Day 4

January 4, 2021

Birding As A Reward

Color is the reward.  When I was in the second and third grade I used to go to work with my Dad.  He was the Director of the New York School of Interior Design.  He taught a color class and I could go to the class with him  We all had small metal trays that had nine dips in it where you could mix paints and create different colors.  I loved playing in that class.  Students always embraced me and I would try out combinations.  Years later when EJ was about four their mother gave them a book on color that we would look at together.  I loved it.  And I realized that I loved color, it was force in my life.  

Today I went in search of birds after I finished boring paperwork.  Being poor has way too much paperwork attached to it  I promised myself I could go look for birds if I got it done.  So I did.  And the first bird I was was this guy, a pileated woodpecker making a brand new whole right in plain view.  

 

But it wasn't until I got out of the hills and over to the rivers that I saw a lot of birds and some color.  In the canal along with tons of Canada Geese and seagulls one can spy different ducks if one looks close enough.  Today I saw a Bufflehead and a Hooded Merganser.  

I also received chicken and rice soup.  When I got home an entirely different friend posted a print from Maurice Sendak that summed up my last two days.

Home again to my own backyard and my own refuge so full of color and overflowing with photographs and artwork.  Yes, early days going to work with my Dad laid the seeds for a whole lot to follow in my life.  Although the NYSID feels like a few lifetimes ago it was just yesterday.  So many early blocks that set the foundation of my educator, artist, researcher brain.  I do love color.