2016-01-12 08:00 Colourful guests
Y (Kuma's owner)
There are lots of birds here in Australia and some of them are colourful.
This photo is of a Rainbow Lorikeet (hereafter referred to as Lori), which are commonly seen birds around here. The first time I saw them, I was amazed by their colours. They are red, orange, purple, green and yellow. What a daring design!
Their characters are cheerful as well as their colours. Usually, they go around in pairs. A pair has a close relationship. Once they encounter a competitor for food, they don't hesitate to confront their foe, even if it is bigger than them, like a Galah. Sometimes, they have a little skirmish with other Loris as well. Their skirmish is very noisy but it is only for a short period of time. They just shout at each other and then it ends.
I have a water bowl in the backyard. Loris love to take a bath.
One day, I saw a Lori that had a bad leg. He tried to get to the rim of the water bowl but he couldn't make it. The water bowl was a kind of pottery and the rim was slippery. After thinking, I picked up some branches and placed them on the water bowl. Since then, I haven't seen the bad legged Lori, but various kinds of birds have come. I hadn't seen a pigeon drinking water there before, but along with Loris, pigeons come to the water bowl now.
Today is very hot. I have finished cleaning the water bowl. It's all ready, so I'm waiting for the Loris to come.
2016-01-10 09:50 Decagon-shaped veggie patch
Kuma
Hi, I am Kuma, and I am a cat.
Well, this is my second writing. I am going to write about the veggie patch in our front yard this time.
One of my human family Y loves gardening. When she visited the neighbor's backyard, she saw a veggie patch that was covered by net. It was a really good one.
Since then she couldn't get it out of her head. She had kept saying that if she could have a veggie patch, we could eat fresh and organic vegetables. Though it was true, yet it was not all the reasons. I knew she just wanted it, that's all. Human beings have a big brain, and they can make up lots of reasons as they like.
Anyway, her dream came true. Another family member human J built a veggie patch for her last year. It wasn't an ordinary one, it was a decagon-shaped veggie patch. Isn't it interesting?
This veggie patch looks like a planetarium or a big bird cage. I suppose even Big Bird on the TV program "Sesame Street" can be kept there. The 5 pipes cross at the top of the roof, then a star mark appeared unexpectedly. J said jokingly "If a UFO came, what should we do?"
Y is very happy with the veggie patch. She grows lots of vegetables there now. She grows lettuce, carrots and some Japanese vegetables. As humans expected, vegetables grow well but a UFO has not come yet.
2016-01-08 02:20 My bad habit
Y (Kuma's owner)
I know I have a bad habit to use the same word frequently.
It's a "so".
This word is very convenient and addictive. I quite often say "It's so nice!". Maybe I should change the word to "It's very nice!". I can also use this word in the beginning of sentences.
I wondered why I use "so" again and again?
One of the reasons is there is exactly the same word in my mother tongue, Japanese. What a coincidence! I think that's why I tend to use "so" many times.
I am not a native speaker of English, but how about native English speakers? I have searched the word "so" and "sentences" through the internet and found an interesting article.
The CEO of Facebook notoriously uses "so" to start sentences.
Oh, I found a company!
But why? He has grown up in the English world, hasn't he? I don't have enough vocabulary, I don't know other words that can be used instead of "so" but I'm sure he does.
The word "so" must be a magic word, which makes people become absorbed.
I have decided not to use this word often. Even if it is an attractive word, I have to resist it. And I've got a good idea! I looked up the word in a synonym dictionary. I found several words which have nearly the same meaning of "so". If I could remember these words, my writing will be better than before, I guess.
That would be so nice! Oops!