Serendipitous Coincidences

These always make me happy, serendipitous coincidences. And they are everywhere, if you look for them.

For example, on my way home from dropping my boy off at school, I looked at the cars lining up at the light to get on the toll road. There were 13 vehicles, and every single one of them was white or light silver. I've also seen big groups of red cars. It looked like a fleet or something.

Another happened day before yesterday, when I was trying to separate the icky, sticky weeds from the wildflowers coming up in front of the yard. The neighbor came home, and we were chatting. He said, "Sue Ann, come look at this!" I turned around and there were our friends, the cedar waxwings. About 50 of them had descended on his hedge, which has red berries in it. There were so many that the hedge looked like it was alive. They made that cool cedar waxing noise, ate for about two minutes, then flew away. He got a photo, but I didn't. Wow, I have enjoyed those birds this year--I'll be sad when they move on.

Cedar Waxwing in South Austin

Since I didn't get a photo, I am sharing these that Jeff took. Apparently they pooped all over his car, so there are negative aspects to the yearly visit!

Cedar Waxwings in Soapberry Tree

The one above is well worth clicking on. The colors are beautiful.

The conclusion: Keep your eyes open for little serendipitous moments. They are all around you if you keep your eyes open. Want to hear about moments from other people? I am loving the blog It Made My Day: Little Moments of Win.  People post little things that happen in their life that cheer them up, make them smile, or bring a moment of endearing oddness. It's hard to be down if you check that blog every so often!

Small Rant

OK, I have been using Blogger since 2005. I have always been able to upload images from my computer. Suddenly, yesterday, when I click on the "upload image" link in the blogger interface, I only get the options to upload from a Picasa album, a URL or an image already on the blog. Excuse me? So, to put images in, I've had to upload them to Flickr and paste in the URL. What the heck happened? Anyone else experiencing this? Did I fill my quota of images? I no longer see a notice of how much space I have left, but I had plenty last time I saw it. Is this a problem with Blogger in Draft? Argh.

UPDATE: I finally found the blogger list of current issues, and this was the most recent post:

Some users are experiencing errors when uploading images to Blogger in Draft (draft.blogger.com). We are working on the fix. Meanwhile, you can still upload images to your posts via www.blogger.com

So, I can switch away from Blogger in Draft (which I really like, though) and post normally from the regular Blogger. Just thought I'd share in case anyone else is having the problem!

Spring! OK?

Yes, perhaps does not come as a huge shock, given the long, cold, wet winter we are coming out of, that spring is one of the things that is making me happy (if you are a recent visitor, I have been posting things that make me happy for the past week or so). Practically everyone on Facebook is posting "I love spring" and some lovely photos, and my email lists are abuzz with posts about going for long walks and such. Who could blame people?

I tend to treasure spring, especially since I got to Texas 13 years ago, because it's pretty much our only pleasant season. It gets pretty darned spectacular in late March and April, but my favorite time tends to be very early, when the first flowering trees come out, the anemones bloom and the redbuds bud. Today I had a nice visit with Jeff and his mom, Rose, and then went out to sit on the new patio and look at the bird feeder. As I sat there knitting on a mitten, I began to think about all the things that have brought me joy this spring. Here's a list--what does YOUR list look like?

Bradford Pear Trees on Pocono Drive, scenic Brushy Creek, Texas

Bradford Pear Trees: Now, you must understand that in general, I am not the biggest fan of the Bradford pear tree. It's not a native species, in Illinois they don't hold up well under heavy snow (their branch structure lends to splitting), and heck, they don't even make pears. I like fruit trees that have fruit. However, this year, thanks to the copious amount of rainfall this winter, trees that usually sport a pathetic few blossoms each year and then immediately set their leaves out have been a glorious clouds of ethereal whiteness.

The picture above shows a row of trees that has started to leaf out. We took pictures after the peak, but it's been totally amazing this year. I have seen Bradford pear trees in this neighborhood that I didn't even know where there. There is some variety that makes white clusters that is peaking right now. Wow, they are just lovely. I have heard another couple of folks agree that this year's blossoms way outshine any previous year's flowers that we can remember. Usually the only nice white flowers I get to see in the spring are the native plum trees, because we have no dogwoods (I miss them). So this year has been wonderful in the white tree department.

Water Droplet in Cabbage

Serendipity in Nature: I just love looking at our plants and the things I see in my walks. We saw this lovely bead of dew on our ornamental cabbage  plant on our way somewhere. It reminded me of a pearl in an oyster, waiting to be discovered.

