I got a present, today.

A small white egg, with a dent in one side, and some tiny, downy feathers stuck to it.

The internet was very helpful in terms of dtermining that "it's not one of those" -

It's not a magpie egg, or a currawong's, or a cockatoo's, though it could belong to a galah.

It's hard to say where it came from, but there it was, so I took a photo of it.

🙂

An imperial tape? So I did a search.  

Found one at that place that advertises on the TV with the most awful female voice promoting its wares.

Measures in inches.   Total length 300centimetres. 

Looks like some nest rustling has been happening, possibly currawongs or crows.

I used to live about 2km (as the crow flies) from the local "Royal" golf course.   Over the rarely used back paddock of the family "Estate", a crow dropped something.  Upon investigation, I found a lovely white golf ball.  And within an area of about 50metres diameter, I found about 2 dozen various coloured golf balls that must have been dropped by crows over the years.  Fore!!!

That must have been a surprise, as well as a fascinating experience, esayaf.

🙂

An Imperial tape measure - white fibreglass (so it won't stretch). 150 cm / 60 in (the picture's blurry, so I think those are the right numbers, ha ha).

Available at Coles online (and I didn't think to look while I was in the supermarket, earlier on, silly me).

$2.31

You can't go wrong at that price.

🙂

You can buy them on ebay....$1 with Free postage from China.

I bought one, from an Australian seller so I wouldn't have to wait for the Chinese mail. 50 cents more. Still waiting on a postcard from Shanghai from May.

The rain came in the night and turned the car windows into a clear mosaic.

The headlights became not pairs, but pinpricks of light devoid of reference.

I cannot judge speed, distance, motion, from a wall of scattered light.

In the too light darkness, I am blind.

I don't hate driving at night, in the wet, I hate that the world changes and the all too comfortable certainty of turn your head and look, and judge, and know, disappears and now I can't trust my eyes because the window, flat and clear, isn't, either.

Put your head out the window? Cross your fingers, and plant your foot? Trust in your luck?

I have grown too accustomed to fine days, dry roads, and light traffic.

Always, in the back of my mind, the flashing lights, just around the next bend in the road.

Not for me, not because of me, but an inconvenience to silently curse, to slow and pass and give no further thought.

Tomorrow there will be debris, dragon's scales, all that remains after the rain.

Today the rain comes again, patchy and cold and the birds wheel in a great circle above the houses, shouting to each other like excited children.

🙂

"Once upon a time" is, let's face it, a bit overused.

The Wikipedia says it's been used since 1380, and certainly in popular use since the 1600s.

So, in the interests of being a bit different...

Beyond the far mountains, in an ocean whose vastness staggers the imagination, a whale was slowly forming, coming to be...

And that's about where we are.

It's taking shape, but it's a slow process, further slowed by the annoying demands of life - eating, sleeping, doing things that don't involve sitting at the computer...

And the birds. Have I omitted the birds? Ha ha.

I'm sure that I have the time to devote to it, but is it time that I can find at a time when I have time to devote to taking the time necessary to devote time to it?

And if it is, then, having found the time to make time for it, am I going to say "I'm not really sure about that detail, perhaps I should change that"?

Thus creating a situation where more time will have to be found to be devoted to working on it, and that will mean finding the time to find the time to make some time for it.

Confused, yet? Ha ha.

And rather than ending with "Happily ever after", I thought "And when it was finished it was beautiful and people loved it".

🙂