Magpies, Groundhog Day, Year of the Rabbit

On Monday, I was on the bus, and thinking about phoning my darling son. We were passing a park, when I saw a whopping magpie strutting on the grass, with a few friends. Given that a) you don't often see more than a couple of magpies at a time, presumably because you can't get that much ego into a small space, and b) I like the rhyme, I counted them: 6 for gold. Good sign! The bus moved on, and then there were four more: four for a boy. Clear enough. Then two more flew past the window: 2 for joy. Most excellent omens for darling son, who is getting the dosh together to do a master's next year (pause for golden wave of maternal chuffedness emanating from your screen....). So I phoned him. He was out. Ha!

One for sorrow,

Two for joy,

Three for a girl,

Four for a boy,

Five for silver,

Six for gold,

Seven for a secret never to be told.

In the US, it was Groundhog Day on Wednesday. For Chinese people all over the World, it was New Year on Thursday.

From the newsletter of February Dollmaker's Journey

Dear Dollmaking Friends,
Here in the United States we celebrate a very unusual holiday on February 2nd – Groundhog Day. Perhaps you have seen the movie "Groundhog Day" starring Bill Murray. (I made my husband watch it again today as a special date!) It is believed that if the groundhog sees his shadow on this day we will have 6 more weeks of winter in the northern hemisphere. In the past 125 years that Punxsutawney Phil has been predicting the weather, there have been only 16 occasions when he didn't see a shadow. Today was one of them. (The sun came out 10 minutes after he was put back in the tree stump. Narrow escape!)

"Phil's official forecast as read February 2nd, 2011, at sunrise at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, PA: Here Ye, Hear Ye, Hear Ye
Groundhog Day, February 2, 2011
Punxsutawney Phil was raised from his burrow
By the call of President Bill Deeley.
He greeted his handlers, Ben Hughes and John Griffiths....
He surveyed his surroundings carefully and found that there was no shadow around,
So, an early spring it will be."

Everyone cheered. The Pennsylvania town swears that Phil has never been wrong. This will be good news for my daughter in Marlborough, Massachusetts. They have had so much snow that they don't have any place to dump it. They live in a two story colonial, and they had to dig a tunnel to get out of the front door. She noticed a neighborhood kid peeking in their 2nd story bedroom window and realized that he was standing on top of the snow. This picture was taken January 27th, and they have had more snow since then. Two more feet are expected tonight! http://dollmakersjourney.com/newsletter/snow.jpg

And never mind March hares or the Easter Bunny, it's now the Year of the Rabbit.

According to Chinese tradition, the Rabbit brings a year in which you can catch your breath and calm your nerves. It is a time for negotiation. Don't try to force issues, because if you do you will ultimately fail. To gain the greatest benefits from this time, focus on home, family, security, diplomacy, and your relationships with women and children. Make it a goal to create a safe, peaceful lifestyle, so you will be able to calmly deal with any problem that may arise.

Not many people know that the Rabbit is the symbol of the Moon, while the Peacock is the symbol of the Sun, and that together, these two animal signs signify the start of day and night, represent the Yin and Yang of life. It is said that anyone making supplications for wishes to be fulfilled are certain to get what they want... and in the Year of the Rabbit, the wish-granting aspect of the Sun and the Moon combined is multiplied. The Moon is YIN and this is the Yin of Heaven, signifying magic. Thus on each of the Full Moon nights of this year, go out into your garden to gaze into the Full Moon and visualize plenty of Moon dust and Moon glow flowing into you, filling your whole body with bright white light and granting you fearlessness, love and courage. This will not only strengthen your inner "Chi" energy, it will also bring wisdom into your life.

Tuesday morning 7.30

The sky overhead is blue this morning: lavender blue overhead, shading through cornflower and azure - possibly cerulean! - towards the white gold glitter of the rising sun. There are house martins whizzing and squeaking in all that blue, white undersides catching the sun. They crisscross the sky quite randomly, then get sociable and start wheeling - some clockwise, some anticlockwise. Then they all whizz off again.

That summer I spent in Andalucia, there were lots of martins living in the eaves of the barn. In the mornings they would assemble in gossiping hordes on the telephone wire that ran from barn to house, taking turns to throw themselves into the air, swooping and diving in all directions. In the late afternoons we would see them flitting about, warming up like joggers, and then they would skim across the swimming pool, scooping water in their beaks.

Egrets in Dubai?

On several mornings now, at about seven o'clock, I've seen between two and ten white birds at the Emirates Mall interchange, on the grassed part inside the loop, where the road from Jebel Ali turns up and over the Sheikh Zayed Road, heading fro the Police Academy.

I thought they might be egrets, but here's a picture of a Little Egret from Kenya, and I think they were smaller. Plus, this is the distribution: Widely distributed including Southern Europe, much of Asia, North and East Africa, Australia and New Zealand. (i.e. everywhere except the Middle East!)

Has anyone else seen them, and can identify them? They're delicate, snowy white, and quite beautiful.

Penguin

What is it about penguins?

When I was a child, McVities urged us to P-pick up a Penguin! A P-p-p-penguin!








Later I remember my mother coming home with Sirdar yarns to make us cardigans, jumpers, hats and gloves in beautiful colours, but for speciality yarns, it was Pingouin. (Both syllables rhyme with the French pain, producing a sort of placid quacking sound.) Mind you, she absolutely detests knitting with the hair of the Mo, so our jumpers were usually Sirdar double knit, and the more exotic yarns were reserved as texture detail in her luscious wool tapestries.

