The Goldmine.
  • Spy vs Spy
    • At Fox River
    • Patty and the Tet Offensive
    • Pale and Interesting >
      • More pale and interesting
      • Older, still pale, possibly only interesting to a couple of people
    • The Heckler and Koch Affair
    • Spy vs Spy
  • Peeling the Onion
  • Old unhappy far-off things
    • Wipers and the Ypres League
    • Fanny and Cobber.
    • In Memoriam
  • Slightly Saltirical
    • A Dexter Hand
    • The Boar-Worshippers
  • Taken by the Hand
    • Geranium Days
    • The Lockhart Papers
    • A Martial Aspect
    • O Perfect Love >
      • Sonnets Unplugged
      • Stout Cortez
    • Tea and an Ascot
  • Childe Harold
    • Monikers >
      • The Sandman and Sleipnir
    • Bos Indicus
    • Three things in a field >
      • Dance With A Bull
  • Eureka (Stockade)
    • Two for Joy
    • At the Bottom of the Garden >
      • Coins of the Realm
  • Superstitious Nonsense
    • Leaves of Tea
  • The Best of Times
    • The Space Race >
      • C.P.Snow
  • Sorry luv, I missed that.
  • Valley Girls
    • Britten, B et al >
      • Gammon and Spinach
      • The Blue Flowers >
        • The Beautiful People
        • The girls from 9DY Rangi Ruru >
          • The Fires of Hell and other Works of Art
        • The Cat's Paw and other Feline Fables
        • Flowers in Bloom
      • The Moon and Daisies
      • Snowmaiden Revelry
  • Sitting on Custard
  • The Long White Grass
    • Somewhere...
  • I have pictures
  • The Queen's Cake
  • A Portrait by Hoppner
  • The Iron Fist.
    • Slow twitching gams.
  • Whips and Whatnot
  • Showering with Friends

A little town in New South Wales

Picture
Welcome to Boree Creek.
The sign over the pub door (a little down the road) reads 'Magpie Territory'. I was attacked by a magpie on the way back to school one day. I had to surrender my lunch. Damned vicious birds, but who doesn't love the quardle-ardle-oodle-ay call of the creature?

 
'Then the fiery Scorpion vanished, the magpie's note was heard...' (from 'The Australian Sunrise' by James Lister Cuthbertson). I could quote Frank S Williamson but I won't.

There is an old rhyme about magpies that I particularly like. I don't know its origins but it goes like this: 

                                             One for sorrow
                                             Two for joy
                                             Three for a girl
                                              Four for a boy
                                              Five for silver
                                              Six for gold
                                              And seven for a secret never to be told.

The picture below, of a Monet painting called  'La Pie', always intrigues me. I'm sure the bird's shadow is back-to-front. A little mystery. I have a  print of  'La Pie' which my sister bought in Paris for me so I've studied it carefully. (It has been suggested to me that Monet was possibly drunk when he painted the magpie's shadow. I don't think that will wash.)
                                                                                                
    
Picture
La Pie, by Claude Monet.