Damn Pigeons
As the Drawing Room is a place to dig a little deeper, I hope that you not only get to learn more about the details behind my installations, but that you also get to learn a little more about me and my charmed but wacky life.
This has been a summer of pigeons. Sitting out our sliding door. Quoth the pigeons, “Share some more.”
OK.
After 15 years in my high-rise condo, this is our first time “hosting” our feathered friends (a.k.a nightmare birds). Don’t get me wrong, I love birds. I love to listen to them in the park as I walk to the studio. They are mesmerizing.
I am not the only one in the family obsessed with birds. Our cats, Franklin and Fiona, love when a bird lands on the balcony, way up high. They make that chirpy cat sound and they pack hunt from inside like two velociraptors. It is like watching a nature documentary. We normally all get a kick out of the arrival of a bird.
And then Pidgie, Bess and Chunky Mr. White arrived. Quoth the pigeons, “Share some more.”
This crew of pigeons was not alone. Our condo building and the other surrounding ones became ground zero for a summer pigeon invasion. Boy, howdy! We sure loved this at first. We stopped streaming Netflix for once and instead and turned our attention to our amazing (yet ineffective) pack hunters. We did not count on the birds moving in as long-term guests. The pigeons did not care one bit.
It has been over two months since they arrived. They. Are. Still. Here. Let’s not go down the list of everything we have tried to evict these birds. We really have tried ever-e-thing. They weren’t having it. Quoth the pigeons, “Share some more.”
Just when my pigeon tolerance level was being tested to highest limit, my friend, Jeff came by the studio to help me think through my tablescapes. Jeff provided the beautiful taxidermy for several Warmhouse Story photo shoots and events. When he walked in and looked around, he insisted that he had the perfect creature for my Stop and Eat the Flowers table. A Victoria Crowned Pigeon.
He said ‘twas something I’d adore. Quoth the pigeons, “Tell us more.”
Well, this story has been going on a while, so let me get out of the Edgar Allen Poe-ness of it all and wrap this puppy up.
The peeps at Wiki say that the Victoria Crown Pigeon is a large, bluish-grey pigeon with elegant blue lace-like crests, maroon breast and red irises. It is part of a genus of four unique, very large, ground-dwelling pigeons native to the New Guinea region. Its name commemorates the British monarch, Queen Victoria. That is a quote, folks.
This is a sizable bird. It also matched the Farrow & Ball’s De Nimes paint color in my Inspirational Parlor exactly. Good eye, Jeff.
So, the selection was made, and the taxidermy bird joined the table and brought all kinds of moody drama with it. I think that it totally makes the table. I enjoyed its beauty for the time it was in my studio. And then we decided to say our goodbyes. I took it back to Isles Studio.
Back on the home front, Pidgie, Bess and Chunky Mr. White are still visiting, albeit less regularly. They are all chunky pigeons now. The cats care less. We care less. Since this is the first time that this has happened in the many years in our abode, we hope that it is a one-time thing. We have to believe this concept or we will go mad. Be sure to check back next year to see if I have flown the coop. Bwahahaha. I crack myself up!
