ab ovo...

I had only the dimmest hopes for today, as I'd stayed up entirely too late last night watching news that made me anxious followed by a palliatively mindless program about the fashion industry.  The Night of Restful Sleeping has eluded me since I was three and fell prey to an unwelcome somnambulatory urge to roll out of and underneath my bed.   Lately, I've been waking up at 4AM but, given the uncharacteristically late evening, managed to make it to 6:30 when there was some grumbling from the cats.  I'm an adult now, so after a night of poor quality sleep I can easily create a convincing illusion of well-being with drugs, in this case, a fairly good cafe latte.

But what really made me snap to was this little fellow, a White Throated Sparrow, (photo courtesy of Birds of Massachusetts Field Guide), a creature I had never seen before.  He was shuffling about in the garden, kicking up dead leaves in search of breakfast.

 
I tracked down an online recording of his song, which goes something like, Oh Sweet, Canada, Canada, Canada, and I could hear him, somewhere in a tree, not too far away.  I learned that this bird is a ground feeder so I tossed some sunflower seed into the garden.  Greedily motivated by the trophy hunter's impulse, I decided to lure this sweet little bird back to the garden by pishing and playing the recording of his kind out of a bedroom window in order to attract his attention.  For those who are thinking, "Oh just leave the poor thing alone", please note: I'm slightly concerned that it worked.
But the thrills don't stop there because a wholly unexpected delivery arrived in the mail.

Yes, my parents sent me a pysanky kit from the Ukrainian Gift Shop, Inc.  Tomorrow is my birthday and this is quite a felicitous gift, I think.  So, now seems like the ideal moment to share pictures of our vast collection of Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish Easter eggs.  Things are really beginning to look up!

The collection makes an ideal storage spot for

Foof's groovy rubber ball.

The result of last year's egg dyeing experiment.