Have You Ever Seen a White Peacock?

Our neighbors have peacocks. We discovered this one day a few years ago when we returned home mid-afternoon. As we pulled into the drive, I noticed something on our front porch. It was too big to be one of the cats and it didn't quite look like a dog...let me put my glasses on...a peacock? Where on earth did that come from? It's not like they're native wildlife around here.



I saw one a few years ago, one morning at work. There I was, just cleaning someone's teeth and something caught my eye out the window. I looked up, to see a peacock strutting across the street. As you can imagine, that caused a little excitement. After calling the zoo, we learned that someone not too far out of town raised them and one must have gotten loose.

Our neighbors have quite an assortment of animals. You have already heard about Dolly the Goat, a sweet thing that really likes going for walks with us. And then there are the donkeys they used to have (they died last summer). There are turkeys, geese, plenty of cats (including Mr. Ugly, who actually is a she, we just found out), a couple of dogs, and peacocks.

I had my camera with me in the car, so I immediately got it out and started snapping pictures. It wasn't too long before Simba arrived on the scene and I thought to myself, "Oh no, this cannot have a good outcome," but Simba wasn't sure what to think about the strange bird. The cats weren't all that anxious to get too close either.

When I moved in to try to get a better picture, the peacock took off and whoa!! Did you know they can fly? I mean, they are birds, but have you ever actually seen one fly? It landed on the roof and we followed it as it walked to the back side of the house. When I saw that it was going to stay there for awhile, I went inside to hopefully get some good pictures out the window.

As I went up the stairs, I heard tapping. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap. I went into our bedroom, which has windows overlooking the rooftop where the peacock had walked. And there it was - pecking on our bedroom window. Why does everything always want to come into our bedroom via the window? We finally had to take the screens out because the cats kept picking at them to be let in.




Later, we found out that the peacock belonged to our neighbors across the road. We'd not seen any before, but we've seen - and heard them (whew, they can cry!) many times since.

As you can see from the photos, their peacocks are brown. We have a peacock, too. A white one! This week, my 'White Peacock' amaryllis burst into bloom.


'White Peacock' is a double, and has pristine white ruffly blooms. It has a slightly green center, but what catches your attention is how full it is compared to single Hippeastrums.

When I went to the basement last night to check if other Amaryllis bulbs were showing any signs of new growth, I discovered several: 'Papilio', 'Solomon', 'Limona', and two that I failed to label, so those will be a surprise!

'Limona' is the largest bulb I have, and it's now putting out three "babies"

I potted them up and in a few weeks, there will be plenty of blooms to help me through the last weeks of winter. I've got two more peacocks, in fact: 'Red Peacock' and 'Blossom Peacock.' The latter is one of my favorites, with its red-tinged white petals. They aren't quite ready for potting yet, although I could probably do it anyway and the heat would likely get them started. I like to spread them out though.