Nature Study Monday: White-Throated Sparrow

The White-Throated Sparrow is a rather infrequent visitor to our backyard.  In fact, this shot may have been the only time I have seen one of these in our midst.  This creature has especially distinguished facial markings (the streaks of yellow, white and black make it hard to confuse with other backyard birds).

The birds can be found all over Canada in the spring and summer, and, lucky for us, they spend their winters in the Northeast, mostly in woodlands but they can only be found in wooded suburbs (like ours) as well.  They build their nests on the ground and spend most of thir time on the ground foraging for nuts, seeds and berries.

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny again today for the Yarn Along...

After nearly eight years of knitting, I have finally resolved to knit something for myself.  And a sweater, no less.  This sweater.  The weather in these parts definitely calls for a sweater, and not of the zip-up, sweat-shirty sort.  I have a few of those; I wear them all too often.  So with this in mind, I am going to be taking care of Mama by keeping her warm and stylish at the same time (err--hopefully, my gauge is looking off right now).

I am still creeping through Winter World, although my slow pace does not at all reflect my enjoyment of the reading.  How wonderful it is to discover the winter lives of the animals that he writes of.  Caterpillars survive Maine winters on tree branches?   There are varying degrees of hibernation that animals drift in and out of?  It is a somewhat humbling, completely fascinating read.

Coming Untangled

I began the process of sorting through my yarn collection, of untangling strings that have been bound together for some years now, of separating, of thinning out, of grouping yarns of the same weight or manufacturer together.  I tell you, this endeavor felt like such a metaphor for our lives.  With three moves within a year and a half (two of those across the country) and a whole lot of emotional and physical unrest, we are just now (a few months shy of a year since our last move) starting to feel grounded in our house and in our skin.

There are so many, many things I have been wanting to tend to since all the moving/shifting/unsettling began but most days I felt as though we were just getting by, just putting another day behind us.   But things have began to settle for us and some of those forgotten projects are now getting some attention.

The sense of accomplishment I am getting from little things like untangling my stash of yarn and categorizing it on Ravelry is almost comical.  I have even gotten a label-maker (and boy oh boy do I love my labels?!). How horrified my twenty-five year-old self would be at this thirty-six year-old me. Oh, but it feels good to be in my own skin, better than it has felt in a long time.  Now for those baby books...

Nature Study Monday: Dark-eyed Junco

Oh Dark-eyed Junco, I am smitten with you.  You are so much prettier than your name.  The contrast between the deep grey of your back and the whiteness of your belly, the blackness of your eyes, the fluff of your feathers--it is all working quite well, feathery friend.

I have a fellow novice bird watching friend who spotted these flocking close to her home.  I had neither seen not heard of them until I saw one a few days later in our own backyard.

Juncos are mostly ground birds.  The flights they do take are generally short and close to the ground.  Around northeastern parts, they stay all year round.  Those that live in Canada travel south for the winter. Males tend to have more dramatic markings--my guess is that the one pictured is a male.  Once and male and a female junco mate, they build a nest on the ground, sometimes near the base of a large, coniferous tree for shelter.

Please come back for a visit soon and bring some friends, Dark-eyed Junco.  I will feed you, I promise.

{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

Winter Unfolded

I have been living in anticipation of winter for so long that it is almost hard for me to believe that it is here.  And the best part is, I am enjoying it more this year than ever have before.  

Being from a warmer climate, the Northeast winters are something of a mystery to me.  I have lived here for almost eight years, and it is only now that I understand that whenever, I mean whenever I go outside, even if it is only to take out the trash or dump the compost, I must wear a coat if it is in January or February.  I do not know why it is has taken me so long to grasp that concept but I have finally gotten it.

As a result, I am enjoying the blustery outdoors a whole lot more--the icicles, the shots of red in seas of white, the enveloping layer of warmy white over almost everything--all of it reminds me of the wonders this world offers forth at any given moment in time.  How blessed we are, all of us.

