Sunday Musings #175

I’m not lazy. I’m just on my energy saving mode.

– Unknown

 

Hmmm. Seems like I am permanently on my energy saving mode these days!

 

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Buried Treasure

Sparky the Squirrel 1

Ahoy there, me Hearties! Cap’n Sparky here.

I’m just burying me Treasure in this ‘ere pot.

Sparky the Squirrel 2

I’ll bury it nice and deep so it’ll be safe under this spiky plant until I’ll be needing it again. 

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I’m sure Sparky’s treasure will be safe there in my pot. I’m just worried about my poor Asparagus fern; since Sparky was really digging down deep into the roots!

 

Sunday Musings #174

“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game,” according to the losers and their parents.

– Unknown

 

While I think this quote is amusing, it does have a grain of truth!

I have three older siblings and growing up there was no way I could ever win any game we kids played.

Playing chess or any card game with my Dad or older brother was always an exercise in patience for me. They took so long to move a chess piece that I’d play kamikaze chess just to finish the game! (ie deliberately kill myself as quickly as possible just to end this!)

So, yes, I had to learn to enjoy playing the game, because I was never ever going to win.

Gondolier 1

I never won physical things at school either, because I was young in the year and on the small side.

That is why I clearly remember my school sports day when I was eight years old.

The girls in our year ran what they quaintly called “The 80 Yard Dash”. We all lined up at the start and off we went.

I remember my little feet pounding down the grass lane while my glasses bounced up and down on my nose, making the field in front of me dance around too.

My friend W was to the left of me. Tall and swift she soon outstripped me and was in the lead, but I kept on running for all I was worth.

I saw W reach the white tape at the end of the race. Then she simply stopped! All the parents at the side of the track were shouting at W to cross the tape!

My little feet still pounding away, I caught up. I had no such hesitation at the tape and ran straight through it. I was first!

W suddenly realised what all the parents were shouting at her, did a quick skip, and crossed the line second.

I went up to W after the race and said that it wasn’t fair. Obviously she had won the race; she was at the finish line way before me. W was a lovely girl and just said that yes it was fair, as she should have had the sense to cross the line. I did, so I won.

Gondolier 2

At the end of sports day they handed out the prizes. I won a plastic gondola with tiny gondolier. (Since I don’t have the gondola handy, I stuck my little gondolier onto this dish with some prestik.)

I cherished this prize for years. The gondolier’s lost his pole and the gondola, I think, is in the top of my wardrobe; but when I came across the little man the other day, he still brought back all those memories.

I am sure W went on to win many other races. (I don’t know because we moved and I never saw her again.)

As for me; that was the only race I ever won my entire life. Even though I felt I won by default, it still meant a lot to me: enough to keep the tiny gondolier all these years!

 

Sunday Musings #173

Only the mediocre are always at their best.

– Jean Giraudoux

An interesting way to look at life.

And maybe a reminder not to sweat the small stuff!

 

Sunday Musings #172

I’m not short, I’m just more down to earth than other people.

– Unknown

 

I’d have to say that this is true on both counts.

Though I don’t consider myself to be short, I guess it is all relative. My sister-in-law thought I was short; but she was 5′ 10.5″ (1.79m) tall! (which is tall for a woman)

Here in South Africa there are many women much shorter than me; but also quite a few taller.

What is indisputable is that I am down to earth. I always say, I have my feet firmly planted on the ground, but my head is in the clouds!

 

Easter Sunday

Easter Eggs

 

Not everyone celebrates Easter, but however you spend your day, I hope you have a good one.

I know I shall!

 

The Mysterious Evening Whistler!

Mystery Visitor Bird 1

I was sitting on the stoep as the sun set, ice-cold white wine in hand. It is the best time of day to relax and unwind. Suddenly I was aware of a distinctive whistle.

It was a clear flute sound on a descending scale; no trills. It was repeated by another and then answered again by the one closest to me in the trees.

Obviously bird calls; but I could not for the life of me place the bird.

I searched through my excellent book on birds, ‘Newman’s Birds of Southern Africa’, to no avail.

Even Google let me down, as despite clearly searching for common garden bird calls in South Africa, it offered up parts of the USA!

I mentally went through all the common garden birds I knew of that visited my little garden.

The tiny birds would be too small to make such a loud whistle. This ruled out common visitors such as the: –

Lesser Double-Collared Sunbird; Cape White Eye; Mossie (Cape Sparrow)

or rare visitors such as the Common Wax Bill.

I know the calls of the medium-sized birds and none of them ever sounded like this so that ruled out the common visitors :-

Laughing Dove; Olive Thrush; Cape Robin; Cape Bulbul

or the migrational European Swallow

and the rarely seen (nowadays anyway) Fiscal Shrike; Cape Canary; Cape Weaver; White-backed Mouse Bird.

The larger birds would not make that clear whistle either, so this ruled out:-

Guinea Fowl; Hadeda; Egyptian Geese; Pied Magpie

and certainly not my elusive midnight visitor, the Cape Eagle Owl.

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Having completed my investigation I realised just how many wonderful birds actually visit my tiny garden! I am very lucky.

Mystery Visitor Bird 2

Now I like puzzles and mysteries; but I like even better to solve them!

I would hear this particular bird call, always in the early evening and from ‘invisible’ birds somewhere high up in a tree. I could never see them.

Finally one day in the middle of the morning I heard a very similar call. I looked out of the kitchen door (it has a half door option and I usually have the top open) and saw a few birds in the neighbour’s tree.

This was my mystery bird!

It was impossible to identify them by eye, so I rushed for my trusty Canon and took a few shots of the tiny specks in the tree. (See the first photo of the tree) Enlarging these later on my computer I found one photo that identified my mystery bird as it flew off. (See the second blurred photo of a bird flying out of shot!)

It was a starling!

Now we occasionally get red-winged starlings, but I think this may be the pied starling. It has a pale underbelly and its wings do not have that reddish-orange that is distinctive of the aptly named red-winged starling.

Red-winged Starling 1

Either way, mystery solved. Phew!