Mr. Sparrow gazes at his true love.

Looking at Birds: This time of year is always the best for bird watching. The migration path is right over where we live. As a matter of fact, geese were migrating overhead today. Lots of honking! I love our front patio because I can watch all the bird activity from the comfort of my chair. The European Sparrows you see here are sitting in the burr oak tree, which is blooming, and my kind spouse took the photo with his telephoto lens.

A whole bunch of sparrows at the feeder! And the red bud, budding.

While the sparrows were cute and quite hungry, and the mourning doves squabbling with each other were amusing, I was glad to see some interesting transients coming by, too. There were a whole bunch of chipping sparrows. They are so teeny. They blend so well with the grass, which is still brown from the cold weather, that they made it look like the ground was moving around. Later on some cute black-capped chickadees showed up to snack on the tree blossoms and check into the feeder, as well. As we were watching those birds, I heard a noise, and yay! I saw my first hummingbird of spring, sitting in the oak tree. Lee tried to get a picture, but you know how fast they are!

Sparrow coming in for a landing.

Lee did get this one picture of one of a sparrow in flight, which I enjoyed a lot. The sounds of their little wings going back and forth from my house to the hedge in the next yard is quite spectacular for such little beings.

Other spring fun things: The kids being home for spring break (and bringing all their friends around), pulling weeds, watching the roses grow, knitting outside, waiting for the oak pollen to descend and make everything yellow, and reading about other people's spring experiences. Keep sharing, readers. And enjoy the special aspects of spring where you live.

The Rain Clouds Part and It's SUNNY!

It rained all last week, which didn’t help my mood much. It cleared up yesterday and I have been feeling a lot better since then. It helps that the weekend was mostly very pleasant, and that the work week has started out with a bang, too! And look, even the birds are cheerier (taken from my vantage point on the front porch, watching the finches eat seeds off the rosemary bushes. I didn't even know they had seeds on them.)

There was lots of teen fun all weekend—almost always there was someone under 21 hanging around who wasn’t my child. They are really enjoying spring break! I broke out the dehydrator Friday evening and started cutting up fruit. The next time I looked up there were 7 sets of eyes on me—five kids and two dogs’ worth! All four original Triskelion members were there, plus a bonus boy, and they all seem to like fruit. It was fun chatting with them and tossing them bits of food as I loaded up the dehydrator. Later that night, we (and Parker) went to Mesa Rosa, which made a chilly evening much happier.

The dehydrator remained popular the next night, when it was Tuba Boy’s turn to have a bunch of friends over ( he also had ONE girl—must be the thing to do, and I do say they are less screechy when there is just one of them). As they played the Zombies board game, I chatted with Debate King (the one who won his specialty in the tournament last week) about the dehydrator for at least a half hour. He really, really liked it. He even asked me if you can dehydrate lunch meat. Hmm. Why not ham jerky? All the while this kid (a very tall, big-boned person with a beard, so it’s hard to call him a “kid” really) was playing Beccano’s acoustic guitar beautifully. He serenaded the other kids with hilarious blues songs all night.

It was so darned damp in the house that the dried fruit started to un-dry rather quickly, so we know we need to get better storage for it. But it is delicious and very nice in oatmeal, as I had hoped! I did strawberries, pineapple, kiwi fruit, bananas and oranges. Next: jerky!

I had my share of grown-up fun this weekend. I detailed a lot of it in the knitting blog, but I want to say how much I enjoyed entertaining Katie, who is overdue with her first child, little Abigail. I dragged her off to the JoAnn’s Fabrics store, and the next day went over and visited her at her new house, which they just got all unpacked and ready in time for the birth. It was nice talking to her and reassuring her it would be OK. I also went to a baby shower for Jen, a very traditional one with games and stuff. Wow, all my knitting pals are competitive. The organizers are scrapbookers, which meant all the decorations were very, very detailed and cute. I got tired just looking at them, but they did a really nice job.

It was just a fun, good weekend. I even got to spend some time with Lee—we made a trip to Fry’s, and we enjoyed a nice quiet evening last night. He hasn’t been feeling well—back issues, so he needs to take it easy for a while. I made dinner last night, but it wasn’t very good beans and rice. I’ll try to make something better next time!

