My kids call me a bird geek--we have bird feeders on the deck. Sometimes I lose a morning, watching those purple finches, chickadees and cardinals. When a goldfinch comes, I have to call somebody and tell--they are so beautiful. Well, all this bird talk brings me to what's on my mind. That oil spill in the Gulf is so distressing. How will it ever get cleaned up, with thousands of gallons of crude still spewing? I've been thinking about the shore birds. I took a great picture of a bunch of pelicans tussling in the water. I think birds are going to show up in some paintings this summer. Step one.