Well, never say never. Due to circumstances beyond my control, i.e, the economy mostly, my failing business, my inability to refi my house, the coooold weather, I am closing up shop — literally — and leaving Michigan for the sunny state of Florida. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would leave my ‘fortress of solitude,’ that place that helped me through some pretty unhappy times. But sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. While change this big is hard, if I look at it as an adventure, as an opportunity to start over, then I begin to get a little more excited about it. So we’re heading, sight unseen, to the little town of Palm Coast to see if it’s not too late to begin yet another chapter.
Author: kokomeau
April 20th.
Well, today we had a Flicker on the deck, a humungous eagle on the lake, geese, ducks, lots of birds, and this:
Seriously.
Grosbeak! 4-14-11
Here we go again.
Okay. So you’ve seen all my Works In Progress. I can say that I did finish the watermelon dress, and it turned out even cuter than expected. Of course I forgot to get a picture, but I’ll do that next time I’m in the shop and will get it up here. BUT…
Got our new yarn in from Cascade. Oh. My. Goodness. It’s even yummier than I remembered, and I’m really happy with my choices. (This is huge, because I tend to second-guess myself all day long.) Every bag we opened was nicer than the last, and the colors are GREAT! So now, of course, I have to make a couple shop models with the new stuff. I’m going with little kid stuff since lots of it is in beautiful pastels that just beg to be made into something for a girl. When I get going on them I’ll post their progress here.
So YAY! I get to start more stuff!
Love it!
Progress.
So far since I last posted I’ve been knitting on:
My sampler afghan…
My sampler scarf…
and a watermelon dress.
It might seem like a lot, but seeing as how two of them are ‘samplers,’ that means I do a sampling of ‘this’ for a little bit, then a sampling of ‘that’ for a bit, which is nice cuz then I don’t get too bored with it. Though I have to admit the dress is already boring and I’m only about an inch into it. As you can see by the picture, it’s all stockinette stitch, which is lovely in a brainless-I-can-watch-tv-and-knit kind of way, but is also a little hard on the hands because I don’t take as many breaks. But it’s a shop model (‘natch), so I need to get it done.
The scarf is a pain in the ass harder, so it takes longer cuz I have to go so slow.
And the afghan? Well, that’s gonna take all summer, I think. And honestly, I only have probably three more squares to go (out of 20!). But then it’s stitching them all together, and THEN adding the border all the way around. Yeah. Hopefully when the cold weather returns (if it ever leaves) it’ll be done.
UNCLE!
I love my picture window.
We really enjoy watching how the different breeds of birds outside our window handle feeding time. Thom’s noticed that chickadees are extremely polite little birds. While one little chickadee is at the feeder, the others are patiently waiting their turns on a nearby tree branch or in the deck latticework. As soon as one is done, another will take its place, only getting a single seed or so, then leaving the feeder for the next one.
The gold finch, on the other hand, are family-type eaters, who all like to gather together at the feeder, getting their fill, bouncing around and around it as if there were something different on the other side.
The titmouse seems to be a fairly friendly feeder eater who will share its meal with a fellow titmouse, but they’re also a bit pickier, finding and tossing seeds that don’t appeal to them.
The woodpecker, though, gets the feeder all to himself because he’s just too big to share it with anyone else! When he lands, it sways to one side while he struggles to take advantage of the free food, usually hanging almost upside down, his speckled body wrapped around the edge.
My favorite, of course, is the hummingbird. I don’t expect to see them for a few more weeks — maybe even May. But when they finally arrive, then I know it’s spring!
I can’t wait!
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