On a zoom call with a colleague today, I called (in passing) today’s weather here in northern Illinois the Platonic ideal of a spring day. I knew he’d understand the reference, a leftover from a liberal education that occasionally makes its way into movies. I suppose it counts as a kind of exaggeration since, by definition, I think, no actual spring day here on Earth could take the form of a Platonic form, but merely to aspire toward it.

Anyway, it was still warm late in the afternoon when I got the notion to clean my deck. Clear it of such things as broken pottery.

These metal grasshoppers have waited out the winter on an outdoor table. They were gifts, long ago, from Jay and Deb.

A new bird feeder, which I soon filled and hung on a thick tree branch. The brand name: Audubon. In the world of bird equipment, that’s like naming your product after Lincoln.

Our pink flamingo.

It’s cracked up top, so this might be its last summer. For a dollar store purchase, two years might be as long as you can expect.