At the pet store, a man disguised as Santa was available for "Pet Portraits with Santa". When he stood up, his belt, which bisected his well-stuffed torso, cut him in half horizontally and he appeared to be sporting some very generous bosoms.
At the craft aka crap store, I saw a wreath made out of peacock feathers. There was one that was blue/green/black, and then one that was in shades of red. Uh, red peacocks? I think not. They literally stopped me, silenced me, they were exquisitely beautiful. But I just couldn't bring myself to buy one, dead peacocks et al.
I wandered the aisles (trying hard not to do a peacock call) amidst the chaos of artificial Christmas, in search of candle holders, but came up short. I think I'll carve some out of red apples -- I've done this before, the only trick is getting the hole the right size so the candle doesn't wobble. I'll level each apple with a neat trim across the bottom, et voila! Bingo. Candle holders. Compostable candle holders.
The only small animals at the pet store were mice, rats, Guinea pigs and ferrets, so I lingered in front of the aquariums for a long time. I've never had fish save for the odd goldfish which, for some reason, upon its certain death, got flushed down the toilet, but I was so taken with these lovely shimmery critters that I actually looked at aquarium hardware. Too much work, though, I think.
The parakeets were equally lovely, particularly an-almost completely white one with blue underpinnings. Again, too much work.
As a child I spent a lot of time in the pet department of our local W.T.Grant store, which was an easy walk from my house. It's been an age since I looked at fish and birds, and I don't know exactly what compelled me to do this today, but it was the perfect antidote to the rain, the Saturday traffic, the holiday frenzy.
(When I mentioned to Paul that I didn't buy the wreath because all I could think of was dead peacocks, he said, "well, maybe they, you know, just fell off....") Hmm. I might have to make a trek back to the crap store and get one tomorrow. And, if I get tired of it as a wreath it could easily double as a hat.)
We used to have a pair of Peacocks, and were always told that to have their feathers indoors was 'Bad Luck'. We did it anyway!
ReplyDeleteWell done for your compostable apple candle-holders. I might well do the same thing... thanks for the idea.
It is my understanding that this birds shed their feathers with some regularity, and that killing them is not necessary. We have quite a few farm hereabout that raise them, along with the goats, sheep and cattle. They can be noisy buggers.
ReplyDeleteTheir feathers are so very pretty. When I was a child, we would buy them at the San Diego Zoo.
The eye of the Peacock feathers are bad luck! Don't have them indoors, ever. Beautiful, yes. I believe the bad luck thing because the day my sister got some and put in her house, it burned to the ground, true! Adoring them from afar is best!
ReplyDeleteAlthough the peacock feathers are beautiful objects from nature, and the living caged parakeets are beautiful to see, it's not necessary to own either one of them. But I would like to know, How could Santa Clause be in the pacific NW, when I just saw him/her down here yesterday? sp
ReplyDeleteSometimes its just hard to go with the flow isn't it. Love the apple candle holders, will definitely do that.
ReplyDeleteLove the apple candle holder idea, too, T. Thanks. We will make some here and light a candle with you in mind.
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