Press mentions, event recaps, and milestones from the trail.
August 19, 2026
The Centretown BUZZ came out to the Street Seats workshop in July, and this month Painted Perches is on the front page of the paper, with the rest of the story carried on inside. Alayne McGregor wrote it. She got the part that matters right. This started with one birdhouse in the tree out front, at the end of a long winter, and the small bit of colour it put into the day. The piece also covers the hole reducers we have been fitting to the bigger openings so smaller birds get a fair shot at moving in, and it finds Liz Lumsden and her daughter Tilly painting theirs bright green with pink polkadots. Tilly explained that it would not only be a birdhouse. It would also be for rainbow fairies. The trail had 28 birdhouses on the map when the BUZZ went to print. It is 33 now, and one of them is in Scotland. Thank you to the BUZZ, and to Alayne, for coming out and for telling it plainly. You can read the whole story on their site.
Read the story in the Centretown BUZZ →July 26, 2026
Saturday's Street Seats workshop at Cambridge and Somerset was the biggest day Painted Perches has had. Blue sky the whole afternoon, a steady crowd from one o'clock right through to four, and more than 70 birdhouses painted and carried home. We brought what we thought was plenty and went straight through them. Watching that many neighbours pull up a chair, pick a colour, and make something for their own street was the best kind of surprise. Thank you to everyone who came out. The trail just got a lot bigger.
July 26, 2026
Painted Perches is now available in Arabic, alongside English, French, Vietnamese, and Simplified Chinese. That makes five languages. Arabic is spoken by plenty of people in and around this neighbourhood, and a project built on neighbours telling their own stories should be readable in the language they actually speak at home. Every page now reads in Arabic, right to left, the way it should. Birdhouse stories are included too. Every story already on the site now reads in Arabic, and if you write yours in Arabic, everyone else can read it in theirs. Use the globe at the top of any page to switch. If something reads wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
July 13, 2026
David Scrimshaw and his partner Manon each painted a birdhouse for their Centretown home. David's is "The Yellow Leaf House," Manon's is "The Mini Manonsion," and both are mixed to match their own house's colours. David wrote the whole thing up on his blog, hoping two little bird families will move in. This is exactly why we do this.
Read David's post →July 11, 2026
We got our first donation this week. Genuinely rewarding, and a good reminder that this isn't just one person's project. It's the neighbourhood's. And there's more coming: the Painted Perches Street Seats Paint Workshop is happening Saturday, July 25th, 1 to 4 PM, right at Cambridge and Somerset. Free birdhouses, paint, and brushes. Just show up.
July 6, 2026
A few small things came together behind the scenes: a regular sticker for handing out, and a beautified QR code that reads as its own little piece of folk art. Colourful birdhouses and birds woven right into the code, and it still scans just fine. We also got flyers made and have been out posting them around the neighbourhood: telephone poles, bulletin boards, a few doors along LeBreton St. If you spot one, that's us.
June 29, 2026
Two events down, and the neighbourhood showed up: bright ones, weird ones, a little log cabin, a rainbow, one with someone's name on the roof. Every single birdhouse painted at those first sessions is now out on the street for someone to find. If you want to paint one, you're invited. Always.
June 24, 2026
Painted Perches kicked off for real on June 24th, right outside Killer Buns on LeBreton St N. Brushes out, buns in hand, and the block turned into one big open-air paint studio for an evening. Big thanks to Killer Buns for hosting, and to everyone who pulled up a chair and made something. This is exactly what we hoped it would look like.
June 5, 2026
It took about three months of building, and rebuilding, to get paintedperches.ca just right. A map of the whole trail, a story page for every birdhouse, and four languages so the whole neighbourhood can read it in their own. This is the foundation everything else is built on. Welcome to the trail.