’s posts on her adventures and her life and times as a
♦ mature Sydney escort ♦

Sunday 7 January 2018

It’s the New Year and I don’t do resolutions so much as I find myself somehow embarking on various new projects, generally a bit domestic.  This New Year it seems to be Rejuvenation Grout.

Well I have bought the product and I am hoping it will transform the tired tiles of the bathroom into something a bit more, hmmm luminous may be :-), or just a bit whiter would be ok.

It’s been a nice start to the year otherwise.  I had a lovely unexpected visitor on Saturday afternoon.  I don’t often get magpies up on the 12th floor so it was a treat to hear that melodic gargling sort of song so close by.

I drove back from the country on Saturday and listened to the radio on the way – as a lot of you know, I love the radio.  On this trip the ABC was rebroadcasting a feed from the US National Public Radio (NPR) and I had a couple of treats.  One was a show on bluegrass which was an excuse for me to rummage around for favourite modern blues music when I got home.  Here is a link to a performer composer I really like and who is a great blues hero for souls who live rough.  It’s Chris Whitley with his melancholy guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI8ISl7xpg4

Wishing all the best to all of us for the coming year.

MG xx

Post #63 Sunday 26 November 2017 – a lorikeet in love

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  Letters from America
These letters are my glamorous aunt’s posts on her adventures and her life and times as a
♦ mature Sydney escort ♦

Sunday 26 November 2017

I had the pleasure of looking at some photos just recently, that one of my excellent ostensible nephews had taken of the three parrots he is responsible for – all of them beautiful ringneck parrots.  In discussion about the birds, a consensus emerged, that I should devote a post to my own beautiful native parrots, the lorikeets.  It would be the right thing to do because they are a lively presence in my daily life, and while they have had a little walk on role in a couple of posts, I have never given them their very own post.

I looked through some of my photos and found way more than I need to illustrate my long and lively relationship with  these boisterous little guys.  So I have included just one snap taken about Christmas three years ago.  This pair were right inside the apartment eating at the table.  I posted the photo to facebook and a Czech girlfriend asked me, first, were they real and second, were they dangerous (they being Australian animals people always have to ask – thank you Bill Bryson).   I told her lorikeets could be dangerous to your sleep if you are trying to sleep in lol.

Fortunately the lorikeets who visit me now are a lot less noisy than they used to be.  There was a period when they would arrive just after sunrise in waves of competing pairs to sit on the balcony and yell at one another.  That noisy yelling period passed though.  And now there are fewer pairs who visit.  Some of the territorial arguments must have been resolved.

I usually feed them outside, in their own plates, a mixture of warm water and dissolved honey.  I should feed them just once a day but often I will feed them two or three times – they ask so sweetly with little churring sounds.   They are nectar eaters so the spiky little beak is for tearing flowers and stems more than it is for cracking nuts.  When they feed you can see the nectar gathering tongue working hard –  a feathery but hard looking thing that dabs up the honey mixture.

Every season I see a new crop of baby lorikeets.  They always make a huge racket fluffed up, quivering outstretched wings, demanding to be fed beak to beak.

Every season I also see some courtship rituals.  There is a particular dance which involves craning and arching the neck, bobbing rhythmically and slowly snaking around in front of the target female, punctuated by little sneezings.  This year I seemed to attract some courtship attention myself.    I recorded part of the episode, so you can see for yourself.

With warm regards as always
especially to those of my excellent ostensible nephews who are bird fanciers

your glamorous aunt MG xx

Post #36 Saturday 17 June 2017 – more urban wildlife and some black stockings

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  Letters from America
These letters are my glamorous aunt’s posts on her adventures and her life and times as a
♦ mature Sydney escort ♦

Saturday 17 June 2017

This is a little catch up letter to let me include on the website some of the material I posted in Twitter in the last couple of weeks, which I didn’t put in here first.

I had a nice visit from a kookaburra in the last week.   I haven’t seen one stop on the balcony in the entire four years I have lived here, so it was all pretty exciting.   The bird looked as though it might have been a juvenile because that puffed up chest and crouching down is a very baby bird sort of thing to do.

I also posted a random getting ready for work selfie which those of you who like black stockings and the rest might approve of.

