larrikins

The Hall markets were packed today with people and their dogs enjoying the glorious spring day. The pony ride line was back to the entrance, the empanada and steak sandwich stalls were doing a roaring business, a country and western singer was crooning from the pavilion and the balloon twister was entrancing the crowds. Lil, my beagle, dragged me back to the sausage sandwich stall again and again. The toddlers dropped her treats over the sides of their strollers, people bent to pat her, other dogs sniffed her appreciatively.
Walking back from the markets across the school playground I spotted a green hula hoop high on the branch of a pine tree. A white cockatoo had also found it and was chewing his way around the hoop. He nudged it and watched it swing then tried to hold it with a claw. He walked around it on the branch and came down on the other side. A little more chewing and then he grabbed it and launched himself, wings flapping, upside down. A few moments of vertigo and he turned himself up the right way and was swinging like a child. I could see the grin from across the playground. Of course, cockatoos can do nothing alone and soon two more gathered to help gnaw on the ring and give him a push. The tennis players on the nearby court must have wondered what we were all laughing about - three cockatoos having a whale of a time and a woman with her beagle watching from below.