Wanna know what I’ve been up to?
I made 4,000 buttons. That’s 4,000 buttons bagged in sets of 100. Making buttons didn’t distract me from hanging out and making food and drinking wine with Jess. It also didn’t distract me from hanging out with Milo and Chris from the Queer Zine Archive Project who had and event at the IPRC. They stayed at our home for a few days and we had a lot of fun. However, the buttons did distract me from getting to the Stumptown Comics fest and the Bridgetown Comedy festival… which, it seemed sort of odd that both of those events were on the same weekend.
Yesterday I sat in the dining room looking out the window making buttons but being distracted by and array of birds. My favorite being that I have seen my first hummingbird! It was actually two hummingbirds chasing each other around. It is sort of ridiculous how giddy they make me. On my 30th birthday Paul and I and a bunch of friends stayed out at Edgefield where they had a hummingbird garden. Paul had never seen hummingbirds and was delighted with their zooomy-ness. After that I started collecting plants that hummingbirds like for our own hummingbird garden. I saw one last fall but it looks like 2 years of tending this garden has finally paid off! There were also house sparrows, yellow rumped warblers, red sparrows, and the neighbors have a starling nest in their roof that makes lots of *cheep* *cheap* *cheap* sounds.
hummingbird garden
Columbine
This seems to be the hummingbird favorite so far.
The irises that ring my yard are also in bloom. I'll try to get more photos when the sun comes out.
Portland has had a dramatic spring of sudden downpours, raining while the sun is shining , hail and even a bit of thunder. Beside being busy with buttons I haven’t had much time to work in the yard when the sky hasn’t been throwing things down! I haven’t been able to work my veggie patch yet and there are million things on my to-do list but I’ll get around to them.
Tomorrow is Mayday/Beltane so have a happy holiday! Last year at this time I was in the UK! Monday I’m headed down to Eugene to speak to a class about zines. I’m dragging my housemate Maggie along with me for the adventure!
Alex Wrekk 