One of my favorite birds is the bright and lively parakeet. They are active and playful, and come in a  variety of beautiful colors. Though much quieter than larger parrots, they can  become good talkers.

Originally from Australia, parakeets were  taken to England in the 1800s and became very  popular. This beautiful little fellow belongs to my mom. After Mom lost her little companion dog, she found the house very quiet. She considered getting a new dog, but her area has coyote problems, and she was no longer comfortable walking a dog. In July I wrote a post titled, The Coyotes Are Back, after I spotted a coyote through Mom’s living room window.

Years ago Mom owned a parakeet and I thought she might enjoy another. At first she said no, but eventually warmed to the idea and one afternoon we took a trip to the pet store where Mom chose Gilligan.

. It has been amazing, and a joy to watch Mom and Gilligan form a bond. When Mom leaves the room Gilligan strains his neck and practically falls off of his perch looking for her. When Mom eats, Gilligan goes to his food dish and also eats. The funniest thing is after lunch, he starts chirping until Mom takes her nap and then Gilligan takes his as well. He certainly has her trained. He signals Mom when he wants out of his cage, and from there he flies to the top of the china cabinet. Mom reaches up to him with a wooden perch and uses the command words, Step Up, which is a command bird owners use to teach their pets to step onto a perch.  I visited Mom today and took these photos. You can see him perching on a picture frame, and the top of the china cabinet. He is becoming quite tame and will sit on Mom’s finger. Recently he sat happily on her shoulder while she walked around the house.

He really is a beautiful little fellow and lives up to the title Companion Bird.

Today we went to a local RV dealer to investigate toy haulers. We currently own a 5th wheel trailer, which we love, but have often said how nice it would be if we could take our scooter and can-am spyder motorcycle along with us. This is the reason we've talked about looking at toy haulers which would give us that capability. Today our curiosity got the better of us and we went looking. We looked at several,and the Winnebago Spyder was our favorite.I took this photo from the kitchen looking down the hall into the bedroom. Below you can see my husband checking out the kitchen. Though shorter than our current trailer, it was very nice and we gave it two thumbs up. We're not ready to make such a big change right now, but it was fun investigating. We let the salesman know up front we were only looking and did not want to waste his time, but he said he was happy to show us around. We appreciated that he was very helpful and informative, but not at all pushy. We did take his card, and who knows what the future holds. 

On the saleman’s recommendation we ate lunch at a small cafe across the street.
I had a delicious sandwich and we both thoroughly enjoyed our lunch at the Cafe Latte.
As we left for home, we learned that there were flood warnings in several Orange County cities, including Westminster where we were. At that moment, the day was sunny and warm, and it was difficult to believe the predictions. On the drive home we spotted the clouds ahead. Fortunately we made it home before the rain started. Our area never did see rain. Exploring the toy haulers, eating a delicious lunch, and just being together made it a great day.