Small Bird Makes Trouble

Our world is still very much covered by snow and ice. It is hard for the birds who had misread the news about global warming and opted not to fly south this winter.  It ain't easy out there and I've tried to help by keeping the feeders full. 

This has turned into a full time job, given the favorable reviews we've gotten in the avian press and local word-of-beak recommendations. Every once in awhile, I turn my attention away from the birds and to other silly things, like working, cooking, sleeping. And the feeders run dry.

This apparently does not sit well with Small Bird, who has started prounion rumblings out among the flock. This morning, I came down to get my coffee and there, propped right up against the coffee pot, was this communique:

On one hand, I admire his mastery of American civics. The Constitution of the United States, after all, begins much the same way:

On the other hand, there are those here who are starting to wonder if he is another Eurotrash Communist infiltrator looking for handouts from the good, kind people of my country.

Small Bird Arrives in America

If you are here because you clicked the wrong button on the Spirit Cloth blog, you already know that Saskia van HerWaarden lives in a magical birdhut.  It is a place where her wild creativity bubbles up from her soul, through her hands, and into all that she touches around her. She ecodyes fabric, she stitches, she prints,she saws and hammers all kinds of stuff together, and she builds kingdoms and their citizens from the treasures she scoops up on her walks through the Dutch lowlands. (She claims she also works in some sort of appliance service company, but that's just her cover story.A pretty lame one too, if you ask me.)

As a thank you for sending her some books, Saskia invited me to select a cloth from among the wonders that she created for a recent art show. And I just received it him. Small Bird has Left Home.

Do you see Small Bird, born in the center but taking his first steps to the left of the blue beading? Under the safety of the sun, the moon, and the waves, Small Bird flew all by himself across the ocean...

...carrying two items. First, a fortune from the fortune cookie he probably got from the Chinese restaurant at the Amsterdam airport.

According to Google Translate, it means "a pound of feathers do not fly if there is no bird in it." (Having just ordered a pound of feathers, this is patently untrue but I see no point in arguing with Small Bird on his first few days here.)

Second, pictures of his family that his mother tucked in his bag while he was ordering Chinese food.

Small Bird's Father

Small Bird's Mother

Uncle Louis,the black sheep. He is rarely mentioned except in a whisper, which makes Small Bird adore him.

We're keeping Small Bird away from Billy Dog and Clutch till his English gets better and he learns how to say "I am not food." We did introduce him to some of the smaller, less intimidating packs of critters around the house.

Indoor Finch Family standing very still

The Mexican Road Kill Ensemble, available for Bar Mitzvahs and Weddings

The Memphis Clay Quintet

Soldiers of Fortune

Board of Directors, The Raggedy Ann Preservation Society

Everyone is getting along beautifully, although they are staying up way too late at night listening to Small Bird's stories about his friends at The Birdhut.

Thank you, thank you Saskia. Your work is infectiously beautiful.