I'm not a big fan of gardening so it suits me fine.
It does, however, have lots of activity in it.
Every year for the past 5 or 6 years, a pair of blackbirds have nested in the large pyrocanthus just outside my kitchen and raised a single chick. I don't know if it is usual for blackbirds to have just one chick. Maybe someone can enlighten me?
Anyway, today I was lucky enough to have my camera to hand as mum first landed on the fence...........
...then hopped down onto the grass (I hesitate to call it a lawn) to feed the chick......
...then made off towards the herb patch, leaving chick plaintively calling for more........
26 comments:
Nice. And you seem to have learned how to put text in between photos (I must go and see if you have fixed the Ben Vorlich one now with your new skills), but your first 8 lines need some work on spaces between paragraphs or removing paragraph returns. A little untidy, but getting better.
I haven't gone back to fix previous posts. I think I would have to start all over again, and to be honest, I'm much too lazy for that.
Not sure what's wrong with my first 8 lines, that's the way I intended it ;-) .....these are allowed on my blog!
Lovely.
There's lot of air-traffic around Seanhenge these days, too.
Only yesterday I was lucky to watch father and mother blackbird trying to teach their sibling to catch earthworms. Heartwarming.
Yes, you can do what you want, but any publisher will insist that a new paragraph must either be indented in the first line or have a clear line space between the paras. It makes my proof reading instincts rebel, what you've done, it looks like a mistake... so I expect you'll keep doing it!
But then you DO have a line space before the final paragraph above the first picture. Oh heck, heck, heck, I feel all dizzy and giddy... Not even a consistent style guide being applied. What a free spirit wild child you really are! And no spaces between images and the next line of text? or the text above? Very much not allowed in the real world, is that. Not that these things bother me, of course (years of painstaking pain lie behind this obsessive compulsive disordered comment)
"Heartwarming" Sean?
Not for the bleedin' earthworms it isn't.
"free spirit wild child"......you've just summed me up Andrew! (...in my dreams)
... not ... it isn't?
What sophisticated a litotes, Andrew. Thus, you do, after all, still think it's heartwarming for the bleeding earthworms?
That was quite a common and acceptable restatement for emphasis Sean, not a litote.
Not for the bleedin' earthworms, it is not (for the bleedin' earthworms...)
However, had I said, it isn't not for the bleedin' earthworms... but I didn't
Poor bleedin' earthworms
Gratuitously cruel, nasty, genocidal birds, who could just as well eat seeds, encouraged by violent murderous humans who take pleasure in the slaughter and the teaching of the slaughter to new generations and even admit it warms their heart. But still, but still, when they are buried or just fall to the ground and rot... ah... we'll get them in the end...
Oh! Well said wormy (if I may be so informal with you).
And by the way, have you noticed Ruth has her blog set on Google HQ California time, so this comment will supposedly have been made at about 16:37, when it is actually well past midnight here? The crazy Californian free spirit wild child hippy girl that she is... (not).
Earthworm, I smell ... I smell ... at least 85% bicycle.
WTFAYOAbout Sgt Pluck? Way too subtle for this humble Texan Earthworm. Smell? Bicycle? 85%? I am just an earthworm remember, not some drunk Irish philosopher or drugged up Scottish academic.
Did you say 'What the fuck' dear earthworm? By all means, you do sound like my brave Don Quiscottie while putting spurs to Rocinante.
What about joining our party?
Seems I missed all the fun while I was in the land of Nod last night.
Yes Andrew I noticed the time thing but got in a bit of a muddle trying to fix it - I am still a novice after all.
And Sean, I believe our friend earthworm actually said "what the fuck are you on about", leading me to suspect Scottish roots!
I too am baffled by the bicycle reference...especially since earthworms can't ride them?
Curious. I can understand WTFAYOA but the bicycle has me baffled - and all you wanted to do Ruth, was show a few nice photos of the birds. Welcome to Blogland
Oh, I see, Sgt. Pluck was here. Causing confusion, as mostly.
Well, to start with the beginning, a short introduction to the ominous bicycle might help to untangle the bafflement.
