Purling Oaks

Bloomin' and Blue

There's blooming going on here.  I documented blossoms, blue sky, and feline on Saturday morning before the gray skies and rain (thank you, thank you, thank you) rolled in.

Lilacs are starting

Cherry and apple blossoms are almost stepping aside for fruit but not quite yet.....

And Blue is admiring our new gazing globe.

 

Other than that, the weekend seemed to be full of laundry and paperwork but I did manage to make a loaf of sourdough.  Have a great week!

Some Warm Pink, some cold White, and a Dot

There was a cardboard box in my mailbox when I got home yesterday.  Here's what was in that lovely box:

Here's a closer look:

And one more:

It was knit by our Cookie!  For me!!!  Thank you, Cookie.  We shall not mention whether or not there were chocolates.  

Pattern: Sweet Jazz

Yarn:  Handspun BFL from Denise

The scarf is lovely and soft and it will keep me warm and draft-free since the winter season is starting a bit early.  (See the white stuff in the first photo?)

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This is also the first snowfall for the cats this season.  White Dot was attempting a crossing of the yard when I caught him on video.  (Yes, I was having a telephone conversation with Cookie.  What?  You don't pick up your camera when you're on the 'phone?!)

 

 

The story had a happy ending--I yelled at the intruder cat who ran away.  White Dot started after him but I was able to catch up with him because of his slow progress across the snow.  :D  (He already has a face scratch that *just* missed his eye that he obtained last night.)  Cookie was long-distance witness to my crazy cat-mom duties.  Why yes, I can continue a conversation and grab a cat at the same time........

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Last night, Dan made fried scallops with garlic mashed potatoes for dinner.  Tonight, he is preparing lamb meatballs with a sauce and rice.  I love my birthday week meals.  Tomorrow is shrimp de jonge, baby peas, mandarin oranges, and carrot cake if Mom sticks to the traditional birthday menu.  It has been a low-key week since I was out of town for my birthday; although, my cousin Kim brought over some chocolate cake Tuesday.  Yum.  I made my black turtle bean soup today in preparation for deer hunting that starts next Saturday.  It is very nice to have several meals prepared in advance when you've been in a tree all day.  

Have a super weekend!

Autumn, all ready?

Although each season has unique and welcome offerings, Autumn brings more to the table for me than the others.  The relief of cool nights, the changing greens to orange, red, and yellow then to browns, the wind as it whispers secrets or howls in the night as Halloween approaches---all these stimulate my senses and make this season my favorite.  For now.

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Stacey says it has been two months since I've posted and I don't doubt her.  Sometimes, especially lately, I don't have much that I want to share here, or can share, for truth's sake.  Then, frankly, just being out of the habit of posting contributed to my absence.  However, I am motivated to post about something important to me and to a very dear friend.  

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Stacey is fund-raising right now for NMO, which is neuromyelitis optica (NMO or Devic’s Disease).  It "....is an uncommon disease syndrome of the central nervous system (CNS) that affects the optic nerves and spinal cord. Individuals with NMO develop optic neuritis, which causes pain in the eye and vision loss, and transverse myelitis, which causes weakness, numbness, and sometimes paralysis of the arms and legs, along with sensory disturbances and loss of bladder and bowel control." ~From The National Institute of Neurological Disorders"

Not many people know about this disease and it doesn't get as much funding or attention as it should.  Stacey's being challenged by NMO and we both want better and more research to find better treatments and a cure.  You can help find a cure by contributing to her fundraiser.  There are a lot of great prizes for knitters and non-knitters and for those folks living in East Texas.  This year, I donated a brand-new, never out of the package iPod Nano for one of the prizes.  It is cool.  Seriously.  Did you know you can fit that little thing into a watchband and be a very cool techie-nerd person.  Or just be cool by having one of the newest iPods out with cool watch faces.  Even Mickey Mouse.  I.am.not.kidding.  Make a contribution to NMO in Stacey's name and for every ten dollar contribution, you'll be entered to win one of many prizes, just tell her when you visit her blog to let her know you're helping to win the fight against NMO.  Go.  Contribute.  Win stuff.  Feel good.

Pretty stone fruit

Caution:  Items in small bowls may appear larger than real life.

 

I believe I will have cherries with my yogurt tomorrow morning.  Our newer small cherry trees have ripening fruit, so I (HA!) cherry-picked a few.  

Today was an absolutely beautiful day.  I opened up the windows this morning to low humidity and blue skies and they're still open.  The only thing better would be if I could have spent more of my day outside.  

 

The good stuff

• It feels like it is finally Spring and I saw evidence when I walked around Friday and Saturday.  
• We bought some very nice ferns at the Poynette Farmers' Market.  
• Our front garden bed now has four new fern plants
• One of my spinning group is selling eggs!!  
• Cherry and pear trees are blooming and the apple trees are almost there.  
• Violets of at least three color variations can be found in the woods and grass near home.   (White, yellow, and purple---with a red-violet as a fourth for those that differentiate)  
• I saw my first scarlet tanager (EVER!) while walking with DH in the woods on Saturday.  I fell in love with their coloring when I was in Mrs. King's First Grade class.  
• I'm learning how to use Excel in Mac, which is different enough from Excel for Windows to be a challenge.  My spreadsheets are useful and that's what counts.
• I make a pretty darn good jambalaya, all things considered.
• It was a good (but short in some ways) weekend and it ended with a nice sunny day.
• I figured out what was wrong with the box that parses the TV feed and may have a replacement soon.
• Dan made us a nice Saturday dinner of fresh asparagus wrapped with bacon (broiled), dove braised with vegies (yum!), and small crab cakes.  

