All in the Planning

This cockatoo showed a good deal of thoughtful planning to get itself to here. Believe it or not. ;-) It swooped in and tried to land on it, without success. It then flew up from the railing to the metal bird-feeder hanging next to it, and found it empty of food. Tragedy. It flew back down to the railing, and sat there looking up - obviously considering its next move. Said next move turned out to be another flight to the metal bird-feeder, this time its top/roof. Cockie then proceeded to clamber up the chain until it reached the cross-beam at the top. It swung itself onto that, clinging upside down, and worked its way along with feet and beak until it was above the little seed brick, whereupon it swung round again, getting its feet onto the brick and settling in for breakfast.

And substantial applause from mrs tsuken and me.

Click to gymnasticate.

I started reading The Hobbit to the kids last night. There was protesting from Miss 8, who wanted Megasaurus Rescue, and also seems to have some weird anti-Hobbit notion that I don't understand. Anyway. After a few pages of Megasaurus Rescue to throw oil on the waters, I started in on The Hobbit. I had some concern that its leisurely pace might put off kids of today, but no worries needed to be had; they were both paying rather close attention (Missy perhaps despite herself). ;-) Amusingly, I found myself almost-unconsciously imitating Nicol Williamson's wonderful reading, to which I spent so many of my young hours listening.

The window-guy has just finished replacing the pigeon-shattered (and -shattering) window. It was all rather surprisingly quick, leading me to think the cost must consist mostly in the glass.