BAD AUNTY

When I was about 10, and lived in Somerset with my family, we used to go shopping in a town called Yeovil. Being 10, I didn't have much money to go shopping with, so one of things I liked to do was go to a pet shop, buy a bag of bird feed for about 20p and feed a gaggle of pigeons near the shopping centre. One day whilst I was doing this, a pigeon flapped over and landed on my head. ON  MY HEAD. I freaked out, naturally, and tried to bat him off with my hands. To which he responded by digging his scratchy claws further into my scalp. Eventually he flew off (otherwise he would still be attached now), leaving me with an absolute revulsion for pigeons, no desire to feed them and a lingering suspicion of all birds generally. Luckily for me, no one I know was on hand to capture this traumatic, formative moment in my life.

Fast forward 29 years, (yep, big birthday coming up next March) and I have discovered that parakeets in Kensington Gardens will eat sunflower seeds out of your hands if you stand still long enough with your arm outstretched. You do have to kick away the ferreting pigeons around your feet, scrounging for any dropped seeds but it's pretty cool to have a bright green bird perched on your hand (whilst tourists take your picture and you try to look serene and unafraid of anything, not least those bloody pigeons at your ankles). The girls have enjoyed this park activity with mixed success over the last 6 months or so (usually one child will "get" a bird and the other will come bowling over loudly screeching that it's not FAIR and can they give it to them now?) and with it being half term this week, requested that we go back with the remnants of the seeds from the cupboard. We did this yesterday, complete with Alyssa and visiting friends Emma, Esme and Baxter, their dog.

After some waiting and moving positions, we eventually had some feathered visitors. Look, here you can see Brooke giving me the "It's not fair!" reaction. I should point out that whenever a parakeet comes close to landing on her she winces and jerks her arm away and the bird veers off.

 Here's Taya looking smug at having one on her hand.

Here's brave Esme being the bird girl of Kensington Gardens (BLEURGH! RATTY PIGEONS!).

And here's Alyssa being a bit like the 11 year old me, kind of wanting one to land and being kind of petrified at the same time.

"Eek, I mean, YAY, it's on me, ARGH"  *hunched shoulders*

Extreme pigeon in foreground

And then looking slightly more relaxed.

Shortly followed by this cheeky sod deciding to land, yep, on Alyssa's lovely head. This picture, although it captures so much, doesn't tell how I was caringly telling her to keep still so I could capture the whole horror on iphone camera. Nor does it show how she had another parakeet in her outstretched hand the whole time. Or how she was screaming. Or Taya's gleeful noises at the spectacle. Clearly the head-sitting-parakeet realised this perch was more trouble than it was worth and cleared off again.

She recovered fast and was able to laugh at herself (which is a trait certain other children could learn, ahem) and didn't mind me sharing the pic on Instagram.

But aren't I mean? I wish my first reaction had been to bat that bird off her head with my handbag whilst softly uttering words of comfort and administering a firm hug, but no. It turns out I am all about having the funny picture for my blog story. I'm sorry Alyssa.

Emma, meanwhile, had taken the very excitable Baxter to sit at the bench. (He later on got his own fix of excitement by "falling" into one of the Italian Fountains. This I failed to get a picture of.)

This incident also reminds me of one of my favourite photos of all time. My friend Gemma went travelling years ago and when she showed me and Gayna her photos we absolutely howled at this one. She's also okay about me sharing this here. Of course, if there WAS a picture of me aged 10 with a bird fascinator on, then I would post that too. How sad that there's not... (ha ha!)

And in totally different news, I enjoyed a lovely afternoon out before half term, when Jodi and I went to the Sanderson Hotel to sample their new Mad Hatter's Tea Party. There should definitely be more day time treats like this - proper grown up time to gossip and enjoy yummy food in super surroundings. Check us out with all the fancy food and champagne! Review in The Arbuturian is forthcoming.

And now I need to have a tidy up because the amount of mess that can be made whilst I write this (in half term) is not to be underestimated, and the lovely Rhiannon is coming to visit shortly so it would be nice if there was space to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea whilst we crochet.