Mixed Media Mayhem - Birds of a Feather

People tend to think of Florida as an environment with no major seasons, but  living here for fifteen years I have observed subtle changes or natural events that mark the year into pieces.  For example, the live oak trees that shade my yard have a cycle starting in January when they lose about one third of their leaves which I rake day after day, followed by flowering and dropping pollen that coats the windows, cars, and patio. Then by March the blossoms have died and fall in brown masses that fill the pool, stain the deck, and and block up the bromeliads.  Finally the new green leaves come out and a new season is here. This Spring like season is enhanced by the return or conspicuous presence of a variety of birds.  Walking back from the mail box, I saw that I have a woodpecker nest in a hollow place in one of the oak branches.  Washing dishes, I watched several cardinals frolicking in the viburnum.  Reading on the the pool deck, I was distracted by the loud exclamations of black birds that swooped from limb to limb.  All of this bird watching reminded me of the joy I experienced when I lived in New England, and after a lengthy snow season I spotted a blue jay in the forsythia bush...an image that still seems vivd after more than twenty five years.  To commemorate this happiness of impeding spring, I made this journal entry, Birds of a Feather, joining other mixed media artists on Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Birds of a Feather.

Part of the fun of journaling is searching or creating the images to focus the page.  I love antique postcards and combed Graphics Fairy until I came upon this sweet image of the Tufted Titmouse.  I found the nest in my Dover files.  To make a background I covered the pages the birds' egg blue tissue paper followed by a heavy layer of Golden crackle paste.  As it dried the crackle paste chipped like broken eggs shells.  Some blue Japanese paper, a postal stamp and my Haiku-like poem writtne with Faber Castell big pen marker on white tissue paper completed this page for me.  It makes me happy.