Nature Study Monday: Red-breasted Nuthatch

Oh for the love of this upside down eater!  As the Red-breasted Nuthatch dines upside down outside of our kitchen window, all of us gaze on in wonder!  Her long bill, big head, and flighty ways always grab my attention.

This bird is another cavity nester; and it is one of the only birds that is not a woodpecker who excavates its own nest.  Its long bill must help get that job done.  Evidently both sexes help excavate the nest site, but the female does most of the work.
I have been observing these critters for months now, but like the Chickadee, they are hard to capture on film because they flit away in just a moments time

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  

Amanda Soule

Yarn Along: 23 February

Joining Ginny again today...

The B.O.B. is coming along swimmingly.  I am working my way through the first sleeve at the moment.  I just switched to double points from a circular needle because I thought I might get violent with either the sleeve or the needle if I didn't.   We are all getting along much better now.  I am also going to add a few ore inches to the body of the sweater as it seems to be knitting {really} short.

I have been doing some sock knitting at stop lights and on ski slopes this week {in hopes of saving myself form the last minute Christmas rush}.  Socks are such great projects to pull out when waiting for something {anything}. Today after doing some skiing, I was taking my turn watching our baby at the bottom of the mountain (err... hill... this is New Jersey); he napped in my arms and I knitted.  Whole-hearted contentment to knit with ski boots on with a baby in my arms while watching my kids learn to ski, the sun shining all the while.  Skiing, knitting, sleeping baby, warm sun and white white snow.

Once I finish Winter World, I am looking forward to reading The Good LIfe.  Have you read it?

Nature Study Monday: Black-capped Chickadee

The infamous Black-capped Chickadees make frequent visits to our feeders, but they stay for such a short while before flitting off to eat the seed that I have found it hard to get a great shot of these really cute little critters. They reside year-round in the mid-west and northern parts of the United States and into Canada.

These tiny birds are cavity nesters.  The female selects the site and then she and her mate excavate it before she lays 1 to 13 eggs.  Chickadees are frequently accompanied by others birds, such as as the Downy Woodpecker, so if one arrives at your feeder, other birds of interest may pay a visit as well!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  

Amanda Soule

Coats and Mittens and Hats and Stuff

There is a lot to like about winter~the pristine beauty of the icy world, brightly colored birds that pepper that white world with their streaks of color, warm (or at least kinda warm, and by that we mean a few (and only a few) degrees warmer than outside) days and nights spent indoors playing games and reading (and siblings raging at each other), and the fast fast fast sledding over bumps and down hills hollering~oh my gosh, yes, there is a lot to love.  But there is one thing that I for surely do NOT love and that is the winter gear and the location (or locations) of it in our house.  Despite our designated basket and somewhat ample closet space, I find straggler mittens and discarded coats either dropping out of an overflowing basket or nowhere near that basket at all.

Then I read this post and realized that I had some say in this matter.  So I began by painting a child's block that I had long ago confiscated from the kids (as its length made it the perfect weapon in sibling battles) and painted it the color of our trim.  Then I cut up some images from wallpaper that we sampled but never used, found some old hooks in a closet upstairs, and with a little drilling help from my husband, we made the thing.  When I tell you that our quality of life has improved since it was hung, I would not be exaggerating. A place for everything, and {almost} everything in its place.

Yarn Along: 16 February

Joining Ginny again today...

A week full of knitting and reading and not a whole lot more to show for it (expect for knitter's shoulder.  Is there such a thing?)  I have finished the body of the B.O.B., although after holding it around my body and further reading some of the comments, I have decided to add a couple more inches in length to it.  I have a rather long torso and its sounds as if the sweater is knitting short.  I do love it though and and can wait to wear it!

On the book front, while still reading Winter World at night, in anticipation of my chicken dreams becoming a reality, I have been paying a lot more attention to this book on the nightstand (and on the sidebar).  Do any of you have chickens?