project 52:18

woodburning tool on birch

two weekends ago we had an overnight guest on Friday night, an Oregonian stopping over for food and conversation and rest on her way further north. She's a runner these days and I thought she might want to go to the park in the morning and clock some miles. I went with her and brought the camera, hunting for inspiration for the week's postcard. There was a large murder of crows hanging out in the center of the park and I kept walking into their midst and photographing them as they took off. Later I made sketches based on my photographs, then turned those sketches into paper stencils. I scribbled across the stencils  to make these graphic crows and used the woodburning tool to finish. I like it; to me, they kind of look like crow-forms wrapped in string (especially the one in the middle with his wings down).

Now, just 10 days later, there are more signs of avian life: this weekend was the first time I heard the woodpeckers starting to chuckle and trill through the neighbourhoods (and drill on people's metal roofs! In February and March it sounds like someone's stripping metal screws with a power drill all over this hill). There are a few robins and some other songbirds starting up, too; they made a lovely soundtrack this weekend when I went out and weeded and turned the soil in a couple of my vegetable beds, installed a trellis, and sowed my first peas and radishes. It's a bit early for the latter (but the Farmer's Almanac gave the thumbs-up for starting peas), but my seed is old, anyway, so if they don't come up and I have to resow, it's not really a big loss. It's good to have some signs of life returning. I think about the gardening season ramping up and wonder if I'll have work before I have tomatoes this year?