Eastern Rosella

I missed posting yesterday because we went to a tennis tournament. Wonderful tennis, but seeing 10 or 12 year old girls dragging tennis bags half their size even if they never use more than a racket and a bottle of water in an entire day, is quite disturbing. The bags extend from the neck to mid calf and cover the entire back; I sometimes expect their weight to flip the girls backwards. I'm guessing this is their parents’ choice, and if nothing else measures up the parents' commitment to push the girls into a long tennis career, the torturing sophistication of the bags does. Anyway, yesterday was a gorgeous spring day, warm and sunny, but no wind. When we came home from the tournament (they call it "tournie" here), I sat on the sofa in the living room to reflect about the day. Suddenly, an Eastern rosella flew into the garden and sat on a branch looking for the birdseed I normally hang in the tree. Unfortunately, there was no food, but at least I got the chance to see this bird that looks as if it bathed itself on a painter's color palette first! These birds are shy, so at the first attempted movement they sense coming from inside the house, they fly away. I was lucky yesterday to get a picture, although you can tell it’s not so great, as it was taken through the window. I am a bit like this bird, definitely not with respect to color, but in shyness and lack of aggression. If rainbow lorikeets or galahs are eating the seeds, the Eastern rosella flies away immediately. They are also very intelligent and if kept as pet, they can learn songs and even words. However, they prefer to fly in large spaces and do not like being “petted.”