surprise guest

Hardly any knitting happening here, since I am busy transcribing extremely inane letters written in an old German writing style into word files. Anyone who said that email, texting and twitter will lead to the loss of great writing ... read these letters. They were written by hand in 1878 and great writing they ain't. Ah well, it pays the rent. 

But I do have things to tell. My mother and I are shuttling back and forth between Styria (where we have a house that needs constant work) and Vienna on the weekends, because Austria has lots of holidays in May and June and particularly this June almost every weekend is a long one. Two weeks ago we returned from the country to find a dead young crow in the courtyard and were consequently sad.
 
Last Sunday we returned from a lovely brunch (oh doesn't this sound fan-tas-tic ... and so fashionable ... brunching with my mother) and found a live young crow in the courtyard! This one was older than the last one and was hopping around on the ground.

That's Kuro, meaning black in Japanese and it's also the way the English word "crow" is pronounced by the Japanese. S/he is a lively, pleasant fellow and loves it when you talk to her/him. If you don't talk and just walk by, s/he becomes agitated and will hide in funny places.

Like here. It's not a very good perch - Kuro hasn't quite learned yet what makes or doesn't make a good perch, but today s/he showed me a very funny maneuver - I wish I had caught it on video.









I did call the clinic of the veterenary university to see whether there was something we could do. Kuro wasn't hurt, but you know, just in case. But they said to leave her/him be as long as her/his parents were supervising, s/he would be ok and that this was a normal thing for crows. And the parents are definitely watching over her/him! At first they were pretty noisy and even tried to attack my mother but now they're calm. 

As you can see, Kuro is a bit of a show-off. First s/he was hiding by the bikes, but when I talked nicely, s/he came out and assumed this pose. Heh.









 



I don't think Kuro will stay with us much longer, though. S/he has already shown off her flying skills to us and today I saw her/him on the bar that is at the level of our first floor (i.e., the one above the ground floor). One parent was up on the roof of the third floor, watching her/him do stunts on the bar (silly bird).










I am a little sad to see Kuro go, but see, there is this kittycat ...

.... thiiiis kittycat ....

.... this kittycat who is the best and prettiest and cuddliest and snuggliest and the most beautiful kittycat in the world, who keeps me from knitting because he wants to be petted ...

... and he hasn't been allowed to go out in the courtyard because of Kuro, so he'll be glad to see her/him take off.