jmgoyder

wings and things

Oct 4

The Australia puddle and other Spring things

by jmgoyder

The puddle in our driveway has held the shape of Australia for weeks and weeks and even had a Tasmania, but the latter evaporated a couple of days ago, before I remembered to take a photo. I wish I had, as it might have made me famous! I’ve decided not to get that Australia-shaped pot-hole filled with gravel now, in the hope that next Spring it will once again rain relentlessly and re-create the Australia puddle, with Tasmania, on our driveway. Then I will take lots of photos and have an exhibition and get rich. The reason I didn’t take the photos this time was because it was raining and I didn’t want to get drenched to photograph a puddle (I think that is more for the professionals.)

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A blue wren (very hard to photograph because they are so tiny and so fast!) After several attempts to get him in more natural surroundings, he landed on one of Anthony’s salvaged washing machine insides, that we use for an outside barbecue.
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A rare vision of Uluru looking calm. He is usually feisty, having to compete for the wheat with all the winged creatures.
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G9 in a tree. I have never seen him her do this before (even though I know that, at sundown, she flies up into the wattle trees for the night with all the other peafowl).
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Ming, with the dogs.
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Something wonderful happened today; I became a great-auntie for the first time. A beautiful baby was born and I mean this sincerely because, let’s face it, most babies are quite ugly for the first few days/hours – but not this one! She is exquisite! In respect of the new parents’ privacy, I will ask them before putting any photos of the kid on my blog.

Animal Australia Birds blogging Family Friendship Happiness joy LOVE STORY Marriage Teenagers Western Australia Wings

25 Comments »
Oct 1

Finally. The sun is out and the internet is working!

by jmgoyder

Due to waterlogged, ancient telephone wires, I have had weeks and weeks of trouble with both phone and internet. Finally, the new wireless modem is configured, the landline is disconnected and the mobile phone is working inside the house (I don’t have to keep on running outside into the rain to have a conversation).

Ah, the rain; after our first month of spring and its relentless downpours, the sun is finally coming out to play again!

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Bubble and Baby Turkey seem to be particularly excited about this.

Animal Birds Happiness Wings

54 Comments »
Sep 28

Another blog?

by jmgoyder

I had intended to take a break from this blog for the weekend so that I could work on the dementia articles and stay overnight at the nursing lodge. The latter was impossible due to the person-in-charge needing this idea to be taken up the ladder but also because Anthony wanted me to come home to take care of the farm (Ming has gone to Perth for the weekend). I was surprised by Anthony’s reaction, and I await the hierarchy’s verdict on future stayovers, but at least I have redrawn attention to the possibility, perhaps more seriously than I did previously. I stayed with Ants much later than usual, until he said, “Jules, you better go home before it gets too dark”.

So now I am home, Ming’s away, I’ve put the birds away, fed the dogs, boiled my corn cob (latest addiction) and am playing around with a latent blog (with the ridiculous title of philosophication) that I registered with WP ages ago. I’ve done the ‘About’ page and one post but I am not quite sure how to get it ‘out there’ except to put the link here.

The reason I am doing this is because, as this is my general blog, I want to have another place to draft/write articles about dementia because this has been a long-held research (and now personal) interest. After all, my PhD thesis was about Alzheimer’s disease and a revised version of this was published as a book in 2001 (We’ll be married in Fremantle), but I don’t want to inflict dementia-ridden articles on readers of this wings@things blog; hence another blog. I did try to do the separate page thing on this blog but I couldn’t figure it out.

So here is the link for anyone who is interested. I am very excited to be writing material that may be publishable beyond the blog, but I am not even sure if I’ve set it up properly so here is the link for anyone who is interested:

About

blogging Family LOVE STORY Marriage My published writing Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia Wings

31 Comments »
Sep 27

Gutsy9 is a girl after all!

by jmgoyder

For those who don’t know, or who have forgotten (as I had until I looked it up on my blog!) last year, on December 9, I discovered a peachick running around outside, apparently abandoned by its many possible parents. So I picked it up and from that moment on, it became my kid via the interesting phenomenon of imprinting. I raised that chick with great joy and for its first week of life took it everywhere with me, inside my shirt, to the nursing lodge, to the shops – even to a restaurant once!

I called the chick 9 (because of the hatch date), then Gutsy (because Ming thought it was a gutsy little thing) and now Gutsy9. A few weeks later a friend came over (who also has peafowl) and said G9 was pied (a hybrid of white and blue) and most likely a male. But, when my friend saw a recent picture, he recognized immediately that G9 was a female after all and I am so delighted because I am overrun with males – son and husband, two male alpacas, two male dogs, predominantly male geese and ducks, AND, half of our peafowl are males, which is annoying for the females (especially now that it’s mating season!)

