Store Your Happy Memories Here:

[Croix]

Dear All~

What this place is for:
This thread is a tool, a resource, and also I guess a dash of entertainment.

I’ve found that when life is grim that sometimes thoughts of past happiness can create a chink of light in the grey overwhelming press of down. They can help occupy the mind with lighter reflections.

With that in view I invite people to set down a brief passage describing some happy event they look back to with fondness and peace.

They - and others too - can then return to it when they feel the need to glean a little warmth.

It is not a place for gloomy or dire tales, those can go elsewhere.

What to do:
Just set out, as simply as you like, your recollection of some past experience that means something good to you, something you enjoyed, something from safe times.

It can be, like my story below, anything – from an account of visiting grandparents to simply cooking and eating a melted-cheese sandwich in a favorite kitchen – you get to choose.

How to do it:
Write. Write enough so someone else can feel the mood, know what happened, find the goodness. (stop at 2,500 characters please!)

Grammar, syntax, spelling, punctuation are not compulsory, just write as you can – the only important thing is the content - not literary merit. Short or long - it does not matter.


I hope you enjoy, contribute and find a little distraction here when you need it.

Croix

[Eagle Ray]

Dear Croix,

That is quite comical - the P.A. Possum. It's like he is annoyed about the tree while being grateful for the workshop space but still has a grudge about the tree.

I wonder if my local possums will turn on me in some way if I pick too much of the fruit, leaving less for them? Last year I was on a ladder picking some of my oranges. A small brown bird sat right next to me on a nearby branch and squawked at me very aggressively. He or she seemed seriously grumpy at me for picking the oranges.

I do have the pitter patter of possums across my roof, or pounding galumphing is probably a better description, so the tap-dancing with army boots sounds familiar. One thing I have noticed in the presence of possums is the absence of rodents. Just before last winter I started to have some mice about including indoors, but when the possums are about the mice seem to disappear.

It seems you have peskiness in your iceberg home and peskiness in your non-iceberg home. It must be the burden of a walrus! 

[Croix]

Dear All~

Talking of loud-mouthed dicky-birds reminds me. As Mrs C and I walk along the riverbank there is one native hen that runs up to us and squawks so loud his feet just about leave the ground. He follows us squawking full volume until we have distanced ourselves, then he stops and return from where he came wiht a satisfied air. The monsters have been driven away.

There is a quiet female there with half a dozen tiny fluff-balls in legs, busy pecking and then racing after  mum.

Croix

[Eagle Ray]

Oh native hens are hilarious aren’t they! I find just the way they run is so funny. I think the one having a go at you and Mrs C must be protecting the fluff balls on legs. The male wood ducks do that here and will even peck the feet of a big human telling them to steer clear of their babies. Someone told me about having their shoelaces attacked.

That reminds me of the interesting documentary I just watched tonight on migratory shorebirds. They are small but migrate literally from as far down here as Australia up to places like the Arctic and Siberia. They have a pigment in their eyes that enables them to see the earth’s magnetic field and they are also thought to use the stars to navigate. Wow! I love seeing the migratory birds when they arrive in Australia over the warmer months. I’ve spent some time watching and photographing them. I wondered about the one named a ruddy turnstone, them observing them realised that’s what they do while feeding - they turn over stones.

A possum just noisily thumped on my roof as I’m typing this. I do wonder what’s going on up there!

[Doolhof]

Hi Croix, Eagle Ray and All,

Lots of stories here about different birds and creatures. We had pet chooks as children. My sister used to dress her pet chook up in dolls clothes, put it in a pram and take it to the shops. A few years ago we had chooks, while the others were busy digging for their own bugs, one chook would stay right next to me until I was pulling up the weeds and finding the bugs for her! 

A friend had a pet chook that used to sleep on her bed along with her 6 cats! She had a special nappy for the chook!

Geese have always scared me, they can be so protective. We had friends with geese, I never went into their yard! 

