Talk to the birds ...

We have a magpie around our place we call "Cody's friend". He was friends with my late horse, Cody. He was the only bird that Cody would not chase and he was not afraid of Cody, either. They would smell each other and go about their business. It was always amusing to watch. When we moved Cody out to the back of our place, the magpie would fly down and seemed to talk to him, and then fly back. Now that Cody is no longer there, he has only flown down there about twice that I am aware of.

Lately he has been hunting for worms quite closely to the house. He is not eating the worms, just gathering them in his beak and then flying off. We think he might be feeding a chick. Mind you I have no idea that it really is a "he" it could be a female.

I can get quite close to this magpie myself, and I talk to it. I talk to it to get it used to my presence and my voice so that he knows I am not a threat to him. He looks at me and while he will hop a few steps away, he doesn't fly off and seems to be looking at me. I am not trying to make a "pet" of him, just to let him know that if I am around, he doesn't have to fly away.

With spring in the air (although mostly it seems like high summer), there are many birds coming by. We leave water out for them and change it every day so that the mosquito larvae do not live in the water. Her ladyship, the ex-racehorse, has a bath for her water, so we have placed a large rock in it. The birds come and go from the bath, without fear of drowning. I do wish the cockatoos would not crap in it. That really is pushing it. The feathers are bad enough. We also change that water every day. So we only put in as much as her ladyship will drink and a little more, so that it is not wasted.

The garden is getting along. I have planted lettuce, tomato and capsicum. Oh, yes and a couple of burpless cucumber seedling. Tomorrow I will be planting some onions and spinach. I planted some herbs in another garden beside the garage. In front of the garage I have built a little garden and put some lavender and dianthus in it.

To build the garden, I had some old logs lying around, so I moved them with the aid of my faithful trolley into the place where I wanted the garden to be. Then I laid newspaper down over the grass and wetted it all down with the hose. On top of that I put leaf litter. We have evergreen trees around here, so they constantly shed leaves all year around. On top of the leaf litter I put about six inches (15 cm) horse manure. I have let it rot down through the winter. I mixed in some blood and bone and lime prior to planting the seedlings for the lavender and dianthus. I want to get some other flowering plants into it. It gets sunshine, but not all day.

Eventually the place will look nice. It is slow, because gardening is also not my forte. I just potter now and then, although I am trying to make a bit more effort. With the birds around it is nice to be outside early in the morning.