Today at work was great. I had some good stuff to do show up, which I liked. And I got three job-related phone calls. They ranged from yet another call about my own job, to a call about a marginal possibility that is sort of far away, to a guy calling me up and offering exactly what I’d love to do and had hoped to do at 3M—using that fun e-learning software to create training modules. This guy had some good ideas and the place sounds great. I have an interview there next week, so we’ll see how it goes! At least that’s all encouraging!

But wait, there's more! When I came home, there was a request for an interview in my email. Turns out to be another of the places they contract with at work. I sure know that stuff. Wow, this was not a bad day to be in the job market, considering!

When I got home from work, there was another surprise: Parker had straightened Beccano's hair. It wasn't straight, but it was straighter. I put it in a nice thick braid, which is what you see here. Wow, that boy has thick hair!

Tomorrow Tuba Boy and I are taking the afternoon off to go look at Southwestern University, where he might go to college. That sounds like fun! I guess I'll be missing a few hours of work over the next few days. But for all good reasons!

Cute Things

Our Cardinal Nest
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I just want to show you a bunch of cute things this evening. First, here is a view looking up at the daddy of the cardinal pair that has built a nest in the tree right outside our house. He has been bringing in bugs very regularly since the babies hatched on the 4th (Beccano called to report this while Lee was playing in Point Venture). The mother helps, but mostly hangs out on the nest keeping them warm. It has been fun watching this nest, since it is both directly outside the guest room window (so you can see right in!) and directly above the gliding bench on the patio. We can watch from above and below. The nest is hilarious. it has hair from the dogs in it as well as big hunks of soda bottles that the dogs took outside and chewed up. Yes, a modern, plastic bird nest.

Moving on to more cuteness, Lee bought me a fountain today, for the back patio. We had liked its shape before, but thought it looked sorta cheesy with the fake flame on top of it. What silly people we were. That fake flame is just a substitute for the real flame that comes out of the tiki torch style burner that will burn citronella oil and keep some of the evil mosquitoes off us as we enjoy the trickling sound. Now we just have to get some citronella oil! I'm really happy with it. I have missed having a water feature since we got rid of the pond/mosquito breeding facility last year. And it's a cute fountain. Well, maybe it is more distinguished than cute, but I like it.


And last but not least, here is more cuteness. I had to share at least one photo of my little friend Miss T in her dress-up clothing. I took the picture with the phone, so it isn't great, but it captures her spirit. It's been fun watching this precocious little thing as she grows--her mom is one of the yarn shop workers/hanger-outers like me, and a very talented, vivacious person. The daughter has much of her spirit and spunk, with a tinge of "I know how cute I am" to top it off. What the picture shows is one very happy child, who has just received a large bag of dress-up clothing that she very much wanted. Some were rather big, and she was a tad disappointed, but this one dress was her favorite. She begged to have photos taken, so I agreed. This is just one of a number of very carefully chosen poses she engaged in to show what a versatile dress-up item this dress can be. It just did my heart good to see someone so happy. She literally jumped for joy when the yarn shop owner brought in her daughters' old dress up clothing. Little Miss T and her friends will have years of fun with these dresses!

Enough cuteness. Must read about Outlook 2007 some more.

Life and Goings On

Heron-like Bird
Originally uploaded by sunasak

A lot has been going on, but nothing earth shattering. I am catching up by posting three things today instead of going to church. Hmm, what priorities.

Today's photo is a really lovely shore bird we saw while driving around Lake Buchanan yesterday, looking for a cheap house that did not exist (the GPS kept saying to turn right into a muddy field), for a project of Lee's. But we did see some neat wetland areas teeming with all kinds of lovely birds, some of which you don't see so often around here. The lake also has bald eagles, but we didn't see any. This is a place I would love to retire to or have a second home in, if I could be so lucky. It's near my favorite red granite, surrounded by hills and water, and quiet. Where we were had a mix of old-fashioned "lake houses" that are really old mobile homes, and some nicer ones, but none of the immense monstrosity mansions that are all you can get around Lake Travis any more. This lake is farther up the highland lake chain and not really a feasible commute to Austin, but even so, a small house we saw was for sale for over $400,000. Not our price range.

By the way, the lake's name is pronounced with a short u. Yet another of those weird local Texas pronunciations. Note the pretty cactus blooms behind the bird. It's prickly pear season!

