“You’ve drawn the line now, haven’t you, Mum?” Son said on the way home from school.
“What line?” I asked innocently.
“The bird line – no more birds, okay.”
“You’re probably right.” I didn’t dare mention that while he was school, Husband and I had gone to pick up the four new turkey chicks.
“It’s just that all you do is talk birds, birds, birds and I want to talk about life.” Son is a bit of a philosopher and he particularly likes talking about his innermost thoughts.
“So how was Life today?”
“Yeah, well I gave that emo girl – you know the one who’s always depressed – my cherry ripe and she just chucked it on the ground and stepped on it and she and all her gang started laughing.” His voice broke and when I glanced at him tears were creeping out of his eyes so I pulled the car into a petrol station, my heart rolling over.
“So what did you do?”
“I just walked away but the headmaster was going past and told me off for littering.” By now, Son was beginning to chuckle.
“Why’d you give her the cherry ripe anyway?” I asked.
“To cheer her up.”
“Well, you did make her laugh!”
“Yeah, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen her teeth – kind of fangy, but nice. She should’ve auditioned for Twilight.” We both cracked up and I started the car again.
After a moment, Son said, “Thanks, Mum, you can talk about the birds now if you want.”
My heart did another roll, this time of panic. What if he discovered the turkeys today? They were safely hidden in the greenhouse where I often put the young birds to start with. There was no reason Son would go in there was there?
Alas, he did discover them but it wasn’t what I expected!
Note: Occasionally the anecdotes in this post will use a bit of poetic licence in order to protect the privacy of individuals who may recognise themselves and be embarrassed.
jmgoyder 
Love this story and the accompanying photo. Aren’t children priceless. Just when you think you know them, they come out with something totally unexpected.
Who can resist a baby bird anyway – not me, that’s for sure.
Article below is a prime example
http://victoriaaphotography.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/cygnets-or-baby-swans-black-swan-cygnus-atratus/
I just read your article and looked at its striking pictures – beautiful stuff! One of my friends lives on a block that faces a swamp and the swans come and go. She’s going to ring me when they return. What kind of camera do you use? I really need a better one!
There are so many cameras to chose from. I bought a Canon Powershot A3000 IS May 2010 which is a ‘point & shoot’ – excellent small camera under $200, then bought my first DSLR last Dec. It’s a Canon EOS 500D at $817 for the camera body. I like the Canon. I read dozens (if not hundreds) of reviews trying to decide what to buy. I also had a budget. The EOS 550D was about $300 more and I couldn’t see much difference so I chose the 2nd latest model at the time – the 500D.
Most camera stores (or even online), will give a free 18-55mm general lens when you buy this DSLR camera body.
You can buy this type of camera online much, much cheaper, but I wanted to buy it from a reputable camera store where I could pop in from time to time and ask questions. I also wanted good back-up service. If you buy from overseas, there is the possibility that you will have to send it back overseas for warranty repairs & won’t get it back for 3-6 months. I got a free lecture at the Camera shop’s Media School which was really helpful. (I recommend Michael’s Camera Store in Melbourne very highly – their sales assistants are usually professional photographers or highly experienced and knowledgeable amateur photographers)
The EOS 660D and 1000D have since come out in 2011.
I am more than happy with my model. I think it highly unlikely that I will buy anything else and can’t really afford to anyway. I bought the top Canon 100mm macro lens to start with at $768 – once again you can buy it cheaper online. I knew I wanted to do close-up flower photography in the nearby Botanic Gardens. By March this year I was getting frustrated at not being able to shoot bird photos in the distance in the Bot. Gardens, so once again, I read dozens of reviews, compared prices and range of use. I ended up choosing the 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 IS telephoto lens as having a good all round range of general use (& not too heavy when added to the camera body). If you switch it to ‘Manual focus’, you can actually take a fairly reasonable macro photo with it too. I thought my spending would stop there, but ended up buying a good $299 Manfredo tripod (as it’s hard to do flower close-ups without a stable base to put your camera on). Even professional photographers use a tripod for macro work
I bought a plain Uv filter for both lenses to protect them.
When I dropped my camera at home earlier this year, it was the $49.95 UV filter on my telephoto lens which broke (not my $768 lens) – I HIGHLY RECOMMEND anyone buy a UV FILTER which stays on your lens at all times to protect it from scratches or in my case, drops). I have also bought polarising filters for both lenses which enables me to get better photos on reflective surfaces like water. It also makes the sky much bluer.
Feel free to email me on victoriaaa1233@gmail.com if you have any other questions.
I like the 500D because it’s virtually the lightest DSLR camera body on the market (I have Fibromyalgia, CFS, a heart condition & sever lumbar disc disease so need something light). It is also a good size for my hand (men might find it slightly too small for their larger hand). If you are going to take as many photos as me – 1000 per week – you need to read everything you can, Try handling several models in a camera store. Have a budget on what you’re willing to spend and DON’T buy something unless you are really sure it’s the right DSLR for you. Otherwise you’ll end up spending money ‘head over heels’.
Read & research is my best advice.
You can buy really good Point & Shoot cameras for a couple of hundred dollars if a DSLR is too expensive for your budget..
I correspond with some photographers in the US who highly recommend NIKON cameras as being good also.
Please feel free to erase or edit this post (removing my email address OR summarising the info to suit your purpose or desire for a short ‘reply’ on your Blog). Or erase this reply completely if you prefer to only have replies relevant to your posts – I won’t be offended.
Thanks for the detailed information – very useful. I didn’t erase any of it because other people might be interested too.
Hi there, I’ve had my ‘blog’ for about 3 hours and you were kind enough to ‘follow’. I’m not sure where to say thanks so have chosen to do so here till I learn more (or better!).
My son is home from Ireland and is setting up my blog for me. He was entering ‘practice’ things like ‘heres some articles about sheeps I rote’ and maybe you subscribed before I had time to correct his ‘deliberate’ errors. Anyway I look forward to reading your posts later (we’re going out now).
Hi, my blog is pretty new too!
Keep it up – it’s great fun.
Julie
Hi, thanks for commenting on my blog. I have subscribed to yours. I think it will be fun reading. Bob
Thanks Bob!
I really appreciate your support.
Julie
Great photo!
Ha!
He’s so gorgeous….
I know and he’s so tame – eats out of my hand but only if the rest of the mob clear away!
I can’t stop laughing – I thought you were talking about the peacock not Son!
GET RID OF IT NOWWW!!!
Or at least say that it’s true… Or not.
Sorry, Son. I didn’t mean to embarrass you and I have now added a note to the end of that post.
I had to Google cherry ripe. They look yum to me. If a fellow had given me one i would not have tossed it on the ground.
Don’t you have them over there?