Nesting Jays

Steller's jays have finally discovered our yard! Our birch trees to be exact. A pair cruised by this morning, one had a beakfull of nesting material gathered from our birch trees -- just the tender tips of the branches. It looked like tassels when it shook its head.

April Fooled

My coworkers fooled me while I was at lunch today. Brilliant!

Ohanami!

A hypnotic pink froth entrances young and old, 

Lures us into parks and down tree-lined allées, 

Invites us to pause in the shower of delicate petals 

And drink our fill of spring.

Kyoto, Japan

Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan

Sakura to go, Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan

Celebrating the Buddha's birth, Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan

Sankei-en, Yokohama, Japan

Salted cherry blossoms

Wagashi shaped like a cherry blossom

Sakura mochi, Kyoto-style

More photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/105060227937518922873/SakuraMadness#

Goose Flyoff

Laura and I represented Team Vogel Da and the Sirens at this year's Aleutian Goose Flyoff at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. After one video my batteries pooped out.

 For more, see Laura's blog, http://selchiedubh.blogspot.com/2009/03/aleutian-cackling-goose-fly-off_07.html

Shameless Homage, Repurposed Art

No time for art a Friday Night Art Project -- last weekend was our annual floor-to-ceiling Tea room cleanout and I spent Friday night pre-cleaning.

This is an illustration I did for the cover of this week's North Coast Journal (my employer, and so thus repurposed art) illustrating two separate stories concerning Aleutian Canada geese and Chinook salmon. I couldn't pass on the opportunity to do an homage to M.C. Escher's "Birds and Fish" tessellation. The illustrations were traced from photos in Adobe Illustrator, then assembled into the tessellation. Textures and color gradients were added to the final illustration in Photoshop. On newstands now.