The Preening Process

 Here's our chief peacock delicately preening his emerging tail feathers.

The Peacock's New Feathers

The neighbour's peafowl have moulted over the last few months. We didn't gather up too many stunning tail feathers but we got quite a lot of nice peahen feathers which went towards making Easter cards.

This weekend, I noticed that the dominant peacock is developing new tail feathers. He sat on the rail of our deck and preened them with great care.

Interestingly, the feathers seem to be perfectly formed but not yet fully-sized. It may be that they need to grow more or it may be that the bird is still immature. The colours aren't quite ready yet either - copper-coloured rather than the expected blue/green.

I had been wondering how peacock feathers developed - or any patterned or shaped feathers for that matter. Sadly, I'm none the wiser as even the internet doesn't seem to know.

Check back tomorrow for a video of the preening process.

Vintage Wallpaper

I still regret the loss of the hedgerow wallpaper that coated our house just before we bought it and couldn't resist snapping this vintage wallpaper in the cafe at the Corban Estate Arts Centre recently.

Fennel & Black Pepper Bread

I decided to branch out after my first experiment in bread-making and make a fennel and black pepper loaf. It was easy enough to follow the recipe from Nick Malgieri's book and I used my new X-Acto knife to slash the top, causing the loaf to rise much more effectively. It was delicious again - with quite a kick to it!