In other stuff, we had intended to go see a group I like, the Greencards, on Friday, because I had won tickets in a magical way.Last week Beccano and I went to Barnes and Noble, so I could get a book I wanted to read and he could get a CD. We were chatting about music, and I had said how bluegrass was interesting, due to a lot of young people getting into it, and mentioned the Greencards, a group who had lived in Austin for a few years, being imported from Australia and England. The mandolin player, Kym Warner, is an amazing talent, having been the national champion down there. When we got to B&N, I saw their most recent CD, which I hadn't bought yet due to my financial constraints of late. I got it. When we got into the car, I thought the CD was already in, because the radio was playing the Greencards (it was the local NPR station's "Folkways" program). The song ended, and the DJ said they were going to play another song, but not until they gave away some tickets to their upcoming concert. He said the third caller who could identify the name of an instrumental song on their latest CD that was named for a Houston musical venue would win. Well, I said, "Dude, hand me that CD!" to Beccano. There I saw "Mucky the Duck" listed. I knew there is a place in Houston called "The Mucky Duck," so I started dialing, and won! What a coincidence to have just bought the CD!

But, it turned out the concert was the same night as the kids' final band concert of the year, which was lovely but went on a long time. By the time Beccano had turned in his tuxedo jacket, it was 15 minutes before show-time and rain was threatening (the concert was outdoors). So we missed it. On the other hand, the concert was lovely. Tuba Boy had a brief solo and got to stand up and bow, and there was a beautiful trombone concerto played by a very, very talented boy who is going on to be a trombone performance major. So, all was not lost.

Let's see...work is better. I have been very busy with lots of new assignments, since my favorite coworker suddenly got a chance to do a different job. I am happy for her, but will be sad to see her go, since she is so helpful. I am doing well getting folks more friendly, though.

And yesterday, as the bird photo indicates, Lee and I went on a nice drive into the Hill Country, and I enjoyed the scenery very much. I even saw a place I'd love to live later. Who knows what will happen if Lee suddenly has money to put into another house, but there are certainly possibilities out there. He is quite handy and can really fix things up when he has the time and tools!

Last night we sorta made up for not going to see the Greencards by seeing Jeff the Former Roommate at a local place. We sat with a friend and had a pretty good time. Beccano looked bored but I think he just looks that way these days. He seemed pleased when his name was mentioned and a song dedicated to him. Jeff seems to be settling into this new house better than the previous one, so our fingers are crossed that things are looking up for him at last!

Grackle Love

I heard on the local NPR station a little blurb by a fellow talking about how he is different from most Austinites in that he does not hate the ubiquitous boat-tailed grackles.

I admit that these creatures have bugged me a lot in the past. They are everywhere humans congregate, especially anywhere someone might drop some food. And they gather in huge numbers. They seem to be constantly either eating or making these horrific sounds--squeaks, clacks, whoops.

The guy on the radio said that the sound the boat-tailed grackles make reminds him that he is home. Hmm, I had never thought of it that way. The same day I heard this, I'd been sitting in the little courtyard outside the student union at the university. There's a big oak tree that shades it. I heard a squeak and looked up to see a very large male grackle doing that weird heat pointed up thing they do, with a ray of sunlight striking him so that he glowed blue and purple. I have to say he was beautiful. I need to remember that, in ever being with some ugly habits (like lurking in the bushes and under my feet trying to find a tidbit), there is also beauty.

And since this especially large and festive type of grackle is not found everywhere, they ARE a sign that I am "home." Nice, now that I have Lee and feel like I truly do own my home and am anchored, I do feel home in greater Austin now.

---

PS: Work has been very peaceful this week, and I have been doing interesting things. Like learning MS OneNote. Whoa, if you have Office 2007, try it out! It is great for taking notes, organizing thoughts and collecting images, etc. Now I really DO need to install Office 2007 at home.

PPS: Festive Beltane greetings to all of you who celebrate. May your lives be full of fertility and growth. I hope we do something to celebrate this evening.

A new favorite

No, my new favorite isn't this photo of Beccano, but I am in awe of how much he has changed in the past year or so. Looking at his features morph into those of an adult and not a child, I become very aware of my own aging process. I'm glad I am not changing as rapidly as he is, though it's true I am changing. I'll be OK, though--I look like myself now, only older!

