Midnight Visits from Ozzy Osbourne
It’s been three days in the last week, now, that we’ve gone out to the barn and found a dead bird. These are our beautiful white homing pigeons, which, although we hadn’t planned on having any, have become part of our family. The heads are gone, but the bodies are pretty much intact.
It just so happened that today that I ran into the former owner of our house - the one who has the remainder of the flock of pigeons at her home in town. Those pigeons were the ones who opted to stay with Karen, at her newly constructed Pigeon Paradise. Perhaps *those* were the wise ones, the ones less likely to be predated by either minks or weasels that Karen said occasionally visit our neighborhood, and would have been responsible for these attacks. We haven’t quite figured out how to deal with these critters. Suggestions are welcome. And No, I’m Not Getting a Snake.
Happier Matters
On the knitting front, today I took a class at NW Handspun Yarns, from Cat Bordhi on sock knitting. Really, I think I could knit a (conventional) sock even if I were in a persistent vegitative state. It’s just that ingrained in my being. (My family has strict instructions that if I were in an accident and injured to the point at which I became unable to knit socks, to go ahead & pull the plug.) But Cat Bordhi’s method???? It opens up all new horizons to sock knitting, so I guess I’d better update my Advance Directives. These really challenge my fuzz brain.
One of the things I like about her new book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, is that almost all of her sock patterns have a mini (baby) version to practice on, before committing vast amounts of time and/or yarn to a pattern that is beyond me at any particular moment. (I’ve already discussed my migraine vs. knitting issues in previous posts. . . the itty bitty stroke that I had last summer hasn’t helped my memory or focus, either.) So, I was very pleased to try out the basic sock - the Little Sky Sock - and I had moderate success. I can hardly wait to do the Coriolus, which has a very interesting diagonal stripe running through it. Many options for the enlarging size of the instep are offered. Also, some new (to me) methods of doing increases and wrapping for short rows are given, with very clearly written instructions & diagrams. It is an awesome book. And I might even go buy her novel, Treasure Forest.
Sorry for the lack of photos today, folks. Here’s one we took on a recent trip - hanging moss, which I’m using to experiment with for a natural dye.
Happy Thanksgiving, All!
It just so happened that today that I ran into the former owner of our house - the one who has the remainder of the flock of pigeons at her home in town. Those pigeons were the ones who opted to stay with Karen, at her newly constructed Pigeon Paradise. Perhaps *those* were the wise ones, the ones less likely to be predated by either minks or weasels that Karen said occasionally visit our neighborhood, and would have been responsible for these attacks. We haven’t quite figured out how to deal with these critters. Suggestions are welcome. And No, I’m Not Getting a Snake.
Happier Matters
On the knitting front, today I took a class at NW Handspun Yarns, from Cat Bordhi on sock knitting. Really, I think I could knit a (conventional) sock even if I were in a persistent vegitative state. It’s just that ingrained in my being. (My family has strict instructions that if I were in an accident and injured to the point at which I became unable to knit socks, to go ahead & pull the plug.) But Cat Bordhi’s method???? It opens up all new horizons to sock knitting, so I guess I’d better update my Advance Directives. These really challenge my fuzz brain.
One of the things I like about her new book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, is that almost all of her sock patterns have a mini (baby) version to practice on, before committing vast amounts of time and/or yarn to a pattern that is beyond me at any particular moment. (I’ve already discussed my migraine vs. knitting issues in previous posts. . . the itty bitty stroke that I had last summer hasn’t helped my memory or focus, either.) So, I was very pleased to try out the basic sock - the Little Sky Sock - and I had moderate success. I can hardly wait to do the Coriolus, which has a very interesting diagonal stripe running through it. Many options for the enlarging size of the instep are offered. Also, some new (to me) methods of doing increases and wrapping for short rows are given, with very clearly written instructions & diagrams. It is an awesome book. And I might even go buy her novel, Treasure Forest.
Sorry for the lack of photos today, folks. Here’s one we took on a recent trip - hanging moss, which I’m using to experiment with for a natural dye.
Happy Thanksgiving, All!
posted by Yvonne at 8:03 PM
5 Comments:
So sorry about the birds - how distressing! Glad you enjoyed Cat's class. I've got the book on hold at the library. I want to try and wrap my addled brain around the concept before splurging on the book (although it's on my Christmas wish list).
Your bird trouble sounds kinda like a cat. Most wild animals will eat the whole bird, but domestic ones are more into it for sport. I may be completely wrong, but that's what I have seen with some of our wild birds before.
Sorry to hear about your pigeon problem. Does it happen during the day or at night? Is that Spanish Moss in the photo? It almost looks like it but not quite. I lived in Florida for 6 months a couple of years ago, but it never occurred to me to try and dye with the stuff! (And we had it everywhere.) I'll be interested in your results.
I know it's been a while, but your bird trouble got me curious. There is some neat information on weasels (including prevention) at this website
http://hgic.clemson.edu/pdf/pcwdweasels.pdf
I'm glad you mentioned New Pathways. I've been thinking about this one and it sounds like I really should add it to my Christmas list. Good luck.
Hmmm.. looks like it cut the weasel info short. The rest of it should be...
clemson.edu/pdf/pcwdweasels.pdf
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