Hooray for Pigeons!

Upholstered pigeon seats from designer Lorna B. Hughes, via Apartment Therapy. (Love the photo too.)

And a pigeon pillow by Salvor Fauna. The pigeon pillow is part of a larger collection of pillows with animal prints on them, including cats, bears, porcupines, and owls. They are pricey though. Some of the large pillows, up to 22″ high, will set you back $99.

“Relative to a Tea Cup”

I recently stumbled upon the National Geographic Animals site, which looks quite interesting, with images so cute it makes you want to just punch someone.

Hedgehog.
Could the illustrator be British perhaps?

Ruby-throated hummingbird.
The flower’s a nice touch!

Mola (sunfish).
Holy smokes, I had no idea sunfish could grow to be so big. (I first learned about their existence from a Banana Yoshimoto story, in which the protagonist visits this sunfish at an aquarium.)
The National Geographic site says that “they are harmless to people, but can be very curious and will often approach divers.” This photo, by Mike Johnson, shows just how bizarre sunfish look.

The Simple Life

I went to bed late but woke up at 7:30 to the sound of flapping. I thought it might have been a bug trapped between the window screen and curtain, but curiosity overcoming sleepiness, I pulled my curtain aside to see three mourning doves sitting on the railing of my fire escape. I think it might have been a family because at one point, one of the doves held the second dove’s beak in its own beak and then shook it, as if it were regurgitating food. Then again, it was early and I might have imagined seeing that. I went back to sleep, but before I did, I thought how being woken by doves must be one of the more pleasant ways to wake up in the city.

Tonight, I took the train back late with a friend, and we happened to board an empty car. I excitedly said that we could run up and down the car screaming, and no one would care. My friend then pointed out a guy in an adjacent car. This guy was apparently the only one in his car. Through the narrow windows in the car doors, we saw him run toward then grab one of the metal support poles. He threw his weight onto the pole and spun around it with his feet in the air. It made me happy to see him having fun, like a child would have done without fear of embarrassment or self-consciousness.

Awake Late

I was just telling a friend earlier that I think my resistance to caffeine is waning. We were chatting over coffee–I had my last sip of the stuff around 10:30 p.m.–and here I am, nearly 3 a.m., and I’m just beginning to feel tired. Caffeine, exercise, big meal late, I used to think of myself as one of those people who has no trouble falling asleep. Lately, however, sleep has been hard to grab, what with the heat, mosquitoes, and lack of a proper sleep system.

Summer began yesterday, which means I’ll have a few more months of extreme heat and mosquitoes to look forward to. I don’t know where the ‘lil buggers are coming from, but I dread lying down at night. I’ve considered wrapping myself in mosquito netting, mummy style, for protection. But I’m planning on getting a replacement screen instead–and what my friend describes as a slow-release citronella gizmo, if I can find one.

What I’ve noticed lately:
-Standing outside my building late at night, the only sound I hear being that of humming air conditioners up and down my block.
-…Standing at an empty intersection late at night, the only sound being that of the pedestrian signal alternately clicking between walk and halt.
-Sparrow perched on a short, thin-limbed tree, singing loudly above the din of Midtown.
-A baby bird out back screeching every time one of its parents approaches the nest. This bird is a bad neighbor–it has woken me up a few times. (I believe it’s a northern mockingbird based on glimpses I’ve had of the parents, but I’m not certain.)
-Men and women toting brown paper shopping bags in the Garment District. Specifically brown paper shopping bags without any logos or text on the sides.
-Waiting passengers interacting with the musical instrument sculpture in the 34th St./Herald Square train station.

The world looks beautiful once you notice it.

Spring Observations

Flash of blue: I don’t know why I should have been surprised, but I hastened to catch another glimpse. There it was, a bluejay, perched on the gutter of a house. Its feathers were a rich blue, not glossy bright like on the bluejays I’ve seen (when was the last time I saw one?), but blue with purple tones, regal.

Yesterday I passed a young squirrel on the same route. I guessed it was young not just because of its small size but because it didn’t scurry away at the sight of me. It was investigating a set of concrete steps leading up to the front of a house. The squirrel was nearly level with my head. But instead of balking, the squirrel merely turned its back to me, then swung back around to face me, eyeing me, as if it had changed its mind and had decided to stick around to see what I’d do.

The pigeon’s still there on the nest I first noticed about a month ago. One of these days I expect to hear the shrill begging of squabs. I worry about who else might notice because surely they’d tear the nest down if they knew it was there.