© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
Pelicans have wonderfully long pointed beaks. My Dad always used to say whenever he saw a pelican
A wonderful bird is a pelican
His bill will hold more than his bellican
He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week
But I’m damned if I see how the helican
This day we saw this as the fisherman fed the fish scraps to the birds. One appeared to have a fish stuck sideways and his bill was pushed out at odd angles. All the fisherman had left and I worried as I thought the bird required a vet. Eventually another fisherman came on the scene and laughed at my concern saying that it was quite normal as they hold so much in their beaks they can become quite distorted.
https://sundaystills.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/sunday-stills-the-next-challenge-pointy-things/
About Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
I began my working career as a reluctant potato peeler whilst waiting to commence my training as a student nurse. On completion I worked mainly in intensive care/coronary care; finishing my hospital career as clinical nurse educator in intensive care. A life changing period as a resort owner/manager on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu was followed by recovery time as a farmer at Bucca Wauka. Having discovered I was no farmer and vowing never again to own an animal bigger than myself I took on the Barrington General Store. Here we also ran a five star restaurant. Working the shop of a day 7am - 6pm followed by the restaurant until late was surprisingly more stressful than Tanna. On the sale we decided to retire and renovate our house with the help of a builder friend. Now believing we knew everything about building we set to constructing our own house. Just finished a coal mine decided to set up in our backyard. Definitely time to retire we moved to Queensland. I had been writing a manuscript for some time. In the desire to complete this I enrolled in a post grad certificate in creative Industries which I completed 2013. I followed this by doing a Master of Arts by research graduating in 2017. Now I live to write and write to live.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
I love this! 😀 That poem is awesome.
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I’ve just found the photo of the pelican with his beak full. I think he will have to have a post of his own.
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Look forward to it. I loved that poem so much, I read it to my kids. Swears be damned. 😀
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So glad another generation of kids are going to grow up with the pelican helican poem.
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Wonderful, Irene! My parents used to quote that poem to me, too! The pelicans seem very tame!
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It must have been on the top 40 of poems when our parents were of that age as so many of us remember our parents reciting it. My Dad did every time he saw a pelican. I don’t know how he’d cope up here as there are so many of them.
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Such amazing birds, I just love them. Terrific poem too, Irene!
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I think they look like prehistoric birds Barbara yet they give me such a sense of the seaside and always bring back memories of my Dad.
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Great photos.
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I love the photos, Irene. It looks like a very serene spot. I always enjoyed that poem too, though I had forgotten, or was unfamiliar with the last three lines.
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I think like songs Norah we remember the beginning of them and that’s it. We hired a bus to take us way out in the country for a dance and on the return journey those up the back decided to sing (including my husband) but they couldn’t get past the first couple of lines of any song. I knew all my girl guide songs and childhood songs but they weren’t interested in singing those.
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Thanks funny Irene. They probably didn’t know your girl guide songs! They could have just made up the lyrics. Half the time I can’t figure out what they are anyway!
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Me too these days. We even have to have the subtitles on the televison on so we can understand what is being said.
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So it’s not just me! 🙂
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No it’s not just you. Speech seems to have become quicker and all runs together so it is unintelligible.
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Haha! My dad taught me the same poem Irene, and we say it now! Great photos 🙂
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Thanks Sherri. Yes it is a world wide phenomena that little verse, all taught to us by our Dads.
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😀
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Pingback: Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Feathered Friends | Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist)
Big pelicans, though! Funny limerick and has a familiar ring. I had a 6th grade teacher who read us limericks and funny poems.
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She may have recited it. Most of my age group had someone that recited it often.
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