Berkeley, California is known as a nutty town, and this morning even the wildlife seemed wacky. I don’t usually post photos, but just couldn’t resist sharing these pictures from this morning’s after-breakfast walk in the hilly neighborhood above Berkeley’s “Gourmet Ghetto.” This deer couple above were camped out in a secluded front yard. One had a strange floppy tongue, retracted only when she chewed an itch.
- OCD Bird
This bird was stuck in a loop of peering into the mirror of a parked car, attacking his image, jumping atop the mirror, and then coming back to see if the bird was still there, and attacking it again. I tried to shoo him away, but he started the loop again when I walked away. Do birds get OCD?
These chickens had a huge yard to themselves but gathered together in one tiny corner, all trying to all perch on the same chunk of log. Makes you wonder about how important “free range” really is to chickens.
And then there are the people. These neighbors built a second story bridge between their two houses for their cats. (above and below)
And these humble homeowners hung this on their modest bungalow in a neighborhood where even a 3-room shack is worth half a million dollars.
And then there were the bird lovers…
…and goose lovers…
and Monkey madness and…
and just plain madness…
That’s a dismantled parking meter below the Australia sign. Their whole front yard was filled with similar flotsam and jetsam.
Of course I would have preferred to sketch these sights, but I was walking with a non-sketching friend whose patience was already tried by my taking photos, let alone stopping to sketch. And now I’m even further behind posting all the sketches and paintings I’ve been working on.
Jana Bouc, Artist 