So it’s been since February since I’ve posted. The springtime wasn’t too great here — except for our trip to Italy in April!  — so maybe I just neede the warm weather to get moving again.

Nothing much has changed on the balcony. The titmice are still hoarding peanuts in my plants. Chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals (fewer than last year, though), morning doves, sparrows (fewer than earlier, maybe someone else is feeding them again). I have seen more grackles, but none on my balcony. No more pigeons since the pigeon-feeding lady moved away.

Another neighbor is shamelessly feeding the birds – she obviously is not afraid of the condo cops. She (or he, I suppose) has two hanging feeders and a PLATFORM feeder that hangs on the OUTSIDE of the railing. How can no one have complained about this yet!? I guess the downstairs neighbors don’t use their balconies much, surely it is a mess.

Speaking of using balconies, I have started to campaign to get them to change the bylaws that prevent us from hanging laundry on the balconies. It is such an outdated and inappropriate rule. Can aesthetics really trump energy conservation to such an extent? I mean, it’s not as if people here have nice looking balconies. I look out and see bicycles, tires, old blinds, storage bins, sporting eqipment, old aquariums… surely there’s not many people would consider a clothes line uglier than that crap.