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny again today for the Yarn Along...

I have found so much solace as of late in my knitting and reading so the mere idea of this post brings me peace.  I used to save my knitting for the late night hours, leaving it untouched while the kids are rustling about.  Then I did some reading and thinking about the importance of surrounding our children with the "work" of living, of showing them how to care thoughtfully for what we have and for them to witness the particular love that goes into making a garment for them.  So the bulk of my knitting is still done at night when our home is quiet except for the clicking of my needles (and, err, thirtysomething reruns) in the background and I do pick it up for a row here and there during the rustling about hours.

Right now I am solidly in the middle of the On-the Goveralls for our youngest.  I made them in a 2T (he is a big 18 months) but it looks like these are sizing large.  He might be in them next winter rather than this one but I am keeping my fingers crossed for a couple wears this winter.

I am still reading The Skylark Sings with Me and Winter World and am planning to start Louise Bates Ames' Your Four Year Old and Your Five Year Old this week as I have a new 5 year old and a soon to be four year old.

Winter Walking

It has been cold, cold, cold (for us) around these parts this winter.  Our temperature has stayed in the mid-twenties for nearly the whole month of January.  This has meant a whole lot of indoor time for our little family of five and a whole lot of time together. 

We have started playing games, I have been knitting a lot, we have been painting, and cleaning, and sticking, and drawing.  And yesterday I think we just about ran out of things to do indoors and so we took ourselves outdoors and to the woods.

We have a middle child who is very sensitive to the cold so this meant only a little bit of time in these woods (and a whole lot more time spent getting on and taking off gear, but what can you do...). 

But the few moments that we spent out there were full of white, sparkly magic.  We saw birds' nests and animals tracks,  burrowed holes in the snow made into warm igloo-like animal homes--Bernd Heinrich's Winter World right before us, a true wonder to behold.

Nature Study Monday: Holly Tree

Our front and backyard are literally littered with holly trees.  They pop up in some of the most inopportune (and opportune) places and poked and prodded us throughout the spring, summer, and fall.  In a fervor, I pulled a couple of them out of the ground in the sweaty, angsty month of August.

In this winter season, though, I have our lovely holly trees to thank for vast numbers of winter birds that frequent our feeders.  Before we bought the house, I had a gardener friend visit to consult me on what plants, shrubs and trees should stay where they were, be relocated or removed.  She remarked that the holly trees, while not beautiful, would provide shelter for winter birds to roost in the winter.

And roost they do.  Chickadees, cardinals, blue jays, wrens, woodpeckers, doves, and so many more.  The red berries (which are a flowering white in the spring and summer months) are toxic to humans (although, it seems, not as toxic as we have been led to believe) but are loved by our winter birds.  The holly tree is obviously an evergreen so the birds do find shelter in its greenness while so many of our other trees are naked during this time of year.

So, in the end, I am grateful for these hollies of ours.  I just hope that I remember this in the heat of the summer...

{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

Birthday Birdies

We had a very small birthday celebration for Norah this year. Last year, Mama got to invite all of her (Mama) friends over (and their children) which resulted in very little birthday fun for our little girl (and very little fun for her Mama, for that matter, as Norah spent most of the party crying).  So this year I listened a little bit better and Norah knew what she wanted-- three girls, two from her preschool class and a neighbor friend.  This is enough, she said, and we listened.  I have always adhered to the invite as many friends as you are old rule, but our five year old wanted three friends so this is exactly what she got.  

It was a rather dignified celebration--so dignified that I feared it was too dignified at moments.  The quiet was near alarming considering the chaos of our previous parties.  And the clean up? Under twenty minutes.  Oh yes, I could get used to this kind of party!

For the party favors, I knit five baby birds and we spent the first part of the party making nests for them.  I gathered small bits from around the house--acorns, leaves, pine cones, some string, etc...  The girls molded nests out of some modeling clay and then made their nests with the bits that I gathered.

