KatysBlog

I recently purchased a
finch feeder and hung it on the railing
of our upstairs deck – well above where the neighborhood cats lurk. The two nearest
trees are a lemon and an almond with no big branches within cat leaping distance.
Living on the
Guadalupe River in San Jose, California, our yard is home to wild birds of
all kinds. This is at least the third finch feeder in our immediate neighborhood –
Jamie has one and Linda does too – but there seem to be more than enough little
birds for everyone.

The lady in the shop where I bought the tube feeder (an Aspects Nyjer Mesh Feeder) said
there are seven types of finches in California. She recommended Nyjer Thistle (or
black thistle) seeds as a favorite food. I don’t know the names of our birds but
they are mostly green or yellow with black and white accents. I am reading about
finches on the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology “All About Birds” web site.

No finches showed interest when we first put up the
feeder; however, a month later the little greedy guts are going through a full
tube of seed every few days. The brick walkway below the feeder is black with
chaff and spilled seed. My husband said our local mourning doves and smaller songbirds
eat the thistle seed that falls.

The finches constantly squabble and peck and peep at each other when not
actually eating. They do not seem to care whether they are up, down, or sideways
when eating. They look around and shift position regularly and all flit off at any
danger sign. (We slowly sneak up on them to take pictures.) I feel peaceful watching
these lively little birds.

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

I have written from time to time about the subway and metro map collection
Sun Distinguished Engineer
Danny Cohen and I have been building for some years in
Sun Labs Menlo Park, CA. Last May, a
large part of our map collection was destroyed due to a misunderstanding
on the part of a facilities contractor. I am pleased to announce that
our Homage to Beck metro map boards are back –
better than before! After facilities staff and others donated new maps, Danny and I now
have enough for two extra-large bulletin boards in addition to our original board.
We have maps of:

* Amsterdam     * Bangkok     * Barcelona
* Boston        * Budapest    * Cairo Egypt
* Chicago       * Frankfurt   * Hamburg
* Helsinki      * Hong Kong   * Houston
* Kuala Lampur  * London      * Lyon France
* Madrid        * Marseilles  * Moscow Russia
* Munich        * New York    * Oslo
* Paris         * Prague      * Rome
* San Francisco * Santa Clara * Seoul
* Singapore     * Sofia       * St. Petersburg Russia
* Stockholm     * Sydney      * Taipei
* Tokyo         * Washington  * Wellington NZ
* Zurich

All of the maps in our collection present a design that derives
at least partially from

Harry Beck’s 1933 London subway map. The point of the display is that excellent
design communicates across cultures and can perpetuate itself through inspiration.

New bulletin boards

Original collection down the hall

Danny and me

“New Yorker” Subway Man

Maps close up

Maps posted so far

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

For photos of the original map display, check out my blog –

February 07, 2008.

For your own instant map collection, buy

Transit Maps of the World – The World’s First Collection of
Every Urban Train Map on Earth

by Mark Ovenden, Penguin, 2007


ISBN-10: 0143112651,
ISBN-13: 978-0143112655