I love remembering G9’s first days – in Ming’s hands, on Anthony’s lap, and on my shoulder.
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Whenever she hears my voice G9 gallops (yes gallops!) to me. Of course, she is always hoping for bread, a favourite treat for all of them, but even when I don’t have bread, she will sit beside me to have her neck stroked. The other peas watch this little ritual with fascination because peafowl don’t like to be touched and, even though they will all take bread from my hand, they shy away if I try to pat them. At least they all accept G9 now – they didn’t to begin with. In fact, they seem to sort of look up to her, amazed at the way she follows me around the garden, doing little twirlies, around and around, like a funny little puppy!

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I wonder if December will bring more chicks – I hope so!

Animal Birds blogging Family Friendship Happiness joy Wings

23 Comments »
Sep 25

Underneath: a poem to Anthony

by jmgoyder

Underneath the black and white tiled linoleum in the kitchen are the original tiles.
We couldn’t rip them out because of the asbestos, so we just covered them over.
The ridiculously expensive lino almost immediately developed little holes
from my high heels, your bentwood chairs and, more recently, the stab of your walking stick.
Do you remember how I invited the manufacturer’s assistant out here to get a discount on that lino, how he told me to stop wearing heels, how I told him where to go? We got the discount on the basis of a faulty product and you were proud of me for fighting for this.

Underneath the canopy of your thick eyebrows (when did they get so thick?) your eyes only twinkle occasionally now and sometimes I can’t get even get your lips to move into a smile, no matter how hard I try with my jostling words, silly antics, tear-restrained hugs.

Underneath the muteness of your nursing home bed, I lie on a soft carpet of imagination in the hope that you will have a good night’s sleep in which you forget that I am not there with you. And, while I am on this soft carpet, I will try my hardest to erase your fear of losing me because that will never happen.

Underneath the ugliness of this disease, I see the beauty of who you are, and always have been – a big caterpillar, bypassing all of the butterflies, and becoming a vivid part of the sky.

ps. So glad our son, Ming, no longer reads my blog; he would vomit -ha! Actually, if I read this to Anthony, he probably would too, so I guess this is just for myself and the blog.

Animal Family Friendship Grief Happiness joy LOVE STORY Marriage Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia Teenagers Wings

47 Comments »
Sep 22

This is what happens when I leave the back veranda door open!

by jmgoyder

I just left it open for a minute while I fetched some groceries from the car.

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Guess who!

Animal Birds Friendship Happiness Wings

48 Comments »
Sep 15

On the fence

by jmgoyder

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Animal Birds Friendship joy Wings

44 Comments »
Sep 9

No words for this much beauty – Gutsy’s father, Prince!

by jmgoyder

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Animal Birds Family Happiness joy Wings

46 Comments »
Sep 9

Annie get your gun!

by jmgoyder

Well last week I finally got my firearms licence and was able to collect Anthony’s rifle from the lockup. It was a rather strange rigmarole which began three months ago when a policeman came to the door and frightened the hell out of me (because I keep getting speeding tickets – another story). He said he had come to seize the guns because Anthony’s licence had expired due to nonpayment of annual fees. I said I had deliberately let that go because Ants was in a nursing home now, so not in any fit state to shoot, and that I had no idea where the gun cabinet key was but his brother probably had the guns anyway. The policeman said he would go across the road and ask the brother and give me a few days to find the key.

So, as the brother did have the rifle, but said he didn’t have the other three guns (an air rifle and two shotguns), the policeman seized the rifle and put it in the lockup place for me to pick up when I got my own licence. Then I had to search for the gun cabinet key. Now you might be wondering why on earth I didn’t know where this was but (a) I have never known Anthony to shoot anything and (b) pre-nursing home, he had a habit of hiding strange things in strange places throughout the house and (c) when the new gun laws came in way back when, we got the gun cabinet and it hasn’t been opened since – nearly 20 years ago!

I didn’t even know what was in the stupid cabinet except I recalled Anthony putting a bunch of antique walking sticks in it (yes, he was eccentric even before the Parkinson’s disease). Anyway, after a 3-day search of all the nooks and crannies, I found a zillion keys, including the one for the gun cabinet.
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Inside was one rotting old shotgun (which had to be seized and destroyed) and the walking sticks.
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You see, I have to shoot the rabbits before they dig up the foundations of the house. Of course I am not relishing this horrible task, because I love animals, but these rabbits are taking over. Here is one of the bigdaddies flirting with one of the peahens – argh!
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I will get a better shot of how MANY rabbits are here tomorrow. If I can’t do it with the camera, how will I do it with the rifle? Oh dear.

Animal Family Happiness Marriage Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia Teenagers Wings

48 Comments »
Sep 8

I will not lose my sense of humour!

by jmgoyder

Yesterday and today, despite visits from many friends and family, it was just Anthony and me. Yesterday his eyes got wet when I had to leave, and today his eyes went blank when I had to leave because he didn’t understand why I had to come home and leave him at the nursing lodge.

I wish I could laugh it away.

Family Grief joy LOVE STORY Marriage Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease dementia Teenagers Wings

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