I Heard a Raven

It's not that unusual around here because we have a number of Western ravens (Corvus coronoides perplexus) living in the area. They nest in the big trees in the park behind us and in the taller garden trees and while I tried to find a photo most of those I found were of the Easten raven which, although similar, is not the exactly the same. You can see the only photos I could find here. Sadly they're not available under a Creative Commons licence so I can't use them and the local birds are not obliging enough to let me take a photo. While they are handsome birds, ravens tend to be unpopular because of the mess they make as they haunt places like shopping centre car parks and school yards and anywhere really where people congregate so they can raid bins and pick up scraps. Their loud, harsh calls don't endear them either.

Personally, although I don't like them attacking the small denizens of my garden - they are largely carnivorous - I do admire them for their intelligence. They come into the garden to drink and bathe in the birdbath and to dunk and sometimes leave to soak hard crusts and other such things they steal from rubbish bins. I could do without the soaking because the birdbath turns to a messy sludge which has to be emptied and cleaned frequently but you have to admit it's clever. People also dislike their bin raiding. If someone is foolish enough to overfill their bin and leave even a tiny gap the ravens will flip it open to scavenge and they are messy creatures. Because of this we find bones they've collected scattered around the garden from time to time along with all sorts of scraps they drop when finished with. 

My little dog hated them. They would sit on top of the internal fences and stare at her until she could stand it no longer and had to rush at them determined to get them out of her space. Knowing they were out of reach they would just gaze at her as she barked frantically. Then they would flap lazily onto the clothesline and stare some more. They are large birds and can be quite intimidating so I didn't blame her for her dislike. 

But back to the raven that started me on this track. What was unusual was that it was on the paving outside the family room door, calling loudly, not something that often happens as they usually keep their distance, preferring to look down on from a height. I looked but it was raining and I couldn't see much. Then I noticed it was pulling apart a handful of coir lining from a hanging basket that had fallen down in the gales we had just had and that with the rain, which had been pretty continuous since, I hadn't been able to clean up . Interesting, I thought. Then off it went with some coir in its beak leaving bunches of fibre all over the paving. Next thing I knew it was back with its mate - ravens usually pair for life so I can be pretty sure they were a couple - who inspected the area and what he was collecting presumably to give her approval for it as a nest lining before leaving him to his gathering. By the time the rain stopped and I could go outside he had been back multiple times, leaving nothing for me to clean up.

Someone commented on a blog I follow that the raven's call is like a small child's cry. I can't say I agree with that. I hear it more as loud and raucous although they do sometimes murmur quietly to one another. Listen here and see what you think.

 

Oh No Where Did They Go?

 I'm talking about my Google Groups which I suddenly realised had disappeared when I wasn't getting any emails from them. Truth be told since most of them are just sitting there - or I should say were just sitting there -and haven't been active in a long time it could be quite a while since they were actually in place. I don't think I'll miss most of them - see the just sitting there remark above - or that anyone will miss me but there is one which I do interact with - it's the missing emails from that which alerted me - and I definitely want to be kept in touch with those in it. This is a group of fellow writers and we work together at critiquing and writerly advice so it's pretty important. Writers without honest feedback are not going to be able to give of their best, are they.

Fortunately the members of this group are also in contact in other ways so I reached out to one to get her to see what had happened. Bizarrely she found my email address was wrong - it was one I've never had or used so I don't know how it got there. She corrected it and I was invited to join the group. Great, I thought, I'll see if it's the same problem with the other groups.

Sadly this didn't work because the password I now use and any others back quite a way don't connect with either my current or the incorrect email. Oh well, as I have no more ideas as to what's happened or why, I don't think there's much else I can do. It's disappointing but there you go. Much as I love the internet the problem with anything online is that you don't have a physical way of connecting when something goes wrong - and in this case it has gone drastically wrong. Sigh.

Plants You Don't Expect To Find In A Winter Garden

I found these summer veggies - all volunteers - as I was weeding.

I didn't think to take this admittedly pretty awful photo of a French bean plant before I'd picked the handful of beans it had produced. I've actually already got more from this plant than from any of my beans last summer - and there are more to come. I like that there's a little Johnny Jump Up - Viola tricolour - nestled in near it. I grow them and borage for flowers for salads and to encourage the bees.

                         Then I discovered this optimistic capsicum. 

And finally this is one of three tomato plants.

Who knows - since it already has buds and if it survives the rest of the winter cold - I may get some early tomatoes.

