She scattered the bird seed all around the foot of the fountain. Just throwing it around, fall where it may, waiting to be picked up by one of her cohorts from the sky.

I halfway expected her to extend a bag and say, “Feed the birds. Tuppence a bag.”

But this isn’t London. Nor the Mary Poppins movie.

Sadly.

However, it is a good lead-in to another installment of recents from the fancy phone photo roll.

There are few places that can truly rock a near-psychedelic, bright purple, tinsel tree. But a breakfast place called Jelly Cafe whose mascot is a piece of toast with a happy face?

Yeah, I think they got it.

A woman after my own heart, she dove right into her morning paper while waiting to board the plane I too would take to San Francisco two weeks ago. There really is nothing like the smell of newsprint in the morning.

I can only assume the cupcake truck was making house calls when I stepped out my front door this morning and saw this sight for sore eyes.

Now if only I could figure out who you need to know to get such a house call in this town.

Yes, that’s a beautiful holiday wreath above the classic holiday message of “Peace.”

Yes, that is also a rifle.

It is also, consequently, the mantelpiece in my beloved family home.

We like to keep our holiday cheer with a good dose of irony.

(Full disclosure: That rifle is an antique, barely still held together rifle and not very useful for its original purpose. It is pretty darn photogenic though. We may like to pretend we’re wild outlaws of the west, but really, we just really like antiques. And cowboy boots. And Emily wants a cow. But that’s another story entirely.)