A Belated Valentine's Day

This is the first year since we met we were not together  for Valentine's Day.  Valentine's Day is also the anniversary of our engagement mumble, mumble years ago.  OK.  I will tell you.  It was 33 years ago.  Sheesh.  That makes me sound old.  Just so you know, I was a child bride,  practically in my infancy.

When I was an actual child, we had peacocks.  At first we had one and his name was Prince.  My father would catch him from time to time and trim one of his wings.  This would keep him from flying away. It did not prevent him from flying up into tree branches for nesting purposes.

At one point someone must have decided he was lonely and the chickens weren't cutting it.  So we got a peahen.  Then she laid eggs and we had a flock of peachicks.  During this time his wing feathers grew back and he started flying through the neighborhood until he found a rival peacock from somewhere.  They would go from rooftop to rooftop in a huge territorial fight.  More wing trimming.  One terrible night Prince flew into the street and got hit by a car.

All of us kids stood in the dark, crying around the hole my father had dug for his grave.  Dad pulled the last of his tail feathers out with a horrible ripping  sound.  These feathers joined the others we had been collecting over the years in a large vase in our house.  The last pieces of Prince.

But we still had peahen and peachicks.  My father had lost patience with them.  Partly because the cry of a peacock sounds like a woman screaming "Help!".  At one point one of the neighbors had called the police to let them know we had a woman screaming for help in our yard.  My parents weren't home and it was quite an ordeal to convince them we weren't torturing women in the backyard.

Dad sent the lot of them to the Arcadia Arboretum where they joined some existing peacocks.  You may have never heard of the Arboretum, but you have seen parts of it.  The opening sequence of Fantasy Island was filmed there.  Parts of some Tarzan movies were filmed there.  Even parts of two of the Jurassic Park movies were filmed there.  And now , generations later, descendants of Prince live there.  If you are ever in the area, I strongly suggest you go for a visit.  It's a wonderful place.

This whole story just goes to show you that I love peacocks.  I love peacock feathers, although I can't keep any in a house with cats.  They love them, too.  And not in a good way.  In a "let's rip it to shreds" way.

So when  we celebrated a wee belated Valentine's Day by giving a few gifts we had saved for Lee's return, look what I got!

   

A beautiful Peacock teapot.

   

And a two tiered server.  Now I have to have a peacock inspired tea party!  I am currently taking reservations!