a day for sparrows

Tonight my mom and I went for a walk in the graveyard where my Nana is buried, which is something we often do. It's a beautiful place to take walks, especially at sunset. The sky has always looked strangely amazing from that place. Very pink and orange, and the clouds always look like clouds in some renaissance oil painting. The graveyard also happens to be a kind of collector of things belonging to a natural history category. It is home to many almost exotic-seeming kinds of trees that were planted intentionally rather than grown wild. There is lots of wild life - especially birds. Tonight in particular the birds were going crazy. It started when we had just gotten out of the car. I was looking down at the grass and felt movement directly above me. I looked up and an enormous flock of small black birds was in transit just a few feet over my head. I'm always in awe to see birds flying in flocks through the air, and how they all turn in the same direction all at once as though they were one moving body. It's one of a few specific things that always take my breath away no matter what. To look up and see them so close to me, that large mass of beautiful little creatures becoming one shape, it was almost haunting. It turns out they all took off out of the little tree that was right next to me because a falcon was in our presence. When I watched the birds fly away, I noticed a flock of Canadian Geese up on the hill. They looked like small dinosaurs. So, in honor of all the birds I met today, here is a page from my sketchbook from a summer trip I took with Rachel to the Harvard Natural History Museum. Also, I want to say thank you to everyone who came to the zine fair and supported me and the other vendors! It means a lot. And thank you to Ellen and Susan for being good company. :) Love, Amanda