Right now I am thinking that this is my favorite time of year now. It used to be autumn, but that was in Illinois, where the leaves were so lovely and the temperatures so crisp and fun. March here in central Texas is wonderful. It isn't too hot or cold, and all the trees begin to bloom like crazy. I am enjoying the lacy look of the Mexican plums, the intensity of the red buds and the heady fragrance of Texas mountain laurel now. Soon the crape myrtles will take over. Wildflowers haven't started up yet, but any day now I will get to enjoy the show of bluebonnets on MoPac on the way home. What a treat!

I am enjoying the best season for hanging out in the yard again this year. We have all red flowers and have lots to do, but no huge rush. It's the season where the live oak leaves fall like rain, and you can hear them fall and fall. Birds are very busy making nests. The mockingbirds are in the photynia at the neighbor's side yard, which makes them yell at us when we get in the truck. I watched a chickadee and a tufted titmouse family carrying around lots of nesting material today, and am amused at how awkward the mourning doves are when they try to make little babies. They keep falling off limbs that they make too heavy for two birds. Lots of flapping and weird dove love noises.

Butterflies have come out in droves, too. Sulphurs, tiger swallowtails and black swallotwails are among the most beautiful ones in our yard. The black swallowtails look spectacular when evening sun hits their blue bottom wings.

I hope we can enjoy the flowers, birds, butterflies and trees as much as possible before it gets too hot and too mosquito-ey. Maybe this year there will be fewer mosquitoes. We have worked very hard to get rid of sources of moisture!

It's going to rain early in the week, but I am happy. The plants will love it and I have festive new rain boots! Tonight we are having home made bean soup and fresh bread I baked. I hope Tuba Boy comes home from bonding with his girlfriend, whom we have still not met. Beccano and a friend have been working on a school project and playing guitar. Lee's been getting ready to make a flower bed and trying to dog-proof the fence. Everything is calm. I will not forget these good spring times.

A Thing I Do

Photo courtesy of photohome.com

This afternoon I noticed myself doing this thing, and realized I had done it yesterday as well. I began thinking about it and it occurred to me that, well, this is what I always do.

I was taking a little "wake up" walk around work, and as usual looked out the big windows to see the pretty views of woods and hills around the building. As I often do, I saw a large black vulture looking at me from the windowsill. I said (aloud), "Hey, Big Vulture!" and kept walking. The next window featured two hefty crows looking in at me. I also said (aloud), "Hi there, Big Crows." Yes, I greet birds.

It's not just birds. On my way out to the car yesterday, a rather large lizard of some sort scampered under a planter as I approached. I said, as I recall, "Whoa! Hi there Lizard!" I realize that if no one is around, I will give a hearty greeting to a large spider, a moth, or any small bird. Oh yes, and I asked a waddling black beetle where it was going one day this week--it looked so purposeful.

I guess it is my week to speak to black creatures. Samhain's coming and all that. I think I have always spoken to animals, given them warnings, told them they are lookin' good or whatever. Oh well, I guess that's harmless.

The black vultures are such interesting birds! They love to spread their wings out in the sun, as in the photo, and they appear very curious and friendly. They are always hanging out on the sills and walls near the elevators at work. I like their looks better than the more common turkey vultures, I guess because their heads match their feathers and they look less naked. Of course, the caracara ones down where Lee's dad lives are the prettiest vultures I have seen. Face it, I just like birds. Off to have a good weekend. You have one, too.

Grateful for...

Skylight Says Hello
Originally uploaded by sunasak

I thought a while this morning about what I was grateful for, because it was a pretty rough weekend.

I am always grateful for my little bird, Skylight, who doesn't get her cage cleaned out enough, but truly seems to appreciate the things I give her to play with, and any conversation Lee and I give her. Seeing her handing upside down or attacking her piece of rope cheers me up a lot.

The other thing I am grateful for is the changing seasons. This time of year is very nice, because I get to see beautiful sunrises as I go to work. It will start to get dark, then lighten up again when Daylight Savings Time goes away, so a good part of the year I get to enjoy the subtle beauty of the sky in the morning and the big, red ball of the sun coming up. Last year it really made for a lovely time as I drove toward ALE!

I'm not feeling too well--yesterday both Lee and I didn't feel good--all my joints ached very badly, and I kept falling asleep. He did, too. I think Friday and Saturday, which were filled with riding buses and doing band parent things, when added to the work of the Saturday knitting class... they just did me in.

