Cell phone tripping

Prior to our last trip north for an audience with His Royal Highness, I thought it might be judicious to clear out the photo gallery on my cell phone:

From the Bobcat Chic Department

This fellow (stuffed, I should add) greets us each time we pull into the city library parking lot. New trend in apartment decor? Gargoyle surrogate? The Beav -- epicenter of cutting-edge interior design.

From the Holiday Cheer Department

We dropped in on The Beav's annual city Christmas tree lighting earlier this month. It was quite festive:

There were carolers (well, we THINK they were carolers -- the sound was a little dodgy where we were standing, but we tapped along anyway because it's CHRISTMAS, dammit!). . . .

Pictures with the Disney princesses (sans, thankfully, "Let It Go). . .

And the tree: I will leave it up to you to decide what it resembles. . . .

From the You Can't Go Home Again Department. . .

Behold the mighty -- and vacant -- Oregonian building. I had dinner with a friend at a restaurant across the street from the old newspaper building. Back in the day, between my junior and senior years in college, I spent a summer working in the newsroom as a "copy kid." I worked the 3 to 11 p.m. shift and, aside from having my car towed one night, it was a glorious job. The city editor, Virgil, brought chocolate-coated popcorn and zucchini bread in almost every night. 'Nuff said.

My dinner mate Oms, whose dad, coincidentally, was an editor with Portland's evening paper (yes, two papers! those were the days!), and I observed a quick moment of silence before concluding they must now produce the paper out of the back of a late-model VW van.

And, finally, from the Peaceful Coexistence Department. . .

We are back in the bird business on the lane. I know that will make many of you happy. (Hi, Katie! Hi, Gay!)

We started with the black sunflower feeder. The chickadees, nuthatches and juncos love us. . . flying into the kitchen window -- not so much. There were a few awkward days involving regular, audible thumps as the little buggers overshot the feeder perch, but I'm happy to report they got the navigation down, and everyone's tiny avian heads are fine now.

More recently, I learned Anna's hummingbirds stick around all year in Portland so we added the hummingbird feeder. Come to find out -- Portland hummingbirds are just as territorial as their Bermtopian cousins.

There were a few tense moments while Attila the Hum II figured out the chickadees, nuthatches and juncos were not too interested in sugar water. Now we've got one big happy bird family.

Group hug! Tis the season, right?

small stone: The bird feeders

Red. Yellow. The bird feeders have been swinging back and forth, back and forth, since late this morning when I anchored myself to the kitchen sink, fixing wraps for lunch, cooking soup, washing floors, scrubbing cooktops. Back and forth, back and forth.

A lone house finch, red head almost matching my red feeder, is first to arrive, joined by a bachelor gold finch, somber in his dark, dirty yellow winter mantle. They nibble on the black oil sunflower seeds methodically and philosophically, until the dopey sparrows drive them off with their constant nattering and frantic moments of group panic.

A pair of sturdy juncos roll their eyes as they popcorn around the base of the feeder picking up dropped seed. "Dopey sparrows," they seem to say.

And finally the chickadees arrive. They dive bomb the feeders, grabbing one sunflower seed at a time, rapidly retreating to the safe haven of our backyard hedge to savor their winter bounty. As the afternoon goes on, I can see they're the culprits, the ones who have my bird feeders swinging to and fro.

Before dark, I take the trash out. The dopey sparrows are nested for the night, the finches well hidden in the cedar straight back from the house. But from the hedge I hear one last wistful chick-a-dee-dee-chick-a-dee-dee-dee.

Thank-you-a-dee-dee-Delightful-lunch-a-dee-dee-dee.

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About small stones. . . a little writing exercise I've happily copped from Euphenia over at Little Dogs on Long Leashes!