And The Storms Are Here Again

It's winter so only to be expected but cold and wet is never a very enjoyable experience, is it, however much we may need the rain. We have just had a couple of sunny but by no means warm days, though, which let me get out into the garden. It's been badly neglected in the last few months due to my health problems and then recuperating from surgery so it's going to take a while to get it back to how I'd like it. Pisces is not a gardener so although he'll willingly do things like dig holes and lug heavy things around for me anything else waits on me. 

With my having finally been given clearance to dig, prune and plant I took the chance of the sunny days to dig over the vegetable garden and put in a few seeds - spring onions, coriander, and sugar snap and snow peas if you're interested. I sorted all these out during the last rainy spell and I still have a whole pile of seeds that need to into seed raising punnets sitting in a box near the family room door which were supposed to be planted as well. I bought some seed raising mix and my intention was to head off to the garden centre and invest in a a mini glasshouse to put them into so that they would benefit from any sunny days without getting too chilled. 

Then we went into a four day lockdown after someone who had visited Sydney came down with COVID. Our state government has no hesitation in imposing such short, sharp lockdowns which give time to trace all contacts and isolate them. We've had a few of these and although they're not ideal as far as businesses are concerned and cause general inconvenience, it's probably the safest way to prevent community spread and they have widespread support within the state. Western Australia has had very few instances of COVID and by and large life here after the first major lockdown in 2020 has been pretty much as usual. No masks but social distancing is still encouraged - albeit not carried out all that strictly by everyone I have to say, with complacency creeping in - and we are supposed to check in with an app or sign in whenever we go to the shops or other businesses so that if an outbreak occur it will be easy to trace any contacts and this is working well. Vaccinations are somewhat of a vexed question due to failures at the Federal level and some controversy about the Astra Zenica but are ramping up.

The lockdown has now lifted although there are some restrictions on numbers and masks are mandatory outside the home so my plan for this morning was to head for the garden centre. I'd been keeping a watchful eye on the weather forecast and it was for rain and a possible storm later in the day so it seemed that it would be okay and although it was dull and grey when I got up my plan still seemed feasible. I made my coffee and sat down to drink it - and there was a vivid flash of lightning immediately followed by thunder and the heavens opened. They stayed that way all day. Oh well, planting can wait a bit longer

I've Been Wondering

 about the current obsession with big backsides. Having been somewhat buttock challenged all my life and growing up in a time when a common question from my women friends was "Does my bum look big in this?" whenever I went clothes shopping with them - not something you'll ever hear from me - I'm amazed at the change. Now it's fashionable to have a big butt and you can have surgery where you get implants  - of either your own body fat  or silicone ones - to have the rear end of your dreams.

Of course, while you may end up with a bum that meets the current fad of bigger is better that you feel you've always missed out on, you may also end up with other problems, too. Fat harvested from somewhere else in your body is generally regarded as the best option and involves having liposuction of fat from areas where you don't want it which is then inserted into your derriere and is apparently less likely to cause rejection because it's your own body tissue. I'm told it can then build up a blood supply of its own as it heals - over about a year - which makes it function as any other part of your body although as with any surgery you could get an infection or blood clots and there's also something called a fat embolism. The overall result is supposed to appear more natural although apparently sometimes the fat can be reabsorbed leaving a less than ideal result and you may need top ups.

The other option is silicone implants which are permanent and like any surgery there's quite a list of things that potentially could go wrong including the wound incision splitting open - eeep! - as well as an assortment of other problems. There are the same surgery risks as with fat grafting as well and you may end up with a less aesthetic and natural result.

With either option the process is going to be painful and according to one source you can't sit or lie on your back for three weeks post operatively and full recovery is considerably longer. Then there's the cost which is enough to make your eyes water as both these procedures are regarded as cosmetic so the patient has to cover the bill.

That said I'm not suggesting for one moment that anyone who feels being under endowed in the lower regions is affecting their life, has the large amount of cash required to spare - one clinic I looked at charges from $10900 for fat transfer and from $17900 for silicone implants - and has weighed up the risks should not have such a procedure. Although I don't know anyone who has had these implants I do know women who have had breast implants when, for instance, their boobs have shrunk after having children and restoring their body in that way makes sense to me. Breasts are an important part of how we see ourselves as women after all so wanting to have that appearance is quite a driver. 

