She Kept A Parrot
A Journal For Charlie
Fooling Around
Okay, you knew it was going to take me forever to loaf around to you. I have left two comments and I have three blog tabs open….for two days. I had over 3000 emails in my inbox. They cut you off about then. I deleted every blog post notice except ONE for everybody. I figure that will get me to you. Then I can look around. Smart. now, if I could get my head out of my old photos…. I have no idea what Zakaria is telling me. The world is coming to and end most likely, and I’m not listening. I deleted him too.
I found some old, tiny pixel photos. I’m posting a few here since that’s fast. Then I’m off again! 🙂 🙂
Oh, I had a mighty fright. Forgot to tell you that. My attorney friend sent an email document last night. A copy of a filing for an arbitration to settle a lawsuit. She sent it to the other two parties too. For a moment, I sat here trying to figure out who the hell I had offended in cyberspace. It is a dispute in the clouds, you see. Well, I thought to myself…”I ain’t paying $52,000 to the arbitrators to settle this mysterious case in which I am apparently embroiled”. Actually, I went to bed hoping the kids were not withholding information from me about having gotten themselves into a fix with these two mysterious strangers who are very unhappy…or so it seems. Turns out, it was a clerical error, of course. Good for a laugh.
Here are the old photos from the old house. Some of the first photos I ever shot. Be right back…
Bromeliad Bloom
Newt
Mother's Lily
Miss Sarah's Plant
Lilac on Archway to Secret Garden
Two Dead Lilies in Evening
Mushroom in Old Garden
Wind-beaten Bougainvillea
Calla Lily
Trumpet Vine blooming
Philodendron Bloom
Chicken Hawk
48 Comments on “Fooling Around”
Comments
She Kept A Parrot 
Philodendron Bloom – Frame this one..so much depth and lovely composition.
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You are funny! I love following your train of thought….I’m going to call it getting on board the George train! Your pictures are beautiful. Some day I will be a photographer!
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What is a photographer? Your photographs are as good as anybody’s. I am hardly a photographer, but I snap what I like. Kenneth Todd posted a photograph of the Flatiron Building that his wife shot with a point and shoot camera. It was the very best shot of that building I ever saw. He said he cropped it and added a bit of sepia and vignette. That’s all. I’ve seen lots of photographs of that building, but none as good as hers.
I’m the one getting on board the Elisa train! 😉 And I love the view! BTW, those Elisa memes are wonderful. I smiled when I saw them in the photograph. Give us some more of them!
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Lovely compositions. Well done !
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elmediat, that’s what you say when you find something just too ordinary for any other kind of description. You made me laugh. I love you!
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Well I am glad I made you laugh. I did not intend to imply they are ordinary. Your B&W is very colourful in a monochrome style. I won’t even try to describe the parrot because that is one serious bird. May garden continue to grow without any clerical errors and may it bloom with laughter. Love ya’ ! 🙂
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You are too funny! 🙂
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Vibrant photos. Glad to see you made it back. 3000 emails? That only happens to very important people.
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Or to very stupid people who sign up for every everything they see! I was getting email notices from “The Watering Hole” long before I knew it was a WordPress blog! Duh…. 🙂 I request all kinds of email notices because I am so absent minded that I can’t recall where I saw something when I need it. Therefore, I SUFFER…..
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the colors are all so vibrant…except the b&w one…
🙂
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Clever girl! You made me smile. First smile this morning! 🙂
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Beautiful pictures – so bright and colourful. Make me look forward to the flowers we will see in Spring.
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Glad you enjoyed them, Colline! I loved growing them at the old house.
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LOL about the $52K… at least you didn’t think “oh no, not again”
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Ha Ha!! I have been involved in an arbitration, actually. It was fun. It really was, but then we were not being sued! Arbitrations are like poker games. Or kids playing “Chicken”. If you aren’t serious about the outcome, the whole thing is amusing. I don’t recommend getting yourself in a position that requires a mediation, however! Especially, if you gotta’ pay the mediators for their time up front! 🙂
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I love your pictures, I just move from an apartment to a house and I love plants and flowers…your photos are helping me to envision my house with lots of colors in the future!
