Destructive cockatoos

As I opened our back gate this morning onto the back path I became aware of the sound of wings flapping. As I turned onto the path at first I noticed four cockatoos landing on the nearby fence. Then I noticed one still sitting in the small tree I walk underneath most days. THEN I saw what those destructive cockatoos had done. They are in the process of stripping the tree of all its berries and they haven't even ripened yet. They have stripped so much that the path is fully covered with the debris. We knew the cockatoos were around because of their screeching but we hadn't realised what they were up to.

Now to yesterday's tiny mystery. I had knocked our iron off the ironing board. To my relief there didn't appear to be any damage except I could no longer close the cap of the water tank. Now let me tell you what happens when you can't close that cover - as you push the iron forward and then back again, the water in the tank continues to move in a forward direction - all over what you are ironing!

On closer inspection I noticed that the cap appeared skewiff. When I moved it, out popped a tiny spring-like thingy. I hate springs popping out of things because it's nearly always impossible to get them back in. After many unsuccessful attempts trying every which way I started researching the cost of a replacement iron. Cross at myself I decided to have another go, this time bending the tiny straight section back to create the necessary tension. Bingo it worked!

The arrow on the extra shows where the little spring resides. The cover fits perfectly now and my clothes get ironed, not drenched.