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?  

A Place for Everything.

and everything in its place (or as much so as this not-so-organized organizer can ever expect).  

I have been on an sorting/ sifting  roll lately.  For so many years, our family has been in a state of transition.  There was the year and a half leading up to our planned move to Portland, Oregon, there was the very sad, very long 10 months (only) that we spent in Portland, there was the move back to the Northeast, there was the new baby, there was the third move out of a rental and into our own house, there was the house renovation, and now there is the c a l m.

Except there must be something with me and this c a l m , as I not spending it so calmly.  There has been so much forgotten, neglected, put aside, thrown down, and ignored that I am quite honestly relishing the chance to tend to this "stuff" again.  With the help of my new label maker and a very organized lady, I am slowly but surely restoring a sense of order to our stuff and to our lives.

So far, I have 

~found a home (here or with the local Vietnam Veterans of America) for mounds and mounds of cords and other miscellaneous electronic equipment~

~burned my entire collection of cds to my hard drive, resulting in a couple cds being transplanted to my kids' bedrooms (currently our 5 year old is enjoying Creedence Clearwater Revival's Chronicle and the 4 year old has latched on to REM's Dead Letter Office. Hysterical, Awesone and Disturbing all at once)~

~sorted through countless pictures, letters, saved momentos (with countless more to go)~

~begun the process of consolidating my retirement funds from my various teaching positions~

~developed a budget and stuck to it~

I still want/need/have to

~work on (or start ACK!) those baby books~

~refinish our library card catalog and move it to the living room for all to admire~

~read all of those manuals for the appliances that I actually do use, including my washing machine and my camera~

All of this upending and repackaging, though, while chaotic, is all at once so settling for this rolling stone that has stopped rolling for the moment.  

Nature Study Monday: European Starling

This huge hulk of a bird stopped by for a very long visit last month.  At first I was dazzled by her golden flecks and long orange beak, but then she stayed and stayed and ate and ate in precisely the fashion in which she is pictured below, crouching over because her huge size prevented her from eating comfortably at our feeder. I wasn't so dazzled by the time she left.

European Starlings were introduced to the United States in the 1890's in an effort to bring all of Shakespeare's birds to North America (the starling was mentioned in Henry IV).  The have done quite well here; so well that they are now considered a nuisance.  They are cavity nesters and as deforestation becomes more of an issue, native species are being crowded out by birds.

They hang out in large groups, except for this one, who was all by herself...

{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

Some Sewing for the Baby(doll)

Some two years ago I made this doll for our middle child, Harvey.  Upon receiving him, he immediately named him Harvey and the doll has been known to all of us as Baby Harvey since that moment.  Baby Harvey comes in and out of style depending on which way the wind is blowing.  Some weeks, he is tended to carefully as he naps, eats, is carried close by our Harvey.  Recently Baby Harvey has moved his bed next Harvey's because he {Baby Harvey, that is} is scared in this night.  Other weeks, however, he will be unnoticed. 

After reading Children at Play (especially the chapter regarding doll play), I began to understand how our children relate to their dolls as themselves, how inextricably tied the one is to the other {the doll's name IS Harvey after all}.   Our middle child is definitely in a period of disequilibrium, as Louise Bates Ames would say, and his constant attention to his baby seems to be a way of calming the storm within, so to speak.  Sometimes the storms erupt over seemingly nothing, like a pair of newly made pajama pants: "Baby Harvey doesn't like STRIPES!" and sometimes it is quite clear: "Baby Harvey is tired and needs to sleep right now."  Whatever the connection, it is wonderful to witness such gentle care being taken of this little doll that I bruised and battered my hands for years ago.

Today Baby Harvey got some new clothes.  Unfortunately, he doesn't like stripes, so he is going to need another pair of pants.  I made them using a pattern in this book.  The pants were made out of some seersucker fabric and the shirt from a t-shirt that was destined for donation but now is remaining here, and on Baby Harvey.

Yarn Along: 8 February

Joining Ginny again today for her Yarn Along...

Knitting a sweater for myself makes me feel like I am crossing some sort of milestone (or milestones) as a knitter.  I am not sure why.  This is certainly not a fancy sweater (although it is a lot more stylish than the zip-up hoodies that I don 95% of the time in our, um, chilly would be a massive understatement house).  This B.O.B. is as close to a wardrobe necessity as I can get right now.  On the rare day like today when I actually comb my hair and put on a little make-up, putting on the zip-up hoodie just cancels out the whole effort, if you know what I mean.  So the B.O.B. will hopefully add a little style to my in-home winter wear.

As for reading, I am still in the midst of Winter World, and I am expecting it to actually take me through the rest of the winter.  I actually can't imagine reading this book in the summer and, if it does not get finished, I may put it away until winter comes again.  Somehow reading about overwintering insects at eight o'clock at night when the sun hasn't yet set and it is as humid inside our house as it is out just does not sound appealing to me.  Maybe this, though.

As a side note, while I am working on my sweater, I am also typically enjoying something on Netflix.  For the past few months, my husband and I have been making our way through every episode of thirtysomething.  We finally finished the series last week, and, I am only slightly kidding when I say that it was difficult to say goodbye to our friends.  So many of their struggles have been our own.  What fun we had together watching it (mixed with the anxiety attacks that some of the episodes brought on ;).   

Happy knitting and reading everyone.  I can't wait to read about what you have been up to this week.

Nature Study Monday: Downy Woodpecker

Oh I spotted one!  I really did!  I have heard whisperings on the commonly sited backyard Downy Woodpecker and I do think I caught a glimpse of this guy for a fleeting moment over the summer, but not since I have begun to take notice of the wonderful world of birds that surround us.  

The Red-Bellied Woodpecker visits us frequently, but this jumpy Downy Woodpecker makes much less frequent visits.  On one very snowy morning last week he flitted by for an instant, giving me no time to either enjoy his presence or snap a shot of him.  So we waited and waited and waited...  and waited some more.  And then, flit!, he was back again.

Downy Woodpeckers are smaller in size to most woodpeckers and they can be found all over most parts of the U.S. year-round.  The red stripe on the back of this fellow's head keys us into his gender.  His female counterpart has the same black and white striped head, minus the patch of red.

{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 Outside

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Yarn Along: 1 February

Joining Ginny again for the Yarn Along...


It is almost bizarre how excited I get about our Wednesday Yarn Along.  I really love seeing what everyone is knitting and reading.

I have been plugging away on the B.O.B. sweater for myself and having an amazing time doing it!  I am nervous about the gauge as nearly all of my sweaters have been off, but I took it off the needles once and it seems to be sizing o.k.  I am not a huge fan of cables (or lace) because they require too much concentration for my knitting self.  These are simple though and limited in number so they are providing a nice kind of variation from the knitting and purling.

My reading has been fairly limited this week as I have been falling fast fast asleep after only a couple if paragraphs of Winter World.  I love the book and am learning so much about the lives of snapping turtles--they are air-breathing and hibernate in the muddy water at the bottom of ponds for six months at a time!  Fascinating, this wonderful world of ours.

Winter Inside

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