A Cardinal on Elgin

Last week, I was bicycling to work when I noticed a big chalk message on the Gladstone sidewalk just before the bus shelter at Bronson: “Tanya, you're beautiful and you're stubborn, please see a doctor and get your leg fixed”. I thought about going home for my camera, but I was already late. Then in front of a house east of Bronson in the same yellow chalk and hand-writing: “Tanya, I left a present by your window – a friend”.

Since then, I've been carrying the camera everywhere. I've got lots of blurry shots from the Blues Festival now. This morning while biking along Gladstone again, I thought that what I really needed was a camera carrier on my handle bars because with the camera in its little bag at the bottom of my backpack it was too hard to get at it for a quick shot.

That's when I passed a portly man who looked to be in his sixties wearing a navy blue blazer and grey flannel pants trying clean up a big spill of brilliant purple paint on the sidewalk. Yes, I should have stopped, rooted for the camera, etc. but I was running late and the man might not have hung around, so I didn't.

On the way home, I had my camera ready. And within a block of City Hall, I spotted this little artificial cardinal attached to a loose wire on a phone pole in front of Dunn's.

Don't know who put it there, but whoever you are, nicely done!