Well that cleared up nothing for me Sean, though I did not have time to investigate. I have developed a suspicion about the identity of Earthworm though.
Dear Ruth - What fantastic shots. Thank you for sharing. It reminded me of a delightful poem by Emily Dickenson:
A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.
Much ado about nothing when people worry about a bleeding worm but, very probably, eat chicken with glee. They have the same compassion than Emily's bird who ate the worm, but not the beetle.
Great post, Ruth. Thank you!
Claudia, it was apparently an earthworm complaining about being eaten, and I don't think earthworms eat chickens with glee. As for humans, I suppose they could justifiably eat chickens and any other birds just to extract revenge on behalf of the earthworms. But supposing, just in case, that "Earthworm" isn't really an earthworm, I see in her (or his) logic the case that to find anything "heartwarming" in Nature's brutal ways one needs very selective judgment and compassion. But perhaps I misunderstood... I will leave Earthworm to speak for itself/herself/himself, assuming it/she/he has not been brutally eaten in the interim. I suspect he's been busy eating a burger or something similar, actually, taking revenge on the cows on behalf of a billion trampled insects.
A MAN MUST FACE HIMSELF
I hung two sealskins on my wall...
Some people say, "Oh! the poor dear things!"
with pity in their hearts,
while chewing bloody steak
and cuddling in fur coats.
And I think of
Jonahsie
magnificently himself: a Man,
hunter by destiny,
spearing the seals,
with no guilt in his soul,
no pity in his heart,
but beaming pride
that his day-work was done:
the best for his kin---
and that's all he could do...
And I think of
Kakee, his wife,
cleaning, stretching, smoothing, sewing the skins
with a skill
as old as the Woman called Eve,
and bringing me the gift
with beaming pride:
the best for a friend---
and that's all she could give...
And I wonder why
we worry about who eats whom
when Life is a cycle?
We all prey, and we grow
feeding on each other.
A worm for a bird
a seal for Jonahsie
an egg that could be born
a drink of pure water
a breathing tomato
a flower for a vase
some grass to walk upon
the warmth of the sun, of a smile, of a body
a poem for a soul
and stars to fill a dream.
I hung two sealskins on my wall...
A man must face himself
and accept it.
CPG-1970
Thank you for the space, Ruth.
Anyone got a nice pic of a sweet wee pussycat ripping the head off a sparrow? Aw - cute little kittykins.
Earthworm2 - You just confirmed, in 2 lines, what I wrote above in 50. Maybe you were more eloquent. Forgive the French. We're so verbose...
I believe that it's all 100% about bicycles really, and pseudonyms, because some people, like Sean's beloved Flann O'Brien, for example, have been known to submit comments pseudonymously; but then Sean is not really Sean, apparently, so he is pseudonymous all the time, while Andrew Scott (whose says his father was a policeman) has been known to publish things under the name of a quite different clan. How do I know these things? It is my job to know these things, as I am a policeman (well, police doctor, sor of...ooops) and I have a bicycle, and a pump. And my strong suspicion is that Earthworm and Earthworm2 are the same devious creature. But anyway... what's the next photo for us Ruth? Let's see where the next one takes us, since the wee hungry birdy one has taken us (or some of us) quite far and along tracks our bicycles might otherwise never have travelled. Greetings from Aberdeen (oops).
Sorry if it continues the lunacy Ruth but this case should be cleared up. The Fourth Policeman is clearly my pal Dr W (or someone pretending to be Dr W); I have myself established from Wikipedia that Flann O'Brien wrote a novel called the Third Policeman. I've never read Flann O'Brien's work but Sean has probably read it all. Apparently the third policeman was somewhat obsessed with bicycles (Wikipedia tells me), but... that's as far as I've got, but I accuse Sean of being Sgt Pluck (another character from the Third Policeman) and as for the link between earthworms and bicycles... which was the key issue actually... nope, back to meaninglessness, I fear. I think we all need to read The Third Policeman. Goodight. (Oh and I though one of the Earthworms, at least, was Calum, but now I'm not so sure).
Ok, my head is spinning with all this nonsense.
Is there not a saying about something being "as much use as a bicycle to an earthworm"? If not, there should be ;-)
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