The Road Ahead

Still here and facing the road ahead…

So here we are, we have made it through to 2022, leaving behind the turmoil we have lived through and looking into an uncertain future. The ground is seemingly scattered with debris of the past, but for some like our Western Bowerbird, they are treasures of the now, that lead us up to the bower.

In the early years, the younger Western Bowerbird had to fend off other young rivals, preparing to steal his treasures, no doubt to furnish their own bower. Each year, our Western Bowerbird kept coming back to our garden, surviving whatever life may have had to throw at it in the wider world.

Continuing to collect and returning with treasures to his bower, it seems he would bring back whatever was plentiful, anything white of course, and grey and green and shiny like glass, blue and green marbles. Syringes to show this was real life, small plastic fruit shape drink bottles, plastic rings off cordial bottles, white chalk and white marble pebbles. Sometimes the bower would appear to groan under the weight of the treasures, whilst other times it was sparse, most likely pilfered by other male bowerbirds.

In recent times, our bowerbird had taken to hanging and weaving items into the wall of the bower — hanging artworks, whilst keeping the walls of the bower in pristine shape and order.

There has been some changes in the past years, with the sad passing of the household dogs Ro and Pup, and the passing on of the household to the new puppies. This meant that a fence had to be erected around the bower, not like their predecessors who whilst showing occasional interest, would never disturbed the bower.

This past year had also seen the hard times, the environment changes, the heat and then the short-lived welcoming rain in an arid desert. Still our Western Bowerbird kept on keeping on. Searching for treasures for his bower.

So as we enter 2022, we can see the bower still has plenty of treasures. The walls however look unusually messy. I guess it had been a hard year, so we can only look forward to a better year, and await to welcome back our Western Bowerbird.