Worrying about the job thing also doesn't help. And worrying about the clogged sink in the bathroom, which I have to get a plumber in for, doesn't help. (This is when I wish Dad were nearby--he'd open the drain under the sink, get rid of the water, then run a snake down the pipes. We don't have anyone here who is able to do that, me included.) And, ugh, the gold paint we got for the living room and giant stair wall turned out to mustard-yellow-y and not gold. Wah. Waste of good paint!

On that note, I will go think about something else, and remember to remain grateful for all that is good in my life.

Garden Drama

This is the kind of excitement I want more of in my life.

Yesterday, Beccano and I were sitting on the patio surveying the damage a bad storm did to the potted plants. We propped up a few things and decided everything would recover, even the battered tomatoes.

He said, "Hey look at the blue jay." And there was a big on on the woodpile (we have a sizable collection of debris, some of which will be firewood, the rest of which is slowly being put out with the trash each week and currently serves as wren and sparrow habitat). The jay began screaming suddenly. We laughed at how loud it was.

Then he said, "Whoa, there are a lot more jays now," and sure enough, 8 or 9 of them began flying around the crape myrtle and Monterrey oak. They looked like bouncing blue balls of energy. All of them were making a very loud blue jay screech (not the pretty jay sound, the screech). We wished we'd had the recorder out so that we could use it on animations or make it a cell phone ring tone.

As we sat there enjoying it, Beccano jumped up and said, "SNAKE! Mom, look!" Sure enough, a fair-sized rat snake was crawling under the fence into our yard. It quickly made its way under the firewood pile. That seemed to satisfy the jays, and they screeched just a few more times, then flew away, other than one lone sentinel, who stayed at least another ten minutes, Beccano, who brought a chair over for at least 20 minutes only to report it poked its head out a couple of times, and one very curious wren. We figure that the jays' nest had been a target of the snake, or something. Or, they just don't like snakes (who could blame them).

That was a really fun backyard drama. I looked and looked for an image of an angry blue jay, and I chose this one by Jim Spencer, the guy who illustrated Stuart Little. I imagine the one in the illustration was yelling at the moth. Or eating it.

P. S.: In other wildlife news, what I didn't post about last Friday was that Beccano called me at work, in a panic. Naturally one of the rare moments my boss was in the office. The dogs had brought in a bloody, dead rat. He bravely disposed of it and cleaned the carpet, but it made him sick to his stomach. I told him, "Now you are a man, my son." And now I know one of the disadvantages of the doggie door.

New Bird

Oh look, it's the Crested Caracara, known colloquially as the Mexican eagle (but NOT the national bird of Mexico, no sirree, that's the Golden Eagle or some actual eagle). This here bird is a falcon kinda raptor, and they have them down where Lee's dad lives. I thought they were ospreys, which they strongly resemble when sitting.

I am always excited when I see a new kind of bird, so I thought I'd post this one! Taxonomizing is my mind's favorite activity, apparently, and it was fun to see how it worked when I thought I had fit the bird into my neat little "osprey" category, then got the idea that maybe I was wrong (someone mentioned Mexican eagles in conversation). I had to run home and look it up in my bird book--and sure enough, the osprey's underwings are all white. BZZZT, failed taxonomy. I am all calm now, though, since I have a nice category of raptors with white wing tips whose wings are not shaped like buzzard wings. Go me.

What a Guy

I put a picture of Lee on here, so you can see he isn't as scary as his profile picture makes him out to be, and also because I want to say how happy I am with him these days.

We are having a good time, even with all the challenges we are dealing with (money woes, divorce, work irritations and such). He is still treating me like the most precious object in the world, respecting me, and being patient with me (even when I got peeved at him yesterday--ooh, the first time).

I am so relieved to have a partner who will help me around the house. My back door looks so nice now, all trimmed up and ready to paint. And he did a bunch of work on the lawn and garden today. It is not embarrassing to be seen outside my house any more. All the overgrown bushes have been trimmed, lots of things ready to grow back up, and things just neatened up nicely. I have been inspired to put some plants out, even fresh new fake ones on the porch (too dim there to really grow things). I am happy with these changes, and know I am doing OK if I feel like cooking, cleaning and neatening things up inside the house.

We've been enjoying the seasons changing. It is warmer, and birds are migrating. A couple of days ago we pulled into the driveway and I said, "I hear a different bird." And sure enough, I turned to see the neighbor's two trees completely filled with cedar waxwings. I only see them once or twice a year! They were doing their sweet whistling. Then, last night, I woke up in the middle of the night and discovered Lee was awake as well. We both heard geese flying overhead. And the windows were closed! That was cool!

