love goes to a pterodactyl on fire

along my thrice weekly 2 hour brisk walk through the local neighborhood park (right across the street and it's huge) i often look up into the trees to catch a glimpse of the 'art birds' that some anonymous kind soul has placed at random intervals along the various hilly foot paths.

years back mavis first noticed the rather large painted-on-wood artifacts. she recognized an archeopteryx (she had, oddly enough, just done a report for her 2nd grade project), a bluejay, an eagle and the pterodactyl (there are now 2 arheopteryx, a hawk, a thunderbird and a couple of odd as yet uncatergoriseable avians). no credit anywhere, no fanfare, no local coverage, no google finds. and that's kind of nice. most park users don't even see them until pointed out. mavis delights in doing that.

the birds just pop up and make the viewing that much more interesting.

mavis and i like to imagine that this artist is a woman and uses the cover of night to climb the trees and make her installation. i kind of hope that we never find out.

i just love the pterodactyl in particular. cheers me up and gives me a boost when i'm down. the ancient creature perched up on high encourages me to think of all the things i could be doing to make just somebody smile.

as i stroll, i find myself occasionally worrying that some kind of fire might destroy parts of the park (it has happened before) and i worry about the birds. the art birds. i can't really see myself climbing up a tree as the fire rages at me. and i can't believe that the artist hadn't considered this when placing these objects for us to enjoy.

then i realize that the ephemeral nature of this project would allow for all that, and for some reason this brings me further joy.