Thursday 31 July 2014

Friendship, nature and beauty

On my way to bed this evening, I sat here and read Friko's blog, in which she discussed memory and forgetting things. This made me realise that I had not written about my lovely weekend. So now is the hour, despite the fact that I had almost gone to bed.

A while ago I met a former colleague, who moved to this city some time ago. She is married to a chap in the army, who has had a sterling career and who has been posed to all sorts of interesting and important positions.  She and I did not know each other very well, so although I had heard she had moved here, I had no idea where she lived. We ran into each other at the Art Gallery lectures I have been attending for years, and we took to having quick drinks of water or cups of tea afterwards before catching our buses home. She has just become a grandmother, so there are lots of baby photos to admire.

We have been to a couple of concerts together, all very enjoyable, and last week she invited me to accompany her to their beach house up north. We had a lovely weekend. She drove, and I did not even have to think about the route. I contented myself with bringing quince jelly, bolognese sauce and some wine, not to mention lots of crochet and a couple of books.

The beach house is in the most beautiful country, and looks across to the sea, which is now mostly blocked out by the eucalypts. The block backs on to the bush, and we went for a few rambles and walks. Lots of plants were flowering and it made me a mite sad not to have much in the way of plant life around me. But I now have many photographs of shrubs, flowers, and trees. And birds.

My friend brought some ham and prosciutto, and obviously the local birds know her well as they flew to the verandah and looked very expectant. So she fed them with chunks of prosciutto and mortadella. They preferred the prosciutto. Who wouldn't?

Evidently kookaburras are at the summit of the bird hierarchy. There were up to five kookaburras perched on the railings, looking - no, not hopeful, but expectant. And they were prepared to eat out of her hand. The next in the pecking order were the magpies, but they certainly knew their place. Distinctly second. So what with the feeding, the laughing, and the warbling, it was gorgeous. I now have more photos, close up shots of kookaburras that I can possibly need, so some deleting is in order.

One of these days I must have another go at loading photos onto the blog.

We walked along the beach, looked at the sea and the waves, and at the plentiful quantities of seaweed.
And before we set out on the return trip, we did a little bush walk, and I took even more photographs of the rocks and the trees, including the angophoras. I do not think I had seen any previously. Their bark turns pink in winter, and the habit of the branches can only be described as creatively gnarled.

In between all this bird feeding, plant inspections, and filling up the holes dug by rabbits and/or wallabies, to get at the tasty roots of the plants, we sat chatting, and doing some craft. Much progress was made. She makes tapestries, and temari balls. Goodness, they are so complicated and require such precise work.

Making good friends is a lovesome thing, God wot.


2 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

How lovely.
And you have captured the magic soooo well. I am sitting here smiling.

Pam said...

Very lovely. Excellent!