April Books and Feeling Overwhelmed

This will be a short post.  I only finished four books in April.  I finished another today and can finish one more tomorrow, if I get the time.  But those two are May books.

We're still getting settled in our new house.  We just painted the bedroom closet.  There's a huge walk-in closet upstairs.  I love it and really hate moving my clothes downstairs.  But I get it.  I'll leave the winter clothes and seldom worn shoes in the walk-in and bring lighter clothes and shoes I wear all the time downstairs.

I unwrapped all the artwork yesterday.  There are originals by local artists, there are prints of  paintings I can't afford, and there are original prints, if that makes sense.  I hang the prints in my bathroom and plan to hang the originals in the living room and dining room.  I had been thinking that we had less wall space in this house because it has more windows.  But it also has more rooms, so there is more wall space.  Now it's just deciding which pictures to hang where.

We've been spending a lot of time watching birds at the feeders.  After living in Philly for twelve years and seeing almost exclusively pigeons, English sparrows, starlings, the occasional hawk and cardinal, we're overwhelmed (not what I meant in the title of this post) by birds we haven't seen since Marshfield and a couple of new birds.  We have goldfinches, chipping sparrows, white-throated sparrows, probably more sparrows that I haven't identified yet, blue jays, cardinals, Carolina wrens, cowbirds, catbirds, turkey vultures, and more.  The more unusual birds we've seen are the brown thrasher we saw this morning, the two pairs of rose-breasted grosbeaks, which we've never seen before, and the indigo bunting, which I've only seen once before.  A hummingbird has been checking out the hummingbird feeder but hasn't stopped to drink.  It's like an avian Cirque du Soleil!

So, here's the list of April books:

The Wench is Dead  -  Colin Dexter

Die Trying  -  Lee Child

Free Air  -  Sinclair Lewis

A Darker Domain  -  Val McDermid

I have to say that none of them were really terrific.  Or maybe it's just the mood I've been in.  I keep feeling that when I'm reading, I really should be doing something else.  It makes it hard to 'get lost in a book'.  Don't you always feel a little depressed or disappointed when you spend the time to read a book and it fails you?  I keep hoping that I can find more time to read.  How do you find time to read?  Before bed?  In the morning?  Do you take hours during the day?  And do you ever feel like you're wasting your life if you're not reading?!

Washington Avenue Green, Philadelphia, PA

There's a fairly new park in my neighborhood.  It's only been open for a year or so.  Jack and I walked down to see it last fall and decided we liked the relative peace there.  It's sandwiched between busy Columbus Boulevard and the equally commercial Delaware River, so 'relative' is the operative word.

The park is attractively designed, with a nice new pier walk and a few informational signs.  From 1870 until 1915, Pier 53 was an immigration station, primarily for immigrants from eastern and southern Europe.  The station was demolished in 1915.  So, like many places in Philadelphia, we have the ruins of what once was.

For us, the big draw is the opportunity to see some birds that we don't see much of anymore.  When we lived in the country in Massachusetts, on the banks of a stream and with wetlands and woodlands, we saw anything and everything.  Around our current house and in the city, we see mostly pigeons, starlings, sparrows, robins, a few mourning doves (which I adore), and the occasional hawk.  I hear a cardinal every now and then, but I almost never see one.  This winter, we had a pair of Slate-colored (Dark-eyed) juncoes that we fed on our tiny patio.  So we were delighted to see cormorants and ruddy ducks and a pair of tree swallows.  We also saw a downy woodpecker, but he / she flew off before I could get a photo.  And you'll just have to take my word that those dots in the water are ruddy ducks, lovely small ducks with white on their heads and perky little tails.

As we were entering the park, I noticed this strange object hanging in the branches.  What do you think?  Voodoo?