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You are in Dallas or Ft. Worth? I think you could grow everything except the philodendron there. it would freeze to the ground in winter. The lilies would freeze, but come back in spring, I think. There are lots of flowering shrubs and trees to choose though. I kept Bougainvillea in big pots to control their growth. I moved them into the garage when we had extreme cold that lasted for several days. They look dead and drop their leaves sometimes in winter, but they produce new leaves and often display the most beautiful blossoms on bare limbs even! You can grow them in shallow pots like bonsai trees too. That is an interesting way since they grow beautiful, gnarled trunks fairly quickly.
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I was living in Dallas but move to Garland (still Dallas county). For what I Read you are an expert with plants! Thank you George!
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Well, I am glad for you. I enjoyed seeing the plants. And, I see there really is a parrot.
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Yes, there really is a parrot. This is not her best presentation! You can find her under “Parrot Anatomy”. She’s a pretty girl, but I loved the way she looked like a hawk to me here. She’s funny. She’s been with me for over ten years now.
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Hi, George! So glad to see your post. The blogosphere always feels a bit out of balance without of a post from you. I loved seeing these old photos. Poor Rita looks a bit roughed up after her bath. Does she like her baths? How does one bathe a parrot? Does she have a tiny washcloth? 🙂
The trumpet vine is fabulous! From what I understand from a neighbor who has one, they can be quite a job to care for (or they’ll take over?)
The lilies are sooo beautiful. I’m always fond of lilies (my daughter is named Lillia, after her great grandmother, my partner Melinda’s grandmother).
The Lilacs also look lovely. I can smell their fragrance just looking at them!
I love the little newt, and the mushroom, too, is very sweet! We have several bromeliad plants, too. The interior of their blooms almost look otherworldly!
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A parrot bath consists of spraying water on the parrot. No tiny washcloth..although the image of it is funny as heck! Yes, she loves her baths. She struts back and forth and spreads her wings for me to spray the underside and tells me she’s a “Pretty Girl”. There is no end to the antics if she’s in a good mood. No soap for parrots! It destroys the natural oil on their feathers. Amazons have a slight musk odor that I don’t mind at all, but some folks might. Like a dog who smells “doggie”, they smell stronger if they need a bath! Well, like us too, I guess. 🙂 She was drying on that same PVC pipe perch that JC made for her when she got too hot and hid under the Sago palm for shade!
The trumpet in the photo is a standard one. I have a new kind on the pergola at the new house. It is really destructive. The trunks and the vines on it grow to more than an inch thick. They form interesting gnarled shapes as they mature, but it is forcing apart the framework on my pergola! The blossoms on it are much larger, but it is also a profuse bloomer and blooms longer than the standard one. If you want to hide something, the regular trumpet is a good one.
I have the familiar,banded broad leaf bromeliads that I bought at the grocery store years ago! They grow babies, you know. That is the one with the fascinating pink and purple bloom that you mention, I think. Those blossoms last forever once it blooms. Bromeliads are nice since you have to do absolutely nothing to them except keep them from getting their feet too wet!
The Newt tickles me because he was among the few macro shots I ever tried. I hate those things. They are just too creepy!
What an interesting name, “Lillia”. How is her name pronounced?
Thanks for stopping in. You always make me respond with more words than the actual post contains!! Good grief, Lemony!! 😉
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Rita’s baths sound like a fun event (certainly for her!). I’m glad she knows she’s such a pretty girl. No self-esteem issues there. 🙂
Lillia is pronounced the same way Lilia (in the Italian version) is: Lil-ee-uh, basically, like the flower, but with “uh” on the end). We were misspelling it (Lilia) before our Lillia was born (and we had decided to name her that) and before we cracked out great-grandmother’s birth certificate to double check the spelling (good thing we did that).
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I thought Lilia’s name must have been from Melinda’s grandmother. It just didn’t sound like a name your g-mother would have had. I knew it was pronounced with long “ee’s”. Just checking to be sure. What a marvelous, beautiful name. Show us some photos of the girl with the magical name!
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Yes, my maternal grandmother’s name was Emily, which is also my middle name. Imagine that: Lemony Emily (or Melanie Emily….) a mouthful either way. Many children often mispronounced my name when I was little, including a sweet boy named Scotty who lived across the street from me when I was 2. He was the first one to ever call me Lemony.
I hope Lillia finds her name to be magical. I certainly do. I may indeed post a photograph of her, just for you!
