Chipper and His Favorite Objet d'Art

On my living room wall is this framed display box, containing all kinds of natural treasures: flicker and raven feathers, Chipper's baby feathers, Pippin's eggs, seashells, eucalyptus pods, cacti spines, fossilized seashells found 2500 feet on top of a desert mountain, pretty moss, etc, etc.

For some reason, Chipper just loves hanging out on top of it and around it.

He will spend minutes at a time on my hand, looking at the contents of each square, sometimes commenting, licking the glass with his funny round tongue.

Chipper is on the frame here, to the right, and Charlie - never to be apart from Chipper for long - has joined him on his left.

After spending quality time with the frame, both boys decided to visit with Pippin while she was working on her sleep nest (inside a boutique sized tissue box). It's quite cozy in there with shredded seagrass fibers, and shredded paper. She quite an industrious little girl.


And so, another birdie weekend afternoon passes: mellow, hanging-out time had by all.

It's a Fawn's Life

We're waiting for Mamma to do her grazing rounds.

We wait patiently till she signals us to come for a milky snack - though we're big enough now to do some grazing ourselves!

But, well, waiting is sometimes kinda tiring and boring, so we also take little naps to foritfy ourselves for the next activity.


Boy, a bit of shut-eye does wonders.

And a really good stretch after a nap makes the day ahead even better. Wow, that felt good.







Well, Mamma's ready for us, so here we go. Where are we going anyway, Mamma? Can we have a snack first? Please?

Lac Leman.3

When I visited Geneva, Switzerland in the spring, the banks and lawns bordering Lac Leman were stunning with tulips and poppies of all colors. There are borders upon borders of flowers, each of them slightly different in color combinations.

Along the city banks, you will see cyclists and walkers of all ages - the weekends are jammed with what seems half of Geneva's population.

On one side of the Lac, there is the Parc Mon Repos. It's gorgeously beautiful and very peaceful.

This shot was taken there, specifically because a magpie was rooting around for grubs amongst the grass. He was quite industrious (and quite hard to see, bottom right). In the far distance, you can see the Alps and Mont Blanc.


Not far from the Lac, close to the heart of the old town of Geneva, is the Parc des Bastions, next to the Universite de Geneve Uni Bastions. It is a lovely tree-shaded park and promenade, filled with faces from every part of the globe. One of the landmarks of the Parc is the life-size chess set. You will find people constantly at the game here. It's fascinating to watch them so focussed and dedicated to the game. But chess is not for me!

Ride 'em Cowboy - and Other Capers

Chipper has a way of exploring all the nooks and crannies of the house. He, like Pippin, loves to find boxes and be nesty. He has to have a job every day, and chewing paper and wood - and exploring - suit him fine. He discovered this ceramic horse on the fireplace mantle and kept returning to it. Ride 'em, Cowboy Chipper!

On another front, Sam loves to get in his wooden play bowl that is kept on top of his cage. I will often hear him scratching about, look over, and find him bottom up.


Speaking of bottoms up, Pippin does a fine job of that too.

Then there are the times when the cockatiels take their baths. This comes in the form of a spray bottle with warm water. They love to take their bath on the big tree in the living room.

Here you will see them in the middle of becoming sopping wet, after which they will preen for quite awhile until they're fairly dry. They especially like sitting in the sun on such occasions (Chipper is bottom up in the background in this photo).

I wonder what it is about bottom up that is so appealing? Maybe seeing a different viewpoint is what it's all about. Hm. Good idea!

Small is Beautiful

During my walks one of my great joys is to find and photograph small things that might otherwise be passed by.

These discoveries feel like little surprise gifts - but I have to be observant and look closely.

Deer tracks are plentiful here, but when they're so well-defined and we share tracks, then I can picture a buck or doe on nightly grazing rounds. I wonder if they bother noticing human tracks? Probably not - no hunting here to cause alarm.

Now this little beetle seemed to be standing on his version of a soap box, ready to make an important announcement. Or maybe he was just showing off his fine red markings for a lady friend...





Another surprise is seeing these bright red manzanita leaves on the new growth of very young shrubs. This photo doesn't do the color justice. It can be brilliant and deepest maroon red, but usually these bits are only a couple of inches in height - easily missed.


One of the weirder finds on the cooler, shadier forest floor is what is called a Ground Cone (Boschniakia strobilacea). At first glance, they seem like dead pine cones, but if you look closely, they are quite something else.

I read that they are parasites that feed off roots deep below the surface. What we see on the ground is the head of a fleshy flower stalk with very small purplish flowers when in bloom. On one of my walks, they are everywhere beneath the pine trees.

I've had to postpone walks for the moment: We're having very hot weather and terrible, thick yellow smoke blown into our mountain valley from the large California wildfires. It's very hard to breathe outside. So for now, I continue to find photos of small treasures in my computer files.

I hope you find some interesting small things too.

Magical Shop in Gruyeres

A couple of years ago, when visiting Dweezeljazz and her husband, we traveled to Gruyeres, Switzerland - home of the famous cheese. Now it is also famous to me for a very special shop called Terre qui Chante. I've included the link to the shop, as the site is also lots of fun to check out (it is in French).

A couple run the boutique and are artists, who specialize in making ceramic animals, many of them musical. They have lots of ocarinas in bird and animal shapes.

The shop is just magical - something you'd imagine you'd find in a fairy tale - and the couple there are very kind and gentle. I was quite enchanted. I was given the gift of an ocarina shaped like a titmouse.

Gruyeres is a beautiful village with a medieval castle in rural surroundings. The town is flanked by the pre-Alps Mount Moleson, which you can see peeking out amoung the town's eaves here.

The little village was relatively quiet in April, with lots of scudding clouds and bright sunshine. It is squeaky clean and orderly, as most places are in Switzerland.

Here is one of the many lovely flower pots adorning someone's window ledge. I love the deep cobalt blue of the pots against the cream of the building.




We had a picnic lunch outside the castle walls that were being renovated at the time.

Then we packed up, reluctantly left Gruyeres (with a pound of cheese for my father), and traveled on to Fribourg to see the sights there.

Lac Leman.2

This is a view of Lac Leman near the far end on the Swiss side, with part of the Alps in the distance. It was taken in April at Vevey, the town where Charlie Chaplin lived in his later years. At this time of the year, the skies and the Lac can look dramatic.

Just short distance past the glitzy city of Montreux is this impressive castle, Chateau de Chillon. I've included a link to the tourist website that has much better photos. The chateau was not open when I visited, so I had to be content to take this shot from the road, which included electrical lines for the tram.

The area has been used since the Bronze Age. The first written reference to the chateau dates from 1150. It's had a lot of history.

One of the fascinating sights is to see the vineyards of the Lavaux region dotted along the road hugging the Lac. There are tiers upon tiers of them. Unfortunately, in April, all is rather gray and colorless. But interesting nonetheless. Here is a shot of one vineyard. I'd say these vines would take only hand maintenance! Apparently the original vineyards were built by monks about 800 years ago (these gluttons for punishment were no doubt rewarded with rather good libations). The Lavaux is now a World Heritage site.

I had a wonderful tour of the Lac on this day. We stopped in Vevey, walked along the Lac for some distance, then warmed up at a little inn, having hot tea and the never-disapppointing patisserie offerings.

Even though the skies were dark and menacing, and it did rain a bit, the air was reviving and we had lots of fun discovering the new and the ancient.