I totally stole the title of this post from my best friend Phatty Tuna.  It really got me thinking though, as I revamped my site and struggled to come up with a new header photo… what picture or pictures capture my new surroundings?

Napa was easy… a shady road with vines on it.  Simple.  Descriptive.  It portrayed a natural setting where one would be able to find birds.  What about my new home, a typical suburban city smack in the heart of the Bay Area… of Silicon Valley.  What does a person think of when they hear Silicon Valley?  Big corporate buildings… cars stuck in traffic… the Golden Gate Bridge maybe (for those who immediately associate the Bay Area with San Francisco)?  These are certainly what immediately come to my mind.  As I look out my window, I see just roof tops with a smattering of tree tops sprinkled throughout. 

Well, perhaps I should have a picture of that then, eh?  It’s a true-to-life situation for those living around here.  Or, do I pretend I am actually up in the foothills where there is actually ample greenery (well… it’s really only really green for a few short months of the year, now being that time)? 

Aha!  I’ll take a panorama of the Valley from a hillside!  That way I’ll have greenery AND the trueness of the setting with the buildings included.  Hmm… without being a wizard at Photoshop, how do I get around the omni-present smog (by the way, happy Earth Day everybody!)?  After a rain?  Sunny California doesn’t lend itself to many of these opportunities (and, after raining the trails can be horrendous). 

How about just a collage of bird photos then, like some other birding blogs?  Um, precisely that — it’s been done by other blogs.  I would really like to be more creative than that… at least be able to come up with my own scheme or something.

Sigh.  Disappointed by my innate lack of creativity, I wailed about my predicament to Phatty Tuna on the treadmill at one of our gym dates.  She’s got a degree in graphic design and excitedly offered her Photoshop expertise to hone the one idea I had floating around in my head that I was halfway happy with.  Still working out the details, but rest assured, it will appear soon.