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Wonderful !!!!! I think I am the only one here who really does want to see who my blogger friends are. Where do they live? Whom do they love? What kind of pen do they use to write? Such mystery here.
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By the way, I write with a fountain pen (Waterman, Kaweco, Lamy…. I collect them, along with graph paper notebooks.) 🙂 How about you? What kind of pen do you prefer?
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Beautiful photos, George. I love the bougainvillea…planted a couple dozen around our old house…had them for years and years. Not fun cleaning the leaves out of the pool after the monsoons, but lovely overall. Thank you for the memories. 🙂
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Yes, they do drop leaves when the temperature drops. I had one for many years in a protected corner of the yard. It finally stopped blooming. When we had it dug out, the root system was phenomenal!
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sometimes when i get behind on the reader files, or the e-mail, it’s best to just reboot…
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I didn’t think of it that way. Reboot. I like that!
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They are so nice photographs, flowers fascinated me. Nice to see you back dear George. Thank you. Have a nice day, with my love, nia
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You could make them into fine art. I can only snap the button on the camera, you know. I like them anyway. I am finding the new Picasa t be such fun. It is helping me to adjust some old photos of my husband too. I’m learning…slowly!
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You are doing great dear George… I am learning still and this is another exciting thing in my humble life… have a nice day, with my love, nia
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Thanks, Nia! I know you love trees and flowers and cats! 🙂
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Nice photos George, and nice to see you back!
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Thanks, David. I want one of the prints from your shop, but I cannot decide how they will print. I love the old phone. Does it print well? I mean, does it look good in a print?
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George, thanks for thinking about buying one of my photos.
The old phone was shot wit an iPhone 3GS at 3 Megapixels.
Imagekind takes care to limit the size of the print based on the resolution of the image, so 3GS shots will be printed at most on a 11″x11″ size.
I tested personally prints from Imagekind and found the quality of their print very good, and I also tested this one photo and in my opinion it does look very good printed on a 11″x11″ size.
In any way you can return the print within 30 days of purchase for a refund of the price of the print (you lose only shipping fees).
If you decide to buy, I suggest you to select as paper type Photo Glossy, Photo Luster, Photo Rag or Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl, they are best suited for photography.
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This helps me to decide. I had no idea what kind of paper to choose since I know the paper makes all the difference. I would like your signature on the print. Can that be arranged? I am happy to pay for whatever additional trouble that would cause. What does photo rag look like? I don’t like glossy prints.
Thank you very much!
George
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George,
Imagekind is an american printing venture that would send the print locally with reduced shipping costs, but there would be no chance to put my signature on it.
If you want my signature on it I can print it here in Italy and send it to you, but the shipping costs will be definitely higher (I have to check but imagekind, as an example, charges about 50$ for sending overseas, I might find something cheaper), if you’re still interested I’ll check about it.
Paper rag is a matte finish paper, so if you don’t like glossy prints it wood be a good choice.
Davide
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Davide, Paper rag is my favorite paper. Yes, I want your signature on the print. Please check on shipping. I have had no trouble with getting damaged prints, but I did have one damaged and it came from Italy. I think customs sometimes opens the packages. Let me know what can be done. I appreciate your trouble.
Thank you,
george
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Good grief! I replied to the email notice! Ha Ha…getting senile, Davide. Yes, I want your signature. Please check on it and handle it for me. Thank you so much for your trouble! My favorite paper is rag.
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It pays to dig around in the old photos because these are great. I love them all.. the colours are so bright. I love to see the trumpet vine so full of blooms and the chicken hawk is prize worthy.. not the chicken but the photo.
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Thanks, Maggie. The chicken hawk is my parrot, Rita. She just had a bath and was soaked to the skin. I thought she looked like a hawk!
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I enjoyed every single photo, but the last one is so nice!!
Love the expression of this guy!
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She had a bath and was wet to the skin. I thought she looked like a little hawk! You can see her ear canal through the parted feathers. If you’ve never seen a parrot’s “ear”, it’s just a hole in the head! Thanks for visiting me and commenting. You are too nice!
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Heaving sighs of relief for you! Lovely photos. Makes me think of Hawaii.
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Thanks. I used to grow all sorts of blooming plants. Not so much anymore since I moved. I loved it though and was at that house for thirty years, so it just evolved.
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