Behind the Ironic Column

This time of year in Portland I often make the mistake of looking out the window, seeing bright spring leaves and flowering trees, and assuming that the temperatures are somehow as mild as the view.  It’s even more deceptive if the sun happens to be shining (as it does all too infrequently).  But as soon as I get downstairs and walk out the door I realize that jackets are still very much in order – and a scarf as well since the wind has a definite chill to it. 

I’m not the only person to make this mistake.  Walking across campus this morning, I noted that the students returning from spring break were not exactly dressed for the weather.  It’s nowhere near tank top, shorts and flip-flops weather yet.  One young man standing in line at Starbucks commented to his companion that he hadn’t realized HOW cold it was going to be.  So maybe that expectation of warmth isn’t just something in my mind — leftover from growing up in the south, where I remember temperatures being warmer than this when the spring flowers were out.  Still, we’re relatively lucky.  Somebody just told me that there’s snow up near Seattle – and they thought that was behind them for this year.

As I continued my walk, I went past the daffodil bed which cheers commuters and walkers passing by an otherwise nondescript parking lot.  I believe these are left-overs from a house or other building that used to be on that site.  Whatever the reason, they’re there and the bright yellow is a sure antidote to gloomy skies.  Today I noticed that the handset of the pay phone on the next corner is also bright yellow.  I don’t walk around that corner very often so I don’t know how long it’s been that way, but it’s a very striking color – not at all like a regular pay phone kiosk.  The question is why?  Is there a new trend toward colored phone sets?  The trend I know about is the one toward removing all public phones because so many people have cell phones these days that the public pay phones no longer provide enough revenue to make up for the cost of maintaining them.  They are undoubtedly cheerier – especially in a city that has too many gray days – than their black counterparts. 

That combination of black and yellow reminds me that I’m waiting for the flocks of American Goldfinches to pass through the park – it seems like it should be time.  Bright yellow with their dress-up black caps and wings, American Goldfinches bring more spring cheer.  Large flocks pass through, chatting to each other in the tops of the park elms, as they get ready for the new season’s nesting chores.

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