Thursday, July 2

Preoccupations and Distractions.

We have been very preoccupied of late. Our beloved Leo, ate something he should not have. It made him quite ill, & he had to spend 2 nights, & 3 days in the Veterinary Hospital. Of course the family was demented with worry, hoping that he would be ok.

Here he is with Gom, happily back in the family fold, & though he is on a special diet for a few days, he seems his usual bright & happy self, & I am sure he would be eating much more than he is allowed, if he only had the chance.
He dropped a bit of weight, but luckily he had some to come & go on!

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A dear Cousin, noted my love of owls. He & his wife recently went to England in search of family roots.
Here is an extract of the email that accompanied these wonderful photographs, which were taken by his wife.

"When we were in Thirsk, we stayed at a property owned by a lady who was a real bird nut. She had more different kinds of chooks than I knew existed, and also operated a safe haven for abandoned and injured owls. This was sanctioned by their equivalent of DOC*, and she was required to release them back into the wild when they were fit and strong enough. She had English Barn Owls, Snowy Owls, and a European Eagle Owl. This was a fairly new arrival in England, and opinion was still divided on whether they should be encouraged or exterminated. Apparently they will carry off small dogs!!"

* I am unsure of what DOC is but I take it to be some sort of rescue of wildlife association, in New Zealand.

Here are some of my favourite photos.

Look at these eyes! How wonderful to have the chance to take these photos.


I suspect this may be the European Eagle Owl. Look the the fierce eyes!


They do make a wonderful distraction.



Perhaps this one is my Favourite of them all. Barn Owl, I think.


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Mr & Mrs Nice Neighbour recently acquired a gadget to transfer old slides onto the computer.
Here is a photo they sent me of the Sydney Harbour view 39 years ago!!

How very different it all looks today.
Sorry I don't have a pic taken today, but Google has some very interesting views, if you are interested.
We have had some very nice warm, fine days. We did not do them full justice, as we were so distracted by Leo's mishap. I think even Honey missed him, & she gave him quite a welcome, trotting about after him when he got home.
We recently re watched Lawrence of Arabia. Dated though it is, it seems to have stood the test of time as far as acting goes. I find it distasteful in the extreme to ponder the sheer arrogance of the British, & can scarcely believe the manipulation of Lawrence. A very complex character, indeed.
I have been doing much reading, & am currently reading Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things. Everyone else has probably read it long ago, but I am so wishing I had begun it long ago. It is wonderful.
I recently read Joy Dettman's Henry's Daughter, & found it to be one of those books I could not stop reading. I devoured it in a weekend.
Anita Shreve is an author I like, & a recent read was Light on Snow, which I read in double time also.
I finally finished The Book Thief, I found it hard going, & I had many spells whilst reading this book. My brother read it in 2 days, but I just could not seem to handle the 'darkness'.
In the midst of these books I have read a Minette Walters, a book called When the Bough Breaks, by Matthew Benns, a true story about an Australian woman who murdered her 4 children, & have 3 other books on the 'simmer', as it were.
The sewing has taken a back seat to all the reading, & running about after family.







19 comments:

Thimbleanna said...

Awww, poor Leo! I'm glad to hear he's on the mend. I'm with you Meggie -- The Book Thief definitely wasn't one of my favorites. Love the owl pictures!

molly said...

Best wishes to Leo for a full and speedy recovery! Lovely pics of owls and a great heads-up on some reads I need to get to.....

Marja said...

Ooh poor doggie Hopefully everything turns out right. These owls are absolutely gorgeous
You are lucky the weather is good overthere meggie here it is freezing all the time
I also am impressed with the amount you read

fifi said...

LOVE the owls, just love them. Amazing creatures.

Emma said...

Poor Leo, I hope he's feeling much better.

I read God of Small Things last year. It's a great book.

Ali Honey said...

Love your owl photos. Now you need a morepork photo.

Get well soon Leo. Sick pets make one very frantic and worried , so I hope you are all feeling better now.

Mary said...

Poor Leo - I hope he is well and truly on the mend.

A large owl landed on our roof the other night. The kids and I were mesmerised.

A bebook?

quiltmom anna said...

HI Meggie,
Thanks for the lovely emails and funnies- they always brighten my day.
Glad to know that Leo is on the mend. It is always hard when a pet gets sick.

That is quite the reading list you have going- I have really slowed down in the reading department. I have a stack of books waiting for summer and now summer has arrived. I need to parcel out my time in a variety of ways as I have some things I want to get accomplished over the break. In the beginning, it feels like you have tons of time and then as the time moves along you find yourself peddling fasted and faster to get things done.
Enjoy your reading time-
I am off to quilt a quilt..
Hugs,
Anna

The Sagittarian said...

Hi Meggie, DOC is short for Department of Conservation. They do nature conservation stuff, you know keep native bush native, bump up the numbers of endangered species etc.
My 14 yr old is reading The Book Thief and loving it; from what she's told me it is not exactly the most cheerful of books and I may well read it after her.
Glad Leo is on the up and up!

Kathy's Klothesline said...

Owls are quite majestic. I have always been a little frightened of them. Our little dog weighs only 6 lbs and in the winter her little black self would look like a tidy morsel for a hungry owl!

~Bren~ said...

So glad Leo is ok!!!

lovelyprism said...

Well I'm glad Leo is ok :-)
The pictures of the owl are really beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I'm pleased to know that Leo is on the mend. Hope he restricts his diet to what is in his dog dish in the future!

Selina Kingston said...

Meggie, I don't believe it - you're always so relevant.
I've been kept up the last two nights by an owl who is obviously in one of the trees in our garden hooting away. It's such a rare sound for us and I keep waking up to check he's still there. And now today i see your lovely pictures.
I do hope Leo continues his good recovery and you're so right about The God Of Small Things - fab book
x

Jennifer said...

Poor Leo, i hope he's feeling better now? Those pics of owls are amazing.

Jellyhead said...

Meggie, I'm so sorry Leo has been sick. It's just so worrying when pets are sick, isn't it? - and they can't tell you what's wrong either.

I LOVED 'God of Small Things', and I enjoy Anita Shreve's books, too. I have some ideas for what to look for next, thanks to your other 'book reviews' :-)

Warty Mammal said...

Scary about Leo. Glad to hear he's on the mend.

Fun owl photos! I also find them fascinating.

Mary Johnson said...

I'm so far behind on my blog reading but that seems to be usual for me these day .....poor Leo - I'm sorry to hear he'd been ill but happy to read he's better. Chesty will eat things he shouldn't too although it's been a little while since he's had to be seen by the vet for anything (crossing my fingers here)!

Tanya said...

Give Leo a pat from me. Glad to hear that he is better!