All in all, a good time was had by all (I hope), but most especially by Norah, our little (big) girl.

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny again today for the Yarn Along...

Knitting has been a real refuge for me this week.  While I have been too tired to read, I have found such solace on my needles (and of course in the woes of Hope and Michael on the latest (to me) episodes of Thirtysomething).  I am making Little C a pair of overalls; one leg is finished and the other one is in the works.
One of my goals for the new year is to have a better idea of how much money we are spending and where it is going. I started One Year to an Organized Financial Life in October (for me, more like 3 Years to an Organized Financial Life) and have worked my way to March by tracking our expenses (the the help of mint.com) and developing a preliminary budget for our little family of five.
I am looking forward to more knitting and a lot more reading for next Wednesday.  Happy reading and knitting everyone!

Happy 5th Birthday

Today our oldest turned 5 years old.

Our strong-willed, chubby cheeked 

oldest little one is one year older.

Thank you, my dear Norah, for all 

that you have taught me.  I am still

learning, little one, still learning.

Nature Study Monday: Dove

I do believe that we have a white dove who has been (or had been, rather) making regular visits to our backyard.   Mourning doves visit us all the time.  Before I knew anything at all about birds, I exclaimed to the kids and insisted to my husband that we did have owls.  Turns out I was quite wrong on that one and I don't think that I am mistaken here.  This all white dove hung around our backyard for a few weeks in the fall.

Release doves, like this one, are evidently smart creatures.  Once they establish a home, they will often return to it from quite a distance away.  Our visitor just stopped by for a while on his or her journey to somewhere else.  I wonder where she calls home and if she will return again.  I hope so...

{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

Holiday Gifting Continued: Heavy Baby

For our littlest one's second Christmas, I made a Heavy Baby, my second Waldorf doll.  I did cheat a little though--this time I purchased a premade head from Dream Pixie.  I remembered quite clearly how laborious a process this part was for me (and how incredibly sore my hands were!).  I did underestimate how long the rest of the process would take me and saved the doll-making until the bitter end, resulting in more sore hands.

Our Heavy Baby is quite literally heavy.  He is filled with millet and scented with lavender oil. 

Besides stuffing the head, embroidering the face is the most time-consuming and tedious part.  I did have some trouble with the first eye and wish I had practiced on some scrap fabric (my last minute making frenzy prevented that--argh!), but no one seems to notice but me.  We love this little (heavy) guy already!

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny again today for her Yarn Along...

As I said yesterday, we are trying very hard around our house to find our rhythm again.  The holiday bustle has thrown a kink in our home, a welcome one, but one that I am ready to say goodbye too (I just don't quite know how).  There has been little time for reading as I usually read right before sleeping and I have needed all of the sleep that I can get (so that I can remain calm in the face of the chaos).  What little reading I have done has been Winter World and some bits from The Children of Noisy Village.  

I do most of my knitting while watching Netflix movies (or Thirtysomething reruns) on my computer at night.  I have needed that time to check out at the end of these very long days so my knitting life has been rather full, I must say.  Currently I am working on  another pair of socks for next Christmas (determined I am to NOT experience the stress of holiday knitting again next year).  I'll let you know how that goes...

Nature Study Monday (on Tuesday): Lesser Scaup

The Lesser Scaup is one of the most common diving ducks in North America.  Pictured above is a male; females have white at the base of their bills and have brown plumage.  Scaups migrate as far as Central America for the winter.  Lesser Scaups can be found wintering in park lakes in Texas (as was this one).

~~~

In less interesting news, I am completely exhausted, hence the lack of posts as of late.  We are trying our hardest to get back into our rhythm  after the holiday travel, frenzied gift giving, and near disgusting over-eating, and it is oh-so-hard.  Hoping that Little C will gift his mama with some sleep tonight and that I will be back in full force tomorrow.