Im Frühling

Im Frühling (In the spring), we start to see more birds back in the Northwest. Unfortunately, the squirrels return in force too! Today, I came upon a frisky brown critter digging around in my hanging planter -- no seeds yet, but he held high hopes. An entire band of squirrels already ransacked my eighty crocus bulbs. Guess I've been too complacent since last year, when the bulbs bloomed untouched...And it's not as if we've endured a frozen winter, unlike Iowa and Connecticut and several other Arctic states. Go find food elsewhere, you little beasties!


Anyway, I came home today and decided to make a Frühling collage. Several weeks ago, I browsed through a new store on Mississippi Avenue in Portland, and found a picture I wanted so badly--the artist had glued old newspapers to create a songbird shape, then matted and framed her finished picture. But the price? Oh, a mere forty-five dollars. Gulp. I thought to myself, "I could do that at home." And this time, instead of forgetting about it, I took glue stick to paper. No antique newsprint around, but even better, leftover road maps from our time in Europe. Combine large dose of sentimental with a dash of thrifty and the result's addictive.