So, I had a good day. I got to see Katy at the knitting store, and met Tina's precious new dog. What a cutie. I am a bit worried about Jody, who couldn't come due to an unforeseen emergency, but hope to see her soon. Tomorrow my sister comes for dinner, so I will have quite the social weekend. Jeff also comes back tomorrow. His mom is having health issues, and I am worried about her, too. All weekend the kids have had friends around, and that is fun. The older boy is SO good at picking nice friends. That pleases me.

Bamboo Socks and Omnivore's Dilemma

I have the luxury of some time to myself this evening, so I could upload photos of these newest socks, and write a bit about the book I just read.

The socks at left (click to see them better) were so much fun to knit. The pattern is rather complex but not too bad. It is from the Knitter's magazine book Socks, Socks, Socks, and I think it was called "Tipsy Knitter" or something like that. I thought that the yarn would not detract too much from the pattern, and that seems to be the case. The yarn is that cool Regia Bamboo yarn I mentioned last week, which supposedly wicks away moisture and works well in the summer. It's true--I wore them all day today and my feet didn't get sweaty when I was outdoors, nor did they get chilly in the frigid yarn store environment. And it is SO soft. If you get a chance to use the bamboo sock yarn, I'd say please do!

These may very well be my favorite socks ever, though those Trekking 100 ones still take my breath away.

OK, now for the book report I referred to some time last week. I recently finished reading Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. It is the most interesting food industry/big business book I read since Fast Food Nation. What I like most about it is how Pollan intersperses sections with lots of facts and data with sections on personal experiences with people (and farm animals). The facts really hit home when you see how they are connected to real live people, including YOU. I now look at every food label I see and count corn and corn-derived products. We are really The People of Corn now. I don't know what I found more fascinating, the description of how those mega-farms work, the analysis of the organic food movement, or the section where Pollan attempts to "hunt and gather" an entire meal.

One immediate effect of reading this book has been that I have eliminated certain things from my diet, which is a challenge given that Dear Partner is only comfortable eating highly processed food (hmm, no wonder he is a very large person). I have also breathed a sigh of relief to find out that the things I truly like aren't all that bad after all (those packaged spring green salads, for example). I just want to get rid of as much of the corn products as possible and be careful with soy (Pollack doesn't talk about soy in his book, but says that it is just as ubiquitous in processed foods, as it is also highly subsidized. I knew this first hand, having lived in central Illinois where the corn and soybeans start yards away from the last house in any town.

Even if you don't plan to change your eating habits, this book is worth reading, just so you will know where your food comes from. You will be a more informed consumer.

Related anecdote, last night, Dear Partner and I went out to eat at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant, because I had read their food quality is quite good. When we were seated, I looked around us at all the diners and servers. I counted (including small children) TWO people other than myself who were not overweight. Even the little kids were BIG ones. The servers were all 16 or 17 and mostly quite thin. Hmm. I realized why there were so many larger folks there, when I saw the serving sizes. Typical American restaurant over-large servings. But, I did thoroughly enjoy my 6-ounce filet, sweet potato and green beans (except they were full of bacon). It was wonderful. What did my dining companion, the big fan of processed food have? A chopped steak, chili and baked potato. Two of those three items were remnants from lovely meat that others hadn't eaten the previous night. Sigh. He really can't "do" whole food. I am going to start cooking more, however.

In other less exciting news, I am happy to report that my budgie is fine. She exited her cage while I was fetching her a fresh carrot, and I had to track her down and get her back in the cage. I was worried she might have gotten hurt, since she sat in a huddle for quite a while after she was re-caged. But, when I got home from spending some time at Yarn World, I was relieved to see she had mauled her carrots into bits and was flying around a bit. Whew--don't think I could take another injured pet. I think this was only the third time this bird escaped since I got her, and it has been a long time--I got the bird in 1999 or 2000.

Comments

Jennifer said...
Read this and thought of you. ;)Damn fascist Blogger comment script tries to vet my HTML and won't let me use the TARGET attribute in my anchor tags, grouse grouse grumble...
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 8:03:00 PM

Suna said...
Oh, bwa ha ha. I think that's what Jeff is afraid will happen to me. Everyone, click Jennifer's link!Suna, plain text, though Blogger has once again decided to render her blog "funny"
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 8:43:00 PM