I have a couple of other nice things to post – it will have to be tomorrow though.

Signing out for a chilly calm Saturday

MG xx

Post #29 Thursday 18 May 2017 – recent travels

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  Letters from America
These letters are my glamorous aunt’s posts on her adventures and her life and times as a
♦ mature Sydney escort ♦

Thursday 18 May 2017

I have just got home today after a five day round trip from Sydney to the South Coast to Canberra then to the country block and finally back to Sydney.  It was all fairly packed with action and adventure.  There is so much to report.  For now I will just put in a couple of photos I took at the hotel I stayed at in Canberra, to show how beautiful the scene was.

More to report and I will do that over the weekend inshallah, so to speak.

The lovely colonnaded catwalk

 

Gingko tree

With all its delicate fan shaped leaves golden for the season.

 

Resident wildlife in the long pool included carp and wood duck.  The carp were of a great size and just hung there in the water expending no apparent effort, just doing their elegant thing.  Most of the wood duck, including the one in this photo, were wisely tucked up for warmth and sleep when I arrived – the weather was a little cool and grey that early afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so good night my friends, MG xx

 

 

Post #26 Saturday 6 May 2017 – Darlinghurst Gaol

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  Letters from America
These letters are my glamorous aunt’s posts on her adventures and her life and times as a
♦ mature Sydney escort ♦

Saturday 6 May 2017

I went up to Oxford Street at lunch time today to see a good friend from the country who was down in Sydney for work. It was another glorious day.  I wish I had worn lighter clothing.   After work was done we strolled along the walkway shaded by trees and high sandstone walls next to the Art School that occupies the grounds of the old goal (the old East Sydney Tech). Then we stopped in at the cafe there which is tucked away inside the walled grounds.

It’s a secret spot.  Here’s the side entrance we used to duck in.

Today there was something unusual at the cafe.  The shiniest, proudest, most engaged with humanity crow I have ever seen.

He was actively mining the cafe environment for food and when there was none he got creatively destructive.  I mean, it was not enough to trash the miniature cactus pot plant decorating the cafe table by throwing it onto the floor, it also had to be stabbed a good number of times, back and front, with the beak first.

There was a crow commentary carried on throughout.  The noise was so varied and expressive.  At the end of a gravelly phrase when the bird seemed really put out by the food situation the voice would drop to a gurgling growling sometimes sing song series of notes.  This bird must have learnt to speak this way from interacting with a  human or human family. What a forceful presence!  Completely dominating his environment with noise and movement, constant enquiry  and fearless interaction with people.

My country friend observed maybe the crow was the ghost of some former inmate, a guy whose death had never been avenged, who had been knocked off by Roger Rogerson back in the day when Rogerson did time in Darlinghurst Goal.  So the crow persists.  Unweary cipher.

from the David Attenborough school of natural history, Darlinghurst division, MG
signing out for the evening,

stay lively  xx

Post #25 Monday 1 May 2017 – an anniversary

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  Letters from America
These letters are my glamorous aunt’s posts on her adventures and her life and times as a
♦ mature Sydney escort ♦

Monday 1 May 2017

When 1 May comes around each year I am delighted and surprised every time that I am still living in the light and shiny apartment that I have lived in since 2013.  The lease started on 1 May 2013.

This morning about half an hour or so after dawn I took this snap which records the path of the sun to the city and picks out some autumn colour on the London plane trees in Victoria Street.

I went to the Blue Mountains for the day and there was more autumn colour for me there.  No time to linger at home.  These shots are taken in the garden of my very best Japanese friend, from left to right: maple (with camellia), maple, weeping cherry.  This place is named Aoyama after a fashionable and leafy district in Tokyo.  Aoyama literally means blue mountain in Japanese.

While we sat on the verandah above the garden a very small and brilliant bird came down to feed on the daphne bush already in flower in the shady part of the garden alongside the house.  One of my favourite small birds, it seems to be always wearing a little tuxedo. The Eastern Spinebill, here in a photo I borrowed from the internet.

Such a lovely day really.

Hope you are all travelling well, and that you are visited with that wonderful feeling that comes with routine, day to day, in the details, happiness.

MG xx