The taming of all these birds has made me terribly nostalgic for my childhood in Canada. One of my fondest memories is of the squirrels. The following is my mother’s story. She tells it well, don’t you think?
“Not long after arriving for our big adventure in Canada, when the children were 5, 7 and 9 respectively, Dad told us one evening that we were to wake up really early the next day because he had a surprise for us. He wouldn’t even tell me what it was.
So at dawn the next day, with that secretive Charlie Chaplin walk and wink of his, he bundled us into the car, patting his bulging pockets and driving us off into the unknown.
It was a beautiful municipal park in Toronto, entirely deserted at this early mystic hour.
His finger to his lips he crept ahead of us to the base of the biggest, widest tree, and from his pockets he drew out the bags of peanuts he’d been hiding. Handing them out he showed the children how to tempt the squirrels down from the treetops, to cheekily grab the nuts right out of their hands before scampering triumphantly back to the treetops with their trophies.
We had never experienced anything like this in Australia. Taming native creatures right in their habitat, to eat from their hands gave the kids the most tremendous thrill, and a memory to last forever. I can still taste the dew, and hear the silence of that magic moment.
Later on, when we were invited to stay at the cabin of friends on one of the myriad of lakes north of Toronto, Julie actually tamed chipmunks to eat out of her hands, a feat seldom attained with those tiny timid creatures, but that’s another story. M.L.”
Thanks, Meggles!
jmgoyder 
Cute pic Julie. Where were you hiding?
I was probably up the tree!
The pic is a lovely reminder of this story. In turn, it reminds me of the 6 mths I worked in Sussex in the UK in the 1970’s and walking in the woods looking for squirrels and little creatures (which we don’t have in Aust.).
I get as much fun trying to entice ducks to eat out of my hand (today) as you probably did with the squirrels back as a child in Cananda.
Your Sussex experience sounds lovely. I’m wondering if our Australian equivalent to squirrels is rabbits. We have a rabbit plague over here in WA.
How lovely!
The Hub and I fed squirrels like that in Cape Town’s Botanical Gardens on our honeymoon. It still makes me smile to think about it.
Yes, I wish we had squirrels in Australia but, then again, they would probably do something weird to the environment.
Such a beautiful (non-consumerist) surprise that teaches to delight in the beauty and secrets of nature – your grandfather knew his stuff 🙂
I just realised my mother’s story sounds like it’s her dad when it was my dad! Thanks for the lovely comment.
what a lovely memory! 🙂
Yes!