birds (and thirds)

Wet, grey weather today - quite likely the tail end of the system that hit Los Angeles over Christmas.  But this didn't deter hordes of finches coming and raiding our hanging birdseed contraptions: I was particularly pleased with myself not just for bending and shaping the wires that they're suspended from, but for attaching little perches at the bottom, made of piñon kindling, that have proved extremely popular.

And I've been putting together my 2026 calendar - not, technically speaking, too late, although I imagine they'll get here a few days after the new year.  I was always driven by the imperative to have them ready to transport one over to England as part of my parents' Christmas present, but now that's no longer an issue, calendar production rather lost out the last couple of years to the end of the semester.  But this year I was struck by how little choice there is among the major card/calendar printing companies if you don't want a square, 12 x 12 product.  I had all my rectangular images ready ... but only one reputable company seems to want to take them in that form.  And if one composes so many photos by reflexive default according to the rule of thirds (even this bird feeder is roughly positioned 1/3 up, 1/3 in), that means having to do a compositional rethink for square images, and that's not something I felt like embarking on ...