Why Bower Birds & Sunflowers?

As a first blog entry, I thought I should explain the name of this blog: Bower Birds & Sunflowers. 

As in most things in life, there are multiple meanings and overlaying connections in why I have called this blog this name. 

I love the reality and the ‘concept’ of Bower Birds. (Do you keep having to use capital letters for both words?)  ... Anyway,  I love the fact that spend their lives collecting things (especially shinny things and for some reason ‘blue’ things)  I love the fact that they seem to enjoy re-arranging them, displaying them, gather more, fitting new things into what they already have only to then begin the process again of ... re-arranging displaying and sorting things again.  I am no expert on Bower Birds and in fact when I the name of this blog ‘came to me’ all I wanted at first for a picture of a ‘Bower Bird’ to go on the blog.

This lead me to google “Bowwer Birds / Bowwor Birds”  obviously with no success  -  until I was forced to FB and tweet the question

Ok .. Who can help me out? .. I know there is a saying "... like a barrow bird" ? as in - you gather lots of stuff BUT I think I have the spelling wrong - any ideas what I am talking about :)

Within an hour I had the correct spelling (funny enough from my best friend. I probably could have just done the old fashion thing and called her!) and I was pleased to know my ‘idea’ of gathering collecting like a Bower Bird was real and not something I had made up years ago J



pic via highlightskids.com

  

If you are interested in knowing anything else about the real life Bower Bird, which I only just found out is native to Australia (Did anyone else know that?) ...

a couple of short clips through these links

From the BBC, the classic “David Attenborough observes the bower bird's intriguing behaviour”

With much more of a uniquely Australian feel and also talks about the ‘blue obsession’ watch this one 

And  even closer to home (for me) Toowoomba High has a page dedicated to their “Bower Bird”!

But two things.  If you know anything about Bower Birds, or watch these videos, you will see it is actually the male bird who does the collecting and the purpose is to attract a mate. 

Well one, I am female not male and two, this site has nothing to do with attracting ‘mates’ (in that  .. uumm ..  biological sense J) – BUT I do hope it will have things of interest for colleagues, collaborators, peers and friends .. or in the real Aussie sense .. My Mates!

Another point of difference, is the ‘hording and defending’.  Unlike its name sake, there is nothing on this site that can not be shared. Feel free to come and borrow, use, take and reference anything you see here.

Obviously, all the normal disclaimers apply, use at your own risk, all care and no responsibility etc etc.  I welcome open genuine sincere and respectful communications and interactions. 

I am not really into censorship but I do reserve the right to remove spam, offensive or not appropriate comments.   However I welcome and invite people to challenge my thoughts, correct my mistakes and point me in the right direction if any of my information is wrong or misleading. 

I like spelling and grammar and punctuation, but to be honest, I write how I speak.  (and I know you are not supposed to have a comma before an conjunction)  -  So feel free to let me know about any of those things, but please do not be offended if I do not rush to change them.  I have a bit of an obsession with the correct use of apostrophes, I have no idea why but I do always like to have mine in the correct place.

Anyway, getting back to the point of difference, re: the ‘hording and defending’ behaviour of the real Bower Bird, unlike the sharing, caring and supportive nature of this blog ...as a nice little segue, this is where the Sunflowers come in.  Besides being my favourite flower, sunflowers always seem to me to be open and friendly. 

I love the way they happily follow the sun (a bit like I do with my mentors, friends, colleagues and those I admire and respect). 

I love the fact that some of them grow so tall and strong and others are actually small. 

I love watching the parrots and birds harvest the sunflower seeds. 

But most of all I guess, every time I see a sunflower (real or in a picture) I find myself smiling. 

And that is what I hope for this blog.

I hope I and others who visit, find and share treasures (shinny things) things of substance and sustenance, opportunities to follow our ‘suns’ and most of all something to smile about.

PS there is another reason behind the linkages to Bower Birds  .. it relates to my Grandmother and the conept of  having or leaving a

legacy ... But that will have to wait for another post!  ...