Is This Thing Still On?

Sheesh - I think my blog might have expired. I haven't been near it in so long!

As you can see I haven't been able to post about my "secret project" yet due to circumstances beyond my control - but I am told it will be ready on the 9th, so I am keeping my fingers crossed!

In the mean time I hope to placate my readers - if there are any still out there - with this sweet photo of Indy.



We weren't sure that we were going to be able to keep her at first but of course the longer we dithered over that decision the more we became attached to her. She is a real sweetie pie. I think she is the most likely to learn to talk of the three of our parrots. We finally bought her a proper cage of her own a few weeks ago. She was so happy she immediately jumped into her water dish and took a bath! Plus she seems to have finally discovered her pellets and makes a ruckus crunching them with gusto.

I hope I don't jinx it but we have been very lucky with our birds. They are all quiet and well mannered for the most part. They rarely have screaming fits - even when we play Rock Band at high volume late into the night. In fact the only time they ever make a fuss is when Hubby gets up late on the weekends and their food isn't delivered as early as they are used to. But even then they kindly give him a good three hours before they start to protest.

Other than playing Rock Band and keeping this family fed, clothed and bathed I have been working on some needlepoint and reading.

Recently I read Patrick Mcgrath's Asylum which I thought was very good. Not super brilliant but good enough that I stayed up late reading when I should have gone to bed! I tend to like stories about crazy people though. Especially crazy psychiatrists. :) I liked this book in the same way that I like Ian McEwan if that makes any sense.

Also read John MacLachlan Gray's White Stone Day. It is a sequel to his other novel The Fiend in Human which I enjoyed. White Stone Day is a Victorian crime story which uses Lewis Carroll as a main character and a journalist in place of a detective - a good start but unfortunately I thought the plot was a but scattered and rather struggled to come together. If you haven't read the first novel I think you would be quite lost trying to get through this one. But his characters are very interesting so overall I enjoyed it and will probably read something else of his. I will definitely read another Macgrath.

Indy

Our baby Senegal Indy is going to come home with us this coming weekend!



We visited her last weekend and at first she was in a rather grouchy mood. Apparently there had been quite a few babies going home that day and all the activity probably upset her.



She settled down pretty quickly though and started grinding her beak. (For those non-bird people out there, birds grind their beaks when they are happy. It's weird but cute.) Indy is extra cute when she grinds her beak because she combines it with a funny little tongue wiggle - hard to describe but I've never seen another bird do it! If you click on the above picture you can see her in mid-wiggle. :)



I'm a bit apprehensive about her meeting with Scooter for the first time. They have to be cage mates so the first impression just has to be a good one. I'm thinking about taking Scooter with us when we pick her up - he needs his nails trimmed anyway. That way they can meet outside of our home on more neutral territory. But I would be glad of any advice from other bird mom's out there on how to handle their first meeting.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice/opinions on the sidebar & Flickr. I've made some changes to the sidebar & Hubby pointed out some other Flickr options I might try...

Guess that's it for now!

Indy

This weekend we were lucky enough to be able to have time to go visit our Indy at the aviary. She is perching a little better now.



Indy got many scritches from the whole family. She seems fairly comfortable with people now. Baby Senegals are notorious for being nervous.



She was relaxed enough to lie on her back for me without really putting up any fuss.



Violet and her human mom were also there so we took a photo of the Violet and Indy together to commemorate their "playdate". (Doesn't this photo look like it is Scooter and Lucy in a parallel universe?) Isn't it funny that we both wore shirts that were almost the exact same color? I swear we didn't call each other to co-ordinate.



Violet will probably go to her new home soon so I am glad we were able to get this photo. :)

So much good fortune lately!

So many things have happened lately! So many posts to write! Knitting progress, sponsor kid news and new additions to our family are just waiting to be revealed. I will get caught up and post about it all as soon as I can manage to get photographs taken and uploaded.

So,to start off, meet Indy our new baby Senegal!



We put down a deposit - oh so many moons ago - and waited and waited and waited. Finally the Senegal babies arrived! We went to the bird store this weekend to make our choice since we were first on the list and had first pick.

Originally we were thinking we should get a boy since (hopefully) the new Senegal will live with Scooter in his big huge cage. But the only boy available was...not so nice. In general Senegal babies have a reputation for being very very frightened and timid. Well, the little boy sure was! To the point where I was starting to question if getting a Senegal was a good idea at all. The male baby bird just didn't seem to connect with us AT ALL.

Then good fortune intervened and a couple walked in who happened to be second on the list for choosing a Senegal. They were in love with the baby boy and were really dismayed to learn that we were thinking we wanted a male. So we decided to let the other couple have the boy (to the satisfaction of all concerned), and take a look at the little females. Thank goodness we did because Indy is just THE SWEETEST little girl imaginable.



As you can see, she really connected with us and was giving birdie kisses right away. (I'm sure bird + human kisses really gross out some of my readers - but I think it's sweet. :) )

Indy will be coming home in early October. I can't wait! Until then we will visit her regularly so she can get used to us.

The addition of Indy completes our small flock so I'm extremely happy that she is just so perfect for us!

And in another stroke of luck I managed to meet a new bird friend - and her humans too. :) A nice lady had emailed me a few weeks earlier asking me all about Lucy and where she could find a Pionus baby. I directed her to the bird store and she ended up choosing an ADORABLE Blue Headed Pionus baby girl that she named Violet. While we were at the bird store I mentioned the story and guess who was standing right behind me? Of course, the nice lady!

You can read all about Violet the Pionus on her new blog here.

Scooter and Lucy didn't seem to be upset with us for taking a vacation and leaving them behind. They are both acting just the same as usual. Lucky us! It can be problematical leaving your flock behind (right Mary? :) ) and most birds let you know they don't appreciate it much. I wondered how it would go since this is the first time we have gone on vacation. But everything turned out fine.

So the fates have been looking out for us and all is well in our little flock. :)