This day marks the beginning of spring here in the southern hemisphere, and I greet it with mixed feelings. We have spent another entire winter here in New Zealand, again having been unable to return to our traditional northern Minnesota summer cabin. But, on the other hand, we have been able to share the time with our family here, to our great delight. In the meantime, the Delta variant of C-19 has found its way here, and we went into alert-level 4 lockdown a week and a half ago, and are to continue at this level for at least another week and a half. Rest assured, however, that we are well-supplied and watching over each other in our respective family bubbles, reading stories and singing to the grandkids on our computers, and turning our attention to long-postponed domestic projects. We’re also able to keep a good watch on what’s happening in our garden, and 
yesterday this crimson rosella brightened our day by spending a few brief moments outside our back window. Trying times indeed, but wishing you a sweet new season.
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krikitarts 
I’ve heard about your renewed lockdown over there. Over here the recommendation is now for a booster shot of vaccine. Only a few months ago it looked like things were finally on the upswing.
Not being familiar with this bird, I looked it up: “The crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans) is a parrot native to eastern and south eastern Australia which has been introduced to New Zealand and Norfolk Island. It is commonly found in, but not restricted to, mountain forests and gardens.” Sure is colorful.
Thanks for filling in the missing taxonomic information, Steve. I meant to include it, but I guess I just got caught up in the thrill of finally offering another post. I see that the genus name stems from the Greek “platykerkos,” meaning “broad-” or “flat-tailed,” and the species name sure speaks for itself.
In addition to the species name speaking for itself, I’ll add that the etymological sense of elegant is ‘chosen out,’ a sense we also find in the etymologically unrelated outstanding. Related to elegant are elect and its French version, élite.
What had kept you from the thrill of posting?
That’s a fair question, Steve, and I won’t waste time listing all the small, medium, and large projects to which I’ve been able to devote my attention. Suffice it to say that I’m glad I’ve not committed to posting daily, but intend to continue as the spirit moves me.
You’re heading into spring, and we’re waiting for an end to the heat. It’s unrealistic to expect much (if any) cooling before the end of September, but whenever it shows up, we’ll be ready.
That’s a gorgeous bird. I thought at first it was eating a seed, but it looks as though it might be munching on the plant itself.
I believe it was pulling seeds from the aging flowers. They are also favored by European goldfinches, which we see on something like a weekly basis. They are wonderfully colorful too, and are quite different from the ones we’re used to in the US.
Lockdowns aren’t a lot of fun, but you are obviously looking for opportunities to make the most of yours…family bonding, garden watching etc. When we had our first – very draconian – lockdown 18 months ago I too told myself it was time to think about getting started on some-postponed domestic projects. Pleased to report I’m still thinking about them! 🙂
I’m happy to say we’re rolling along with the projects pretty well and are still planning more.
Very nice to see another post from you, Gary.
An RGB bird with a bit of white and yellow mixed in. What a beauty. Lucky you to have one drop by.
As bad as things are here, I don’t think anyone will be advising a lockdown. The resistance mentality already sparks violent outbursts in places and one can imagine what a lockdown would spawn…besides less spreading of the virus and its variants. While it is a shame that you and your fellow New Zealand folks are in lockdown you respond much better in total than in some places, here especially. It’s great that you can spend time, even if remotely, with your family.
Much obliged, Steve. It’s so very sad that there are a significant number of folks who quite simply refuse to follow the carefully-considered and -recommended guidelines to try to keep this monster in check. It’s really incomprehensible. And now the fools are falling back to trying ivermectin. Here the mind truly boggles.
Yep. Why follow the advice of people who have spent their entire professional careers studying the science of viruses and the effective/evolving remedies for dealing with them when you can get “better” information from some quacking idiot on Facebook or YouTube?
I agree entirely with your views (the two comments before this), Gary and Steve. We have called ourselves H. sapiens but I’m not sure that a lot of us are. Now we are seeing people who refused vaccination dying or being seriously ill, and regretting their decision. To me, this whole antivaxing thing reveals very worrying, even frightening, frailties in human society overall. Adrian
Although the refuseniks are definitely a minority, their callous decisions endanger so many other of us.
This really takes the “one bad apple” thing to a new level. One kid brings the virus to school, in our country one idiot governor restrict mask mandates, and an entire school closes down. And many think that governor is their guy to see them through troubled times.
And then of course there is the issue of Human Rights – forcing me to adhere to covid precautions must infringe my human rights. But if I fail to adhere and then give the virus to someone who then dies, presumably I’ve infringed their human rights not a little too.
With rights comes responsibility and to be responsible one must have compassion and consideration which most of the folks demonstrating against mandates don’t appear to possess.
So true. Still, one must be grateful, I suppose that they remain in the vast minority; if only it were an even-smaller one.
It’s hard to wrap my head around this being your early spring, Gary, but the photo tells the tale – what a beauty that parrot is! Unfortunately, it’s not so hard to wrap my head around the pandemic news and it’s not so different here in Washington State, though people are far less willing to go with the group than in NZ, I suspect. I just glanced above and saw Steve G. said roughly the same thing. Anyway, it sounds like you are adapting well – here’s to getting lots of domestic tasks accomplished and looking forward to better times.
We sure are, Lynn, and thanks. I’m happy to say that general compliance with both mandated and recommended precautions is very close to 100%, and the number of new cases is dropping daily, so the alert level should be dropping again soon.
That’s good to hear.