When Habibibaba was a toddler, the picture that made our one chick feel cosy was of an Emperor Penguin family. Hardly surprising, really. And in his duffel coat, he had the proportions of a penguin chick!



















Then along came Pingu. Given half a chance, we would all watch Pingu!









When we moved to Dubai, my mother, realising we might need an antidote to all this sand, started sending us cards from Paper House's Eric the Penguin range. Here's one that she missed, just for Habibi!




















Then last year, out came:
which I still haven't seen, but I'll get to it sometime soon (anything involving Morgan Freeman - ooh!).

















And today, Habibi and I took my birthday cinema ticket vouchers and went to the IMAX to see



Aaah!















Great fun. If you haven't seen it yet, I shan't spoil it for you. My thoughts are on the comments page!

After we came out, Habibi disappeared into a shop to do something secret (No, not shoplifting! Huh!) and I found a seat in Costa's from which I could watch the world go by, and ordered an espresso. I am so glad I did.

A little Chinese boy, aged about four, must have just been to see Happy Feet, because he started dancing, quite oblivious to the rest of us. He had all the movements too: arms out to the side like penguin wings, skittering feet, turns, travelling sideways and back again, all with a private smile of pleasure on his face; he was a natural, and it was just gorgeous to watch him so wrapped up in the moves, and the music in his head. After a while, his father appeared with a half-filled shopping trolley and indicated that his son should climb up into the seat. Up he got quite happily and away they went. They were out of sight by the time Habibi got back. Shame!

More chickens! (The ones I missed before)

Preeeeeesenting:


Cornish





New Hampshire



Wyandotte







Australorp




Orpington





Sussex


and Sebright



I have to say I love the look of the traditional birds - the ones that look like proper chickens - especially the Sussex.

The Orpington gives me the willies - how can a thing like that live?

And as for the Houdans, the Silky and the Frizzle - surely these were invented for Star Trek or The Muppets?

Apparently, the Naked Necks are ideally suited for hot, dry conditions because their very nakedness helps them to keep cool. So, ideal for here, or Central and Southern Spain, but I dunno..... a bit too weird for me, I think.

Betcha can't wait for a taste of my duck book, can you?

Birds

For some reason, I can't load any of my holiday pictures onto my blog. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, and Habibi's method involves 'a little line of code' - Aaaargh! Not for me. I shall figure it out eventually, I expect, but don't have time or patience right now. In the meantime, here are some pictures of BIRDS!

The Spanish text is an extract from Guía Total a la Sierra Nevada y Alpujarras, published by Avaya Touring Club, 2003, from the library at La Molino Ratonera, but the (loose) translation is my own. Although the Alpujarras are south and east of Granada, and the Molino is in the Sierra Ojete, to the west, conditions are similar, so you find much the same wildlife. There's more to come, but I can't get any more pics into this entry. (I'm sorry I'm so completely useless with IT stuff. I do try.)

La fauna de los bosques y matorrales

Entre las aves que crían e inviernan en los encinares y marojales de la Sierra cabe destacar por su familiaridad el arrendajo y el mirlo común.Son los primeros en delatar con sus graznidos y trinos al caminante que se interna en las áreas boscosas, y suelen dejarse ver incluso al paso de los coches, cruzando las carreteras que rodean la Sierra.

The fauna of woodland and scrub

Among the birds that breed and winter in the oakwoods and brush of the Sierra, the most familiar are the jay and the blackbird. Woodland trail-walkers notice their chatter and trilling calls, but they can also be spotted beside road junctions, and crossing the motorways that run through the Sierra.

También son sedentarios en los bosques mejor conservados el agateador común, la paloma torcáz y el pito real, único pájaro carpintero de estas montañas. Con ellos comparten el habitat pájarillos como el herrerillo común y los carboneros común y garrapinos.

The treecreeper, the woodpigeon and the green woodpecker – the only wood-boring bird in these mountains - are also resident in the best-conserved woodland. They share their habitat with blue tits, coal tits and great tits.

These photos are all from the wildlife photography gallery of Josef & Lubomir Hlasek - fine clear studies rather than art or action shots. Go see! Inputting the Spanish bird names on Google Image Search also took me to some excellent Spanish language sites - often translated into several other languages - on the natural history of the different regions of Spain. Excellent detail. There were also lots of personal sites with remarkable shots by amateur wildlife photographers. I love websites by enthusiasts!

TWEET!

We don't get the dawn chorus around our building. It's a dawn stake-out by elite solo operators. There's the plump, black-chested sparrow (CHIRP!) that sits at the top of the maintenance (CHIRP!) well between our kitchen window and (CHIRP!) our neighbour's.
And (chyUGGachuggachg) the bulbul (chyUGGachuggachg) on the rooftop opposite.
And the pigeon on the balcony rail with its mournful one-note recorder ...cucucoocucucuc...cucucoocucucuc...cucucoocucucuc foreign ...cucucoocucucuc...cucucoocucucuc...cucucoocucucuc cousin, I'm sure, ...cucucoocucucuc...cucucoocucucuc...cucucoocucucuc (yes, alright!) to the one in the tree outside my mother's kitchen window in England.
And every (CHIRP!) morning at 6 o'clock as I drift vaguely in the direction (chyUGGachuggachg) of the kettle, they're just there:
CHIRP! chyUGGachuggachg ...cucucoocucucuc...cucucoocucucuc...cucucoocucucuc
with the occasional flyby air cover from a trio of green parrots CHEEkada CHEEkada CHEEkada...

Don't tell me it's the dawn chorus. It's the SAS, Avian Division.