little things mean a lot

Do you notice anything interesting about this picture?

No, you're saying, we've seen so doggone many shots of your kitchen by now, PatL, that there's absolutely nothing interesting left. It's all old hat. Puh-lease, let's move on.

Ok, sorry, but here's the thing. This whole process of putting together this "new" kitchen has been full of surprises. I'm a techie. Sometimes I manage techies. So, I'm the type of person who usually thinks things through pretty carefully before she does them. And believe you me, this kitchen was so lovingly thought through, so yearned for, so .. ahem .. obsessed over, that if I weren't familiar with how projects go in other spheres of my life, I'd have said there were no surprises left.

But here was one that happened right when the granite installer was creating the template for the countertops. He began to draw the template so that the sinks were centered under the window. That's how our old sinks were, that's kind of the standard thing to do, that's what he was going to do. But as he was doing it, I realized I could fix something that's always been an annoyance.

You see, we have bird feeders hanging to the left of these windows, strung between the house and a tree. Our precise method of doing that might be of interest to some of you, if I tell you that we have absolutely no squirrel problems with our feeders. Ever. But I digress.

When standing at the sink I would almost always lean forward so I could see the birds on the feeders. And this is where the surprise comes in ... I suddenly realized that I could have the sinks positioned to the right, so that I could see the birds without having to lean forward! Which meant that I could watch them more or less constantly, while doing the dishes or whatever. Yahoo!

So, what you'll notice in the first picture now, if you didn't already, is that the sinks are off-center. My wonderful installer realized he could place them so that the center wall between the two sinks is lined up with the center of the windows, so it doesn't look totally haphazard. And now, when I stand at my sink, I just have to turn my head to see this view.

Little things mean a lot. I love my birds. I love to see who's out there, what flashes of color there are, who's making that sound, who ferociously defends their perch and who scatters easily. In the spring it's always fun to see the birds who've come back, or who pass through on their way further north. I love knowing that because of our feeders we have more birds than we would have otherwise, and the birds will survive the winter and come back to make this their dining room next spring. I love hearing all the birdsong in the spring as they figure out who they're going to mate with and who will get the best nest position. I just love it all. Isn't it FABULOUS?

And the little things are not always obvious in the beginning, as this one wasn't. We have to stay flexible, involved, even, yes, analytical -- even when we think we've got something all figured out.

Or someone.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' with it.