Have a good week.

First Saturday in April

Sorry about the quality of this....at least I'm here.  

 

 

I haven't been keeping track of TypePad developments, but why are (a lot of) people following me on TypePad and they have no followers but they are following hundreds of others?  I haven't clicked to visit any of their blogs since I think they have a nasty package waiting for me, or rather--my computer) when I get there.  They remind me of the "sex girls" followers on twitter.  (They're all displaying female photos anyway.)  Quite a nuisance.  Anyone else noticing this?

Next week, Dr. E and Mom are flying into DC and we're going to go adventuring.  We're taking Amtrak to New York to see Wicked.  We have really good seats, too.  I'm exciting.  Less than 24 hours after we arrive in NYC, we're leaving for Boston, again on Amtrak.  Dan's meeting us, we're all joining Nephew #2 (or Dr. E's DS#2) who is attending university there and spending a few nights in town.  The guys then will all go their merry ways while Mom and I take the train back to DC.  Lots of knitting and reading and just looking out the window at the view for that day.  Mom's looking forward to exploring the Smithsonian for a day or two.  Family, yay!

The bun.  Still growing.  

Baby Bluebirds

There are really five baby birds in the nest, one was shy for the photographer (my DH).  DH has been monitoring the bluebird nesting activities this Spring and his actions have resulted in me feeling that home could almost be called "Bluebird Central Hatchery."  He's placed a number of bird houses suitable for bluebirds on the property and dealt with the evil sparrows.  (Did you know sparrows have pecked baby bluebirds and swallows to death?!)   

Saturday's egg count was 15 eggs and at least these five babies.  That's only the "in process" birds!  A cycle of eggs and fledging has all ready occurred this year.  And yes, bluebirds like the number "5" for family size.

Happy Bluebird Sunday!

 

Peachy Monday

Peach blossom!!!  This is a blossom of a Reliance peach, rumored to be hardy enough to stand up to a Wisconsin winter and, so far, the rumors are true.  The winter and rodents were very tough on our crabapple trees, which don't look so good after the darn rodents ringed the bark after eating through the protective paper DH applied last fall.  Oh well....the peach tree looks, well, I won't say it.  :D  Today was a lovely day in Wisconsin, especially after the dreary, wet (but much needed) weekend.  

 

Have a lovely week!  I'm building my apartment-finding mojo for the coming weekend.  I don't NEED one this weekend but I certainly would LIKE to find a nice place to live while in DC and soon.  (key words:  Eastern Market, affordable, sunny, near  Metro, washer/dryer)

Time to sleep fast but here's my hero, Blue:

 
  One down, many more to vanquish.  Good boy!  Maybe the fruit trees *will* live another year.........

 

Spring blossom Saturday

Cherry blossoms will soon be seen in Wisconsin.  

Pear blossoms, as well.

And White Dot is ready for anything.  Isn't he handsome?  

It is a really beautiful day today.  I picked up a bucket of pine cones, which are excellent fire starters; worked in my herb gardens; and took a walk to take these photos (with White Dot's help).  The laundry is also being dealt with.  DH is out with the chain saw cutting up buckthorn in the woods.  It is easier to cut now before all the leaves, brush, and weeds grow high.  Tomorrow, we're planning on having a lunch date and running errands together.  Romantic, eh?  Well, yeah, it is.  We're planning time together because if we don't, before we know it we're back at work without having spent quality time together.

This lovely Spring weather means also that there are four shedding felines.  Lovely.  I could easily have a cat hair sweater if I collected and spun this stuff up.   Tick season is starting, too.  We medicate the cats for fleas and ticks but I don't have a high opinion of the med's effectiveness for ticks.  Any one know of a good tick repellent? 

 

 

Oh, Lucy............

One of the reasons behind why I named this blog Purling Oaks. 

This morning while catching up on my blog reading, I read one blogger's post of why she blogs that really touched my heart.  An unanticipated outcome of my blogging is having family reading to see what I'm up to.  I started this blog to join the community of knit bloggers.  My knitting is of the low production variety lately and my posting has slowed to a weekly rather than almost daily pace.  However, I still feel part of the community and TypePad's recent no-notice action to change the way their customers may interact with their readers has made me angry.  Far more angry than I thought I could or would be.   Six Apart is attempting to perform some damage control at this forum after their incredibly rude and canned reply to help tickets, including mine.

I have no wish at this time to move this blog to another domain and use another application for blogging.  TypePad was working just fine and, generally, their changes were all for the good.   I am hopeful that some folks at Six Apart will implement changes to return the ability to respond to readers without making the response public or having to use a work-around (which wouldn't work for me on my mobile anyway.)  However, I will move if TypePad's treatment of paying customers does not change.  This is the second instance of very poor customer relations that made a major impact on me.

Now, if I could only determine why I cannot comment on TypePad blogs......the "post" and "preview" buttons are grayed-out to me.  

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Why does this photo bring to my mind a bare-foot Stacey?