Lyrebird
This bird is named for its amazing tailfeathers which resemble a lyre, a U-shaped, harp-like instrument. Unfortunately, the video only shows glimpses of the tailfeathers – but the main feature of the clip is to show the mimicry the lyrebird is capable of. They have been heard mimicking other birds, as well as copying sounds like sirens, dogs barking, and even cameras clicking. What a variety!
The video was taken by my friends who visited Australia recently. Lyrebirds are rather shy so this was a lucky capture.
Please turn up the volume for the best results.
Free Lunch
Hungry?
Table is set
Who says there’s no free lunch?
Suet for me and seeds for you
Just right.
P.S. I just figured out why poets are encouraged to write cinquains. It’s to make sure they don’t ramble on too much.
Five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables respectively.
Polar Bear Swim
Anyone for a swim? Actually, some people did go in for a Polar Bear swim on January 1.
But there are crazy people in all parts of the world. This limerick is for all those crazy people who went into the freezing water that day and froze their buns off.
*** I did not post a photo of those “brave”? swimmers here.
There once was a man who was dim,
And went for a wintery swim,
He said, “I’m not whiny,
Except that my hiney,
Is paying the price for my whim.”
Uncertainty
Sun or snow, or rain with breezes,
This is how the weather teases.
Life is full of twists and turnings,
Playing havoc with our yearnings.
Bath Time
The Missus says for my New Year’s resolution, I should have a bath.
All right! I’ll show her I’m a tough guy. Just because it’s freezing…. I’ll take it like a man.
Krrrrrrikey! What was I thinking?!
That’s enough of that. If she doesn’t like it, she can just smell me later.
Crispin’s Dining Room
While pruning one of our yew trees, I reached in towards the center, groping for the branch to cut, and felt a bird’s nest, obviously left there late last spring. Hesitantly, I checked for leftover unhatched eggs or dead chicks before I would throw the nest away.
The “eggs” I found in the nest were all cracked open, but they sure looked like hazelnut shells to me.
“Aha! Crispin the Squirrel has been here. I hope he only found the nest after the baby birds had flown.” I reasoned that the hazelnuts would not have been ripe until late fall, and the baby birds would have flown in the spring, so I didn’t think too badly of Crispin for making himself at home in this new dining room of his.
“Uh-ohhh … she found my stash.”
Another cinquain – five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables in each line respectively.
Crispin
Pampered squirrel
Who enjoys my woodshed
Where I bring him cracked hazelnuts
To eat.
Famished Flicker
Flicker is bigger than the little juncos and towhees. He takes advantage of his size to get his fill of suet.
It’s cold and rainy in the video clip. The towhee and junco try in vain to get a bite.
But all are vulnerable when the hawk moves in.
I’m trying my hand at writing cinquains (sin kanes). They have five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables in each line respectively.
Be patient please. This is my first one ever.
Flicker
Hogging suet
Hungry but not sharing
Forgets about pecking order
And hawks.
Dusky Moorhen
I think this is either a Eurasian moorhen or a dusky moorhen, probably the latter. They belong to the rail family.
The photo was taken by friends on the east coast of Australia.
A moorhen whose baby looked pallid,
Said, “Here, Junior, eat up your salad.”
As Junior was mewling,
The two kept on dueling,
And turned the scene into a ballad.
New Calendar
It was time for a new calendar year and I had no 2026 calendars in the house! You might reason that I didn’t need one until January, but I like to mark my appointments on the calendar and these are usually made ahead of time (not much point in marking down an appointment for last week). I have kept some of my favourite old calendars for their beautiful scenes to go with each month, but the weekdays and numbers don’t match those of the coming year.
I put my thinking cap on and made copies with my printer, of the numbered parts of old calendars, and then got out the whiteout and a pen to make the adjustments. In 2026, January 1st is on a Thursday, so I used a calendar page that starts on a Thursday.
Then for February I used a page that started on a Sunday (because January ends on a Saturday).
Two things you need to know for making the pages:
Is it a leap year? – Does February have 28 or 29 days?
How many days are in each month?
Here is a little verse to help you remember:
Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November,
All the rest have thirty-one,
Except February, twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine in each leap year.
The calendar isn’t perfect but I used some of that scotch tape that doesn’t show as much to tape the new pages over the old calendar pages. I had to use white out to get rid of a few things written on the old page (like notations that named holidays that didn’t happen in the month I was using the page for), and I used my permanent ink Sharpie to mark in the number of the new year.
It has a bit of a “homemade look,” but it works for marking down appointments and days to remember. Best of all, I get to keep my favourite photos from the old calendar intact.
I have another calendar that I really like and will make it into a new one for 2026 as well, now that my first experiment has been successful.
It’s not as if it’s a work of art that I intend to hang in my living room. It will be by my desk which is my own business and if it’s not perfect, I can live with that.
I plan to have a happy new year with my old year not too far away, under the new pages.
And another thought I just had – I’m doing my tiny bit for the environment by recycling/reusing my calendar.
Have a very happy and healthy new year, everyone!
wordsfromanneli 