The problem I have with the current trend for augmenting your buttocks is that these arguments don't apply. Unless you've had some sort of catastrophic injury it's hard for me to imagine that there's a need to enlarge artificially what is already the largest muscle area in the body. The driving force seems to be wanting to remake your body into what is currently a fashionable shape. Given that is something likely to change given the volatility of fashion I have to wonder how wise the decision to permanently modify your physical body is. 

Drawing attention to your rear end is hardly new, though. Through out history we've admired different body shapes - for example by present standards many of the dancers of the Edwardian burlesque stage were overweight - but before now we haven't actually altered our bodies. We've used clothing to get the effect we wanted. Just think about the wide skirts of he Victorians which along with corsets accentuated the small waists they aspired to or the bum rolls of the 16th and 17th centuries which were used to accentuate the backside and again make the waist seem smaller while the bustles of Edwardian women padded out the backside combining with corsets that narrowed the waist. Then there were the chest flattening undergarments of the 1920s while later - in the 1950s - in came the opposite in the form of padded bras and elasticised undergarments used to force the body into the fashionable desired shape. 

I suspect part of the reason we're looking to other options like body modification is that our clothing now is much more revealing. I'm wearing jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt at the moment and even if I wanted to pad my rear there's really nowhere to hide the fact that that's what I'd be doing. As I said I am definitely light on in the butt area but I'm not tempted by bodily augmentation to deal with it. There seem to be too many unnecessary risks for me to go down that path. I'd rather take a more natural approach and spend time on some muscle toning. I know I won't end up the same as some of the fashionable "influencers" who were born with a very different body shape than me but to be honest I don't really want to and I'm content to stay as I am.

Family History

 I've carefully avoided going down the rabbit hole of family history for many years. I was fairly sure that once I started I'd be hooked. I might have been right.

Since going through my mother's memorabilia I've spent most of the last few days trying to organise what I found there ready to hand on to any family member who might be interested. I already had a box with photos and other information that my mother had collected which is sitting in my living room but it isn't in any real order and it's been one of those things I've been intending to work on at some time. Now I'm in the process of some serious decluttering it's probably that time.

Some years ago a relative arranged a family reunion of the descendants on one side of my maternal great great grandparents so I do know something about that side of the family - at least back as far as my great great great grandfather who was born in 1774 - that's the only fact I know about him so it's just begging for future research - and for now I'm not heading there.

I knew that his son, his wife and oldest son, were among the earliest British settlers in what was then known as the Swan River Colony - theirs is one of the family bibles I found in the boxes. I decided  - while trying to not get trapped into historical research too much - hey, I have a degree in history so this was always going to be risky - that I should at least make out a direct line of descent from my ancestors to my children and grandchildren as well as what items each box now contains - and because I couldn't help myself I also thought I should check out a few dates on offical documents. It'd only take a little bit of time, wouldn't it.

Four days later and the line of descent is finished and - let's be honest here - I've had a lovely time trawling through passenger lists, censuses and other documents about the early days of what is now Western Australia, many of which were really not relevant but fascinating distractions. Given how carefully records were kept I was surprised - well, maybe not - at how many errors there were in the official documents. I was following the paper trail of both my ancestors and my great great grandfather's younger sister and her family who came here a month or so later - they nearly died as the ship they were on was wrecked just as it reached the colony (but that's another story) - and the discrepancies amazed me. Names are wrong - Hannah is Anna in an early census document for example, sometimes a name is spelled multiple different ways - in different places there was Harriet, Haryet and Harriett all referring to the same person - while dates of birth and even places of birth are at times wildly incorrect. The family bible was my saviour in this because there everything is listed clearly and I was able to put together the information I needed.

The trouble is - and I was afraid this would happen -  that I'm now itching to get into the box of documents in my living room and put them in order, too. I'd like to think I could do a little of this every day but, honestly, it wouldn't go that way, would it. I'd just keep finding things that are interesting and follow them and I simply have too much that really must be done at the moment. So, for now, they will just have to stay where they are and I'll have to resist the temptation to lift the lid and have a poke around. Sigh. At least I know where everything is now.

For Your Pleasure

 a bearded iris in my garden. I found this beauty when I went outside to hang out some washing this morning - it's been raining or cloudy all week so sunlight's been in short supply. Since my recent surgery I have been strictly forbidden to do pretty much anything in the garden so a flower like this, capturing the light, is a lovely way to lift the spirits. The good news is that, as of now,  I've been cleared to get out and garden to my heart's content so - as long as there are gaps in the rain - the garden is where you'll find me for the next few days.