Okay, I just saw the YouTube clip of the second Portlandia show with the "Put a bird on it." My new friend Liz who is taking my "Bird, Egg, Nest" class sent it to me. I laughed my head off. Then I looked around my house and studio. I grew up in Portland and now live in Hillsboro, a suburb of Portland. You can imagine how surprising it was to find I've been putting birds on things for years and didn't realize it until now. Even though the theme of this blog is visual blessings (I realized my last post has a bird on it), there is something to be said for laughter and not taking yourself so seriously.  Also, just last week I got attacked by a bird while shopping in the Fred Meyer garden center. I was innocently checking out the herbs when unbeknownst to me a blackbird flew at the back of my head and began pecking. I started screaming and flailing my arms (wouldn't you?). It came at me three times. No more outside Fred Meyer garden center shopping for this gal. In that spirit, and my love for the idea of birds, I have posted the Portlandia video and then a brief photographic tour of the birds I found on things around my house.

Here are some photos from our back yard:

From the studio:

 This used to be a "sad little tote bag" but not any more :)

"We can see a thousand miracles around us every day.

What is more supernatural than an egg yolk turning into a chicken?

- S. Parkes Cadman

From the house:

copyright Valerie Sjodin 2011