"Who's the birdbrain then? Stupid humans" echoed through the gardens, followed by raucous laughter and then;
"Polly wants a pizza! Polly wants a pizza! Stick your crackers up your ...."
More laughter drowned out where Polly wanted to stick the cracker. Then an emphatic;
"Pizza! Breakfast, lunch, supper! Pizza!! Stick your crackers ..."
"MAMA!!! Come and see!" Shouted one of my children above the insults; "PARROTS! And they are TALKING!!!"
Sure enough there were a small flock of parrots at the bottom of the beautiful garden. They were just as fascinated with the small humans gawking at them as my BuckarooBabies were with the magnificent birds. For the moment there was universal silence as I plotted how to remove my young children from the foul mouthed beauties - surely descended from the seafaring parrots who once perched on the one-legged pirates shoulders. These parrots clearly had not been taught to mind their P's and Q's.
"Mama, can we give them a pizza? Please?"
The silence was broken as the parrots voiced their approval of the idea and their disgust with crackers and all things birdbrained.
The meander through the tranquil nursery - for that is where the parrots lived - ended our short camping vacation. We needed seedlings for our homesteading gardens and potting soil for my microgreens. While we selected seedlings in the nursery the children gleefully galloped through the gardens. It was clearly somebody's home. Beautiful water features and pretty benches invited visitors to stay.
The weather was scorching but under the shade net, beside the splashing water it was like an oasis. Not only did we find an abundance of veggie seedlings but fruit trees, flowering shrubs and smiling gardeners to advise.
We are very thinly spread on the homestead and have defaulted to buying vegetable seedlings instead of struggling to germinate our own seeds. Of course we we often find ourselves suddenly in a new planting season and behind on gardening, so buying the little seedlings puts us back in the game.
"Mama! Look here ....." penetrated my daydreaming. Pirates. Pizza. Parrots. Planting. I was grateful that the children had torn themselves from the parrots to a silent group of animals. Metal sculptures. Among all the garden art the warthogs got the most attention. With their aerial tails and tusked snout they were true to the a real warthog. However the prices were in keeping with art, beyond the purse of the average homesteader.
The nursery caters for every gardener. Wealthy or otherwise. Whether a landscaper or the proud owner of a pot plant. The options varied from extravagant to rustic to outrageous to - well; exactly up my overgrown garden path.
"Oi Mate!" ricocheted through the gardens. And the raucous laughter started up again. "Polly wants a pizza - NOW!!" It was time to leave. But the memories are too amusing not to share with our very own 