peacock or pigeon?

when he was here, FF used to feed the birds
.
he has a mate who breeds homing pigeons and he (FF) was very keen on the "ordinary" pigeons in the garden here (but not the wood pigeons, jackdaws, the magpies, the robins or the sparrow)(only the one - but at least there is one, they are a dying breed sparrows)
.
when I was a child I was fascinated by the idea of homing pigeons. . . (but that's another story)

I'd quite like to go home now but I am to be transferred to an NHS hospital on Tuesday and then if/when they deem me fit I shall be released back into the real world for Care In The Community
.
(apparently, I have been told by various knowledgeable sources, the people I will actually meet on the NHS ward are the ones unfit for CITC - I'll leave you to ponder that, as I have been) (I digress)

MO and I had a conversation about albino pigeons the other day, and this afternoon when I was sitting in the garden drawing, to while away the hours, casually smoking and hoping that the NHS will have somewhere I can smoke rather than prescribe me a patch, I noticed how the feathers on the "ordinary" pigeons (domesticated rock doves) fluctuated between purple tones and deep aqua tones and the pigeons were in fact quite beautiful. . .

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and I was thinking about how, as a child, peacocks always seemed so exotic, because we only saw them in zoos or bird gardens, whilst pigeons were everyday and ordinary (a little like the sparrow; but now they've almost gone, I do miss the sparrows) and I probably ignored them
.
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I had told MO that you could sometimes see albino peacocks. . .
.
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and that got me to thinking about the difference between an albino pigeon (effectively a white rock dove). . .
.
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. . .and a dove, if there is one* (many years ago, we lived in a house in Shropshire with a dove cote on a wall of the house just outside the kitchen door - the birds had not moved with the previous owners, but stayed stubbornly put; there were about twelve of them and the novelty soon wore off; the shit was unimaginable and everytime you opened the door into the garden the birds flew up in a real tizzy: it was dreadful; the previous owners ought to have had the dovecote at the end of the garden really, where the birds could be seen and not heard) (*if there is a difference, I mean)
.
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anyhow, then I got to thinking of puffins. . .
.
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and then, naturally, pelicans (whose beaks can hold more than their bellies can)
.
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and that led me to whooping cranes. . .
.
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. . .so my train of thought about FF and the pigeons, MO and the albinos, led me to Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. . .

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its a bit like following a string through a maze, isn't it.

If I were to follow my thoughts from thing to thing, I'd've jumped to rock candy, automobiles, that movie with the title I can never remember and why one sometimes sees a lone shoe on the side of the road, but that's just me.

mig bardsley said...

Sad that FF has gone.
We have sparrows still, some of them nest in abandoned House Martin's nests under the eaves. I think they're doing a little better than they were though it's hard to tell.
Birds are like views - distance lends enchantment :) Our Martins look wonderful until you realise their droppings are the reason the honeysuckle always suddenly gets a diseased look - around nesting time :) There's all this cute chirruping going on up there and then suddenly another splat! And I won't even go near the washing line - but they do!

Anonymous G said...

Stopping by this Sunday evening to share a hug...

Your posts are so beautiful...Gardens and moons and birds. Oh my!

Feed the birds
Moonshadow

more songs dear to my heart.
:-)

Wishing good things for you Tuesday, when you move to the local "bin".

xo

Romeo Morningwood said...

I never really took notice of birds until I was in my forties...except for the idea that they sprang from Dinosaurs..and if you look at the big buggers like Ostrich and Emu you can see it in their eyes and those big scaly legs and feet.

Now I appreciate the little Warblers and such that migrate through these parts. Those tiny little beating hearts. Miraculous little things.

I had a feeder for a few years but the Raccoons and bloody Squirrels knocked out all of the seeds and attracted Mice! UGH!
Always something.

I, Like The View said...

donn that's the beauty of life, eh, the always something (a little lke your avatar. . .)

;-)


g thank you, thank you and many hugs to you too

XX

mig there is a honeysuckle just outside my window here, and sometimes the breeze blows the scent in; when I was growing up, my parent's house had a honeysuckle growing around the porch - it was the best thing about getting home, the scent of the honeysuckle

the washing line in the garden in Shropshire was on the otherside of the house - but we did used to get grouse (or something similar)(the ECT has ruined my semantic recall - takes ages thinking of the words I want to use, don't think grouse is right - but hey!) in that part of the garden; they used to fly in over the hedge by accident from the field next door, and made a really noisy squarking while they learnt how to get out again!

*hugs*

shot I love the thought of string thru a maze! wonderful - thank you so much, that's a great way to start my Monday!

:-)

XXX

I, Like The View said...

(just found the word: pheasant; not grouse)

Mel said...

<--followed the train of thought quite easily.

LOL That should scare the by-jeepers outta ya!
;-)

*huge hugs*
Gosh, I've missed being here!!!!!