– – – OFFICAL PRESS RELEASE – – –
Project Wood Stacking successfully completed!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
At 12.19pm today this is what was left to do:
Scraps: that’s all that’s left of that HUGE pile of wood, just scraps! 🙂 🙂
And this is where it’s all gone to:
I know, I know, Zimbabwe Ruins it ain’t – and a decent enough little aftershock will probably knock it down some, but by golly I’m chuffed! 🙂 Bring on the winter weather, I say, I’m ready for it! Actually, no, cancel that last thought, I’m enjoying our continuing summer weather too much to wish it away …
The fantails were really going to town around the house today, chirping and flitting about like mad. Heard one or two grey warblers as well, and also had some very agitated magpies swooping in and out of the trees and doing lots of quardle oodle ardle wardle doodling, which is usually a sign that there’s a hawk somewhere around, although I couldn’t see one. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about with the quardle oodle ardle bit, it’s from this very famous poem by New Zealand poet, Denis Glover:
http://allpoetry.com/poem/9574283-The_Magpies-by-Denis_Glover
Do you get magpies where you are? And what does their song sound like? I notice a comment on the link which says that New Zealand magpies must sound very different to British ones, so I’m curious as to what they sound like in other countries.
Back to work tomorrow, after my lovely 5-day break, which I really enjoyed and am now feeling very relaxed and refreshed: it even did wonders for my bridge playing tonight! 🙂
Caught this little fellow feeding off the marigolds this morning – look at those two ragged left wings, he looks as though he’s been through a few fights, doesn’t it? I wonder how much effect it has on his flying, with a good part of the wings missing on one side – I would think it must make it a bit of a struggle to keep on an even keel.
Righto, bed calls, particularly with getting back to work tomorrow – I have this very bad habit, when I’m off work for a few days, of staying up very late and sleeping in, which is fine at the time, but not so good when it spills over into a working week! Hope your week is going well, and that you, too, feel relaxed after the Easter break 🙂
Me 'n' Henry Lee 
I can tell you what British magpies sound like – those rattles which are swung round and round at football games. Not an attractive noise! Nor are their habits attractive, they raid nests and eat fledglings. But they must know we don’t like them here, because they are extremely wary, even a light tap or a wave at the window will scare them off.
Ooh, nasty critters, then! I haven’t heard of them raiding and pillaging here in NZ, although they have been known to attack people (particularly noisy children) at nesting time when they get too close, which is understandable and, in my book anyway, forgivable. We get a little bit of the rattle noise from ours, but then they quickly move on to the quardle oodle ardle doodle, as if they know that the rattle language is NOT spoken here 😉 I wonder how it is that the calls are different – perhaps it’s the softer, more gentile New Zealand influence that has altered ours …? 🙂
Well done!!! Three cheers for shifting that huge pile of firewood. Great satisfaction at achieving that chore.
We have fantails galore here too and I am loving that. We usually get a pair who come as autumn approaches, winter over and then depart but that seems to have changed this year.
There seem to be more grey warblers and starlings too right now.
Perhaps the prolonged summer with so much warmth has seen extra breeding cycles?
As for magpies. We seem them occasionally in stands of pine trees or macrocarpas but they don’t seem to come near the garden.
I am sure we heard a Bellbird last week and a Morepork has been calling at night over Easter.
Lovely stuff!
Thank you! Haven’t started using any of it yet – just lit the fire for the first time tonight, even though I’m still waiting for the chimney to be cleaned – I decided I’d had enough of having the gas heater on! I still have a few logs left over from last year’s supply which I’ll use up first, but it certainly is a good feeling to know that I have logs in the bank, so to speak 🙂
We have other sorts of owls round here (screech owls, by the sound of them, but I’m no owl expert so could be wrong), but no moreporks, and don’t ever recall hearing any bellbirds. One time many years ago we did have a beautiful kingfisher who perched briefly on the washing line, but I’ve never seen it again. I hear the warblers, but haven’t ever been able to see any of them.