Flowers with cockatoo, 19 May 2020

A cockatoo surveys the scene of a miscellany of native and introduced plants and things. Some venerable birds live to be 80 years old and are astute in organising their humans for food and company. When for some reason they don't appear in the morning I feel a pang of fear as if even they might succumb to changing climates. Little silver-eyes and pardalotes have gone somewhere else and no longer appear in the garden. Things are changing. Studying birds and their patterns of flight  (oionismos) was said to give  prophetic insights in ancient Cyprus. The goddess Hera is always associated with the peacock, bird of immortality, while Aphrodite's bird is the sparrow or sometimes the dove found everywhere like love. And cockatoo feathers are powerful in northern Australia in warding off spirits. There's a lot to learn about local love magic.

Diana Wood Conroy, 'Flowers with cockatoo'watercolour on Arches paper, 15 x 21 cm,19 May 2020