Best Wishes for Lorne and Leslie!

 To Leslie and Lorne!

One of the most active members of the ABC Wednesday Team is getting married today!! I chose for the bridal couple some photos of swans, whom are said to be the most faithful birds in the world. They stay together until one of them passes away. They are beautiful and elegant birds. The symbols of eternal love.

Congratulations!

Let Thursday be the happiest day of your life together

ABC Wednesday, L for Lovestory

Next week's post is scheduled, but I'll probably not be able to enter ABC Wednesday, as I will have a short break. And if there are any comments I am happy to answer them after 19th April.

This story was sent to me by my daughter in Oz. I don't know who the author was and who took the photos, but I couldn't but post this story, for it's amazing!

A true story, you'll see.
About eight years ago a wild Australian Sulphur Crested
Cockatoo flew into a car and broke its wing. The motorist
took it to the Vet in Nerang , Queensland , who had to
amputate the wing.We adopted her - for which we
needed a National Parks and Wildlife permit - and kept
her in a cage outside where she was often visited by wild
Cockatoos.
One of the things that impressed us was how she would
push lettuce leaves through the bars of the cage, offering
food to visitors. Last Sunday she again had a visitor.As usual he spent a lot of time sitting on the cage with a tamper proof latch.
There was a lot of talking and grooming. A bloke has to look presentable
when courting a bird!
Things got interesting when he approached the front door....
The clever fellow figured out how to undo the tamper proof latch!
He opened the door for a lot of mutual grooming and food sharing...



 

He was not shy to get into the cage and would go in and out a number of times.
They mated! We are looking forward to beautiful baby cockatoos. Will keep you posted.
Later on, the whole extended family came visiting but the special mate was back every day so far.
We leave the door open during the day but if we forget, it doesn't matter - cockatoos have intelligence
that rival primates. Because she has only one wing, she stays inside or just sits on top. Guess what happened next...

The Babies
At first it seemed as though he was annoyed because she did not fly off with him and he would squawk a lot.
He soon came to understand that she could not fly so he just stayed. However, she
was no longer returning to her cage. The two of them would stay in the trees in our garden and because the yard is well fenced, they were safe from dogs but the neighbour's cat is not kept indoors at night and we often have to chase it away. Chances are the cat would come off second best in a confrontation with a Cockatoo but at night cats remain a danger because they could stalk a sleeping bird on the ground.




 

Cockatoos make their nests in hollow logs but we noticed the male hard at work digging a hole under a clump of Lilly Pilly trees. We put down a hollow log for them but they just ignored us. The nest he dug was a hole with a short tunnel leading off to where she laid her eggs. Once there were eggs in the nest, the male became extremely aggressive. You better not get near the nest or he will take chunks of flesh from your foot. It was difficult to take these pictures because I literally had to steal them while running away from the male.

We kept a vigil to see how things were progressing.
They took turns incubating the eggs and covering the tunnel.
After about three weeks, the eggs hatched.



 

Whenever Mum & Dad Cockatoo leave the nest, we try to get a look but you have to do it while running because Dad Cockatoo is chasing you!

Well, I hope his mother thinks he is pretty and eventually I might think so too but at the moment, both of them just look like pink balls with a bit of yellow fluff.


With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.We started round 8 of the fascinating meme of ABC. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar or Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with L.

How to Dance in the Rain

 

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his
80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb.

He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be
over an hour before someone would be able to see him.

I saw him look at his watch, and decided since I was not busy with
another patient, I would evaluate his wound.

On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the
needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's
appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to
eat breakfast with his wife.

I inquired as to her health; he told me that she had been there for a
while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late.

He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not
recognized him for five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, 'And you still go every morning, even
though she doesn't know who you are?'

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, 'She doesn't know me, but I
still know who she is.'

I had to hold back tears as he left; I had goose bumps on my arm, and
thought, 'That is the kind of love I want in my life.'

True love is neither physical, nor romantic.

True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will
not be.

With all the jokes and fun that are in e-mails, sometimes there is one
that comes along that has an important message.

This one I thought I could share with you.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they
just make the best of everything they have.

I hope you share this with someone you care about....I just did.

'Life isn't about how to survive the storm,

But how to dance in the rain.'

Have a Great Day today and remember to stop and think about the MOST
IMPORTANT things in life... those you love and care about...
take time today to dance in the rain!