Birds, birds, everywhere

"Heaven above was blue, and earth beneath was green; the river glistened like a path of diamonds in the sun; the birds poured forth their songs from the shady trees; the lark soared high above the waving corn; and the deep buzz of insects filled the air." Charles Dickens (Nicholas Nickleby)

No, I am not one of those back yard bird nuts, though we do have bird identification books and love looking at them. Birds are my theme this fall and I am making many things with birds. I found some very nice quotes and beautiful old illustrations. Tonight I was working with some feathers. The funny thing is, that once you have something on your mind, it seems to appear everywhere. All of a sudden there are turkeys in our yard in the morning, my iPod picks all this music with birds chirping in it and my friend posts a fantastic photo of a gliding puffin in the snow. And then there is puffin cereal. And Little Feet wine (the one with penguins on the label), I tried to win a penguin adoption on their website, but did not of course, since I never win anything. One must love birds, and if it is purely born out of envy of their ability to fly, to soar, to be close to heaven.

This cardinal was sitting on our window bird feeder one winter's afternoon.