The US family (A birds eye view)

No 26

These collection of scenes and characters are a way of learning new words, observing the nature of US with a touch of geo-politics in the mix.

Excuse the grammar, English is not my forte

each characters name ends with us

Todays characters are: Fugacious, Covetous, Bumptious, Alacritous

Just a light hearted short, from the garden

There she was again, I wasn’t sure if it was a he or a she, but Fugacious had the tendency to disappear, fleeting you may say, she was jet black and her lower beak was ok, but her upper beak was all bent up, a little bit like a clef lip, but she was there intermittently when the bread was thrown out in the morning.

Every morning I would venture to the bottom of the garden, standing between the raised beds and fence covered with hawthorns, holding a cup of tea in one hand and some bread in the other, placing the cup on top of the compose bin, I would start at the furthest point breaking up the bread, walking backwards towards the compose bins, all for my would be visitors at this time of the morning, a mixture of sparrows, wood pigeons, crows, black birds, magpies, robins, except for some of the sparrows who were residents in boxes that I had made under the soffits on the sheds down the back.

There was something about Fugacious that was so nice to see, she was like an outcast from the other crows, maybe because of her beak, who knows how the world of the crows work or was it a nature thing, many animals cast out the ones that cannot survive with disabilities, but in the face of her disability she had survived and was doing well with her ability to scavenge little tidbits, with the help of myself and our neighbour who would put seed trays out, she had learned to cope with her life and it’s hand (beak)that was given, how she came to be like this, was unsure perhaps an accident or fighting amongst her kind, who knows.

Covetous was a wood pigeon, who showed a great desire to possess something belonging to someone else, he was always one of the first to arrive on the bread throwing scene, he would attempt to gobble as much as he could before any other birds would appear, sometimes I would clap my hands so that he would fly on top of the shed, this gave all the rest time to share in the feast, but he was always back for more, trying to possess all that he could, (a little bit like some well know investment corporations) I did try explaining to him that he needed to share with the others, but it seemed to go over his head, it’s a bird eat bird world out there you know, Covetous had a loveable face so it was hard to say no to him and hopefully this would teach the others, that they needed to be a little bolder.

Bumptious was an irritating and self assertive bird, another wood pigeon that would come down while Covetous was busy munching away and chase him around until he flew off, it wasn’t like he would stop and get some bread, he just asserted his presence on other wood pigeons, little bit like a bully does, manipulating and harassing to get the others to submit or fly off, similar you could say to the government chasing after you for every bit of sweat equity that you have, so that you submit to there control.

Then we had Expeditious a beautiful little red breasted robin, who always acted with prompt efficiency and was one of the early birds and even later especially when I was turning the earth, trying to get the weeds out ready for sowing the next batch of seeds, he would come so close as if to say, “you missed a bit and leave no stone unturned”, soon as I was up, he was in there trying to feast on all the raised worms, so quick and nimble and all of a sudden a second would appear, as if from nowhere.

Alacritous was a sparrow, like several that resided in the boxes, they were brisk and lively, darting from the boxes with vigour across the garden and into the hawthorns, safe from the beady eyes of the sparrow hawks, chasing each other from one hawthorn branch to another, listening to the sparrows all tweeting, their chatter was so noisy and lively, it was like having a kindergarten in the back garden, each one wanting to be heard and all tweeting as loud as they could, or it could have been one big argument, maybe one of them got out of the wrong side of the nesting box.

One day did chill the air when one of the Alacritous crew, wasn’t as brisk and lively as they sounded, down swooped the sparrow hawk, so fast you hardly had time to know exactly what was happening, grabbing him and fleeing within seconds, there was a deadly silence amongst the hawthorns, that lasted for some time, until they felt safe again.

The fickle fate of the Alacritous crew, maybe I should put a sign up for them reading live each day as if it was your last, I know what you’re thinking, I’m going to need to hire a bird translator.

This was the natural world of the back garden and its visitors, how their own characteristic mimicked that of ours and how all life was so linked, all going about their day with purpose to feed and survive, purpose that could so easily be affected by several factors, I did try to explain to them whilst they were munching away, about what was going on in the skies above them, but they seemed to take no heed, and when finished would just fly off, like I was the bad guy here.

I remembered telling the goldfish, not once but a thousand times about the oceans, but he just had a bored look on his face.

New characters from this post

fugacious ——— tending to disappear; fleeting.

"she was acutely conscious of her fugacious youth”

covetous———having or showing a great desire to possess something belonging to someone else.

"she fingered the linen with covetous hands"

Similar: grasping greedy rapacious insatiable yearning acquisitive

bumptious ——— irritatingly self-assertive.

"an impossibly bumptious and opinionated ass"

Similar: self-important conceited arrogant self-assertive full of oneself

alacritous———brisk or lively.

"she danced her solos with vigour and alacritous changes of focus"

Never forget that this is a beautiful world

it’s just some of the characters, that spoil it for everyone else, most people from all around the world want to live in peace and enjoy family and friends, have enough food to eat, clean water and a roof over their heads.

Love is a force of nature