Knee Deep in Birdseed

So I bought a bird feeder, and I'm turning into a bird person, which is odd. I did this in Africa, too – became obsessed with the birds though I swore I didn’t care about them. I claim the LBR defense, because once you’ve seen a Lilac Breasted Roller, you’d like birds too. Anyway, I've never had anything against birds, really (except for that mockingbird in Altadena a few years back, the one I dreamt up really elaborate schemes to kill until I found out they were protected, and then had to add a couple stealth steps to the already elaborate schemes, just to avoid jail time for killing something that kept me up all night). Wait. Where was I? Oh, right, I've always been neutral to birds, more or less. Except for that one bird that I need to stop thinking about. That mocking... never mind.

Birds. We have lots of them, and they come in all sorts of neat colors and varieties. Cardinals are my favorites, and I have one cheeky fellow who visits the kitchen window a couple times a day and looks at me. He wants birdseed, something I bought more of last night at the grocery, along with the Pringles and the ice cream and some other random thing that we don't need but bought because we've picked up the nasty habit of going to the grocery store hungry. But back to the birds. I started with a “Finch Sack” – essentially a tube of seeds that supposedly attract finches (what, is there a secret code that says, HOT FINCH LOVE HERE, NO BLUEBIRDS ALLOWED?) – and I hung it in one of the trees behind the house. There were a lot of fluttering flashes of yellow wings and a week later the sack was empty. The birds demanded more… so I moved up to a larger fixed feeder closer to the house, thinking that if I was going to feed the birds I at least deserved to see them. Mike hung it last week, but the first hanging didn’t go so well and he spilled birdseed all over the screened porch and the ground below. The birds have had a lovely buffet, and I had to buy more birdseed. I also found it in my hair when I took a shower, and in the cuffs of my jeans.

Messy stuff, birdseed. Granular, gets all over everything, attracts birds, which produce bird poops, which get all over everything. I’m understanding why Mike insisted that the bird feeder NOT be over the deck. Which is getting expanded, this week, to a patio as well. Like the birds I’m feeding, my head this week seems to be full of nothing but birdseed, but I did get the blog here spiffed up. Since Tennessee seems to be all green, I’ve reflected that here. And I added a couple of new bits and pieces: a page of all the food I’ve been cooking on the “cooktop of my dreams” aka the 6 burner Viking, a list of the wine we’ve been drinking, a link to a newly established Flickr site to show off my photos. I’m thinking about a reading list, too. And I FINALLY uploaded all the Route 66 photos to the album just over there to the left (<<- see it, over there?) and I labeled them, too. Poke around. Hit refresh on your browser. You might find yourself some birdseed, too.

Comments

[Brian Herman]

You soooo did NOT just make a "To Kill A Mockingbird" reference did you?! UGH!

[linda]

Oh my God, I look drunk and s bit stoned on candy cigarettes!!! See what Tn. can do to you.