Waiting In The Wings

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Magpie Memories




You may wonder why on earth I would post a picture of a couple of magpies sitting at the top of a Norfolk Pine tree in the garden next door - but there is a story behind my relationship with magpies which I will share with you.

Many years ago when we first arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand we had a house near  beautiful Hagley Park, amazing Botanic Gardens. Our youngest son was 5yrs old, had a new bike and he and I decided to head into the Gardens.  We headed for the huge stands of trees near the toilet block and he went in there for a visit parking his lovely shiny new bike with me. As he came out and we headed off a large bird flashed alongside of me very, very close and I thought I had just disturbed one hidden in the grass but it soon became obvious that they were magpies and out to get  me! I yelled at my son to head for the entrance gates quick as he could on his bike and I started to run after him with these birds chasing me.

I was suddenly knocked to the ground with amazing force and it registered that one of these birds had hit me in the back of the head. I made it to the gates with a beak hole in the back of my head and blood running down my neck. One visit to the doctor, antibiotics, dressings and a tetanus shot I was home again. I have NEVER liked magpies since, so when I saw one strutting down our driveway yesterday and then this morning to hear them calling merrily from the tree next-door I wasn't best pleased. Hopefully they keep well away from me.

Well, I had a quiet Easter wearing my splint, and so I haven't made much progress on my scrappy bargello nor the Kaffe Fasset quilt for my friend, in fact I haven't made any progress at all, so I have nothing exciting to show you, but I did take a photo of one of my favourite hibiscus last week


I have had a few emails asking about my header for the blog, my kaleidoscope quilt which I made for my doctor, his wife thought she would like to have a hanging on display in the surgery waiting room.  so I am including a shot of this but for some reason I can't locate the full shot with border so this one
will hopefully give you some idea of what it was like, I really enjoyed making this one and intend to make a full size bed quilt before too long. 


More of my ramblings later in the week, hope you will stop by again by which time I hope to have mastered the art of lining up my text !













  


3 comments:

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

The beaks on those magpies look like they could be really dangerous so I can see why they caused a wound. How scary!

I love your hibiscus bloom. Nature is so beautiful placing colors together in a bloom for our enjoyment.

imquilternity said...

A crow is a crow, right? We have the Ravens here and they drive us crazy trying to open acorns on our roof. They also drive the other, smaller and more friendly birds away. That was a pretty scary experience with the Magpies... I would be leery of them too. Your Hibiscus is lovely with that gorgeous orange/coral color.

Razzle Dazzle Quilter said...

Hello

Your story about magpies sent shivers up my spine! We used to run in Woodhill forest a lot. The magpies used to swoop and whoosh around us. I hated the feeling. If I had ever been hit I think I would have totally lost it!

Nice to see more of your header quilt.

Cheers

Linda