the duck and parrot

My mum lives in the middle of nowhere. To be a little more precise, she lives near a Broad in Norfolk.

Mum: While I'm talking, I'm watching a duck on the roof of the house across the street.

This piece of information fascinates Maria. She is stunned that, quite regularly, ducks will waddle up the road from the Broad, and into my mum's garden. Real ducks! Real, alive ducks! Just wandering around the streets. She cannot believe that there are road signs, warning drivers that there might be ducks in the road. She finds it totally amazing that ducks exist in the wild.

Me: That's odd. While I'm talking, I'm watching a parrot sitting on the telephone pole across the street.

This piece of information fascinates my mother. She is stunned to hear that, quite regularly I can watch parrots fly overhead. Real parrots! Real, alive parrots! Just flying around, in the sky, without a care in the world. She cannot believe that everyone else hasn't stopped, in the street, to stare at the sight of a real live parrot on the telephone pole. She finds it totally amazing that parrots exist in the wild.

Actually, I'm with my mum on this one. I still stop and stare when I see parrots. Two days ago, during recess, I interrupted the kids while they were eating their lunch, to point out a humming bird. Yes! A real live humming bird. Just hovering around, moving in and out of the trees. And there was no David Attenborough sound track! Who would believe it? Well, to be honest, only me. The kids at school looked at the humming bird, looked at me, shook their heads in a (fairly) patronising way, and then carried on eating.

Mind you, they all stopped eating when I shouted: "Look! A duck!!"

Comments

[(S)wine]

cool. i have experienced both sides of the coin, so to speak. we had wild, green parrots when i lived in south florida, and i always stopped what i was doing to look or listen to them. they were a cackling bunch, always. here, now, we have both ducks and Canadian geese who literally roam the streets and sometimes highways. and hummingbirds, too. amazing stuff. first year i lived her, while married and in a house not too far from where i am now, i was having a scotch on my patio in the early evening and i heard what i thought was a freight train approaching. panicked, i sort of stepped back toward the house. and then it came: a herd of bucks (male deer, is that how you call them?), maybe about 6 or 7 of them with huge antlers, running through my back yard. they disappeared into the woods. it only happened once; never again. but it was brilliant.