[Eagle Ray]

Dools, that would be hilarious to see a chicken dressed up in a pram at the shops! I hope the chicken enjoyed the outing. There is a YouTube video online of a chicken who likes to ride in her owner’s bicycle basket, called “Buffy the bike chicken!”

Geese really frightened me as a child, especially as when you are small they are a similar height. I haven’t seen one in years but expect I’d still be wary around them. Swans frightened me as a kid too though I feel ok around them now.

Emus are another I can’t help but feel a bit cautious with, especially in close proximity. I sometimes see them in quite large groups in paddocks around here. One day one sauntered in front of me while I was driving between here and a neighbouring town. Luckily I had plenty of time to slow down, while he or she really took their time casually crossing the road.

[Croix]

Dear All~

The geese at the riverbank know which side their bread (or birdseed) is buttered on and don't peck the hand that feeds them, though they certainly push all the other waterbirds away.

-C

[Patches63]

Love all these messages about chooks and other birds, am so grateful grew up with mixture of pets and exposure to various animals at a young age.  No longer remember some but have some lovely photos of those times.

my first pet when I was a toddler I named Blackie and was a black bantam which used to sit on my head, mum always made sure I had knitted cap or hat on before going outside, while I walked around the backyard.  
by early primary school my parents had couple rosellas in cage in the backyard. Have vague memories of collecting fresh sun flower seeds from plants in the backyard and feeding the rosellas after school each day.

budgies, canaries, and cats ….. in one corner of the kitchen my mum had couple cages, one with couple budgies and other with couple canaries.  My mum had a specific whistle she used to call our cats inside with.  Those cheeky birds learnt and copied the whistle which saw 2 cats come running into the kitchen and sit in front of the cages

Patches

[Croix]

Dear All~

We have always had pets, two I particularly remember from when I was young was a pair of cats. Large male, small female Siamese. They would roam around outside then decide it was time to come in. We had a pretty basic back door wiht a metal hoop on the outside as a handle your grip and a latch you put your thumb on and pressed to lift a bar on the inside.

One cat, the female, used to jump up and hook a paw though the hoop, and hang on. Then she would dab the thumb lathe while the male partner in crime scroogles the base of the door. The latch would raise and the door would open

Simple for a pair of cats.

Croix

[Eagle Ray]

Dear Patches, Croix and All,

It's lovely to meet you Patches and I loved the funny story about the birds learning to copy your Mum's whistle leading the cats to run inside.

Croix, your childhood cats sound like ingenious felines.

That reminds me of two dogs I lived with. They belonged to my landlords who lived on the same property. Before they got the second dog the first one knew how to get the gate open by bouncing on it. My landlord had a new kind of closing mechanism installed. However, occasionally the gate was accidentally left open. The dogs loved nothing more than being close to their humans so it never seemed to really be an issue. If they got out they would never actually run away but just wait patiently until the next humans came home. They would just sit on the porch. I think they were more worried about someone coming along and stealing one of their dogs than they were about the dogs running away, especially as the dogs basically loved to befriend people and would lick anyone they met with great enthusiasm. I loved them to bits and they were my trusty pals when I lived there.

[Patches63]

Cats can be quite michevious when they want to.  Croix, reading about the cats opening the door reminded me of one of my cats from years ago.  First few months with him were hard work and taught me about unconditional love given when feeling safe.  I live not far from the coast and rescued him from area where people used to fish. He was terrified with vets, after quite few months, telling me he was most likely 2nd generation born in the wild.  He grew not only to trust me but became 8kg couch potato who would make sound similar to human child cry when I went outside without him.  House I was living in had round door knocks and alarm system.  Took me few evenings being woken with the sound of the alarm and finding this cat sitting in the kitchen to work out he was somehow letting himself out of his room.  One evening family member and I put him to bed and quietly waited with torch light only.  From that night onwards the door to his room was closed and fastened using cord to piece of furniture …. He was jiggling the round door handle until he opened the door and would then calmly walk out of his room