Thursday, June 4, 2009

The greys enjoy farmers' market finds

Wednesday is when our local farmers' market takes place, so I was there again yesterday. My favorite farmer had his wonderful greens mixes again, which means we get to eat amazing salads like last year this week.

He puts some edible flowers in the mixes, and I take them out in order to feed them to the lizards who get so much more enjoyment out of them than we do.

As soon as Max saw the flowers, she started dancing and saying, "Want some!" I didn't think she did want some, but I like to show them that their words have meaning, so I offered her a flower. To my surprise, she took it! I'm not sure if she actually ate any or she just enjoyed destroying it.

I love how this picture captures how delicately she's holding the flower in her foot:
Of course, then Stella had to get in on the action:
Rocky, Calypso, and Daphne were not interested. Beeps quickly destroyed his before I could get a picture.

I had placed the flowers to the side while I washed the rest of the greens, intending to place the flowers in the lizards' refrigerated food container for distribution the next day. Someone decided to help herself to seconds. I expanded the focus of this picture so you can see how Beeps was watching everything that was going on. He'd just finished throwing all of the newspaper lining the stand tray on the ground.
After the greens were ready, I started working on the toppings. My second favorite farmer was selling mushrooms, so I picked some up. I was at the sink, washing them, and putting the tops on a cutting board for me to slice once they'd all been washed.

Sneakily, Max flew over and grabbed an entire mushroom top for herself! I tried to get it out of her grasp, but she was determined to keep it.
Here is a short video that captures the essence of what I was trying to do. She was perched on my hand and I tried to get the mushroom with the other. In order to get part of this on tape, I had to set the camera and Max down, which results in her not being entirely in the frame.


My favorite part is at the end when she's had enough of me. She just flies away! I let her eat the mushroom and when she dropped the majority on the floor, I rewashed it and offered the pieces to the rest of the parrots.

2 comments:

Meg said...

Ohh, fresh salad greens! I am hoping to get some more this weekend, I am through the bunch I got last week.

I feed my birds flowers I grow in the yard here, they love them, especially Frank.

Mary said...

Meg,

I suspect that mine aren't ingesting the flowers but they are having fun so they'll keep getting them!

I get so much healthier in the summer thanks to my market. Too bad it's so cold here half of the year!