The Birds

I haven't posted in a while. I've been writing quite a bit, but nothing that I'm ready to go public with yet.  I felt it was time for a blog post though.  After all, I don't want you to all give up and leave me, never check my blog again, so on this cold spring Friday, I'll write about birds.

Actually, the story begins at my tiny apartment in Friedenau that I share with one other person, the fabulous Sedrik.  My room is 10 square meters and shaped like a hallway.  On certain days, it's okay.  On other days, I can's stand the lack of space.  The furniture is too large for the room and there's no room for a decent work area, but in May Sedrik and I and another person named ClausKatrin are moving to a 3 room WG in Wedding where I will have 17 square meters of space all to myself and I am VERY excited.

But back to the present.  Sedrik and I have a small balcony attached to the kitchen.  It's mostly where we hang clothes to dry and when Robert comes over, it's where he smokes his cigarettes.  There is a bunch of trash, disorganized clutter, and plants lying about, or there was, until for a few brief days it was sunny and warm here in Berlin and I decided to make myself a work area. 

Down to the basement went the ugly roll of carpet, back to the store went the plastic bottles (you get Pfand, or money back, for plastic and Glass bottles.)  Away went the dead plants and into a bucket all the once used soil.  I filled the birdfeeder, than swept and even vacuumed the tiled balcony floor, wiped down the white folding table, put some candles on it, and voila!  Beautiful balcony!  I even hung up a bag of fake flowers I had found on the street months ago.  I had a nice, clean, outdoor work area!  And I started writing about my past, my personal history.  Two hours a day on the balcony.  yellowhammers, wheatears and treesparrows came to dine at the birdseed buffet while I scribed, having tiny conversations and arguments over nut and seed.  How lovely! 

See how pretty I made it?

Then the weather got cold again, so I had to take my writing practice inside.  Two days later when I looked out at the balcony, the freshly swept tile floor was littered with birdseed!  It's as if these tiny Avians had had a food fight!  I mean, they really put some effort into flinging the stuff around!  Gone was my image of shy and polite little creatures, delicately nibbling at their brunch.  These guys were party animals, getting wild and crazy at some seedy singles bar, trashing the place before winging it back to the nest.  Their chirpy conversations have become vulgar to my ears.  I'm the late night cleaner, the one who locks up the joint after everyone else has gotten wasted and gone home.  Those damn birds.  Thank god they don't shit where they eat!

Look at this carnage!