I was gifted some art the other day. I love the colors and the composition.


The contrast between the colors of the flowers is fabulous. And I love the pale green heart.


The bold crayon strokes are a sign of a true master.



Even Bobby knows good art when he sees it.

I am physically incapable of not feeding the birds. I need to feed. I'm unhappy if I don't have little friends flitting about my backyard enjoying the seed I put out for them. Knowing that I have a bear problem, I decided to try a small window feeder. My thought is that if it's too close to the house and too small to bother with, the bear will not attempt to get it. This is my hope anyway.

So we went to the bird food store and bought a small window feeder for the living room window :


And the sliding glass door on the bead cottage:


Violets in the lawn. Some people think of them as pests, but I think they're pretty.


My lily of the valley is starting to bloom:


And we have confirmed chickadees in the bird cottage. They've been bringing in moss for the last couple of days.


They nest on a bed of moss, which will build up the bottom 3-4 inches of the house, then they line it with soft stuff. I put out some soft roving (wool) that I think will do nicely. I hope they like it.

Yesterday, I took this picture of what I think is a female brown-headed cowbird stalking the nesting chickadees. Cowbirds are like cuckoos and lay their eggs in other birds' nests. I hope it doesn't happen, but if it does there's nothing we can do about it. It's nature. I do hate nature.

Another tree bit the dust. It is a casualty from the first tree which fell, taking off half of the "Y" of this tree. In the strong winds yesterday, the other half of the "Y" fell.

Since we are no longer feeding birds, we bought a wren house and put it up. I hope some bird finds it to be a perfect home.


I think, but I'm not positive, that some chickadees found the house on the bead cottage. I saw a couple fly in and out this morning. I'm going to keep my eye on it and see if they actually are nesting in there.

Our friend the bear came back around Easter. I've lightened the photo, so he's visible. Today we had three deer come visit us. Bobby was quite upset when he spied them. He is now sitting vigil on the porch watching the woods in case they come back. I was able to get these photos. They're not great because I took them through the window.




Our Protector:

I spoke to my mother-in-law the other day and she told me that it had been a while since I updated my blog, so here are some random things from the past couple of weeks.

First, it is officially spring, and it for once actually feels like spring. Last week the temperatures were in the 70's. This week they're more back to normal, but after last year's "winter directly to summer" and not until July, this spring feels pretty good. Buds are coming out on the little tree the bear knocked over last fall, so at least it survived.


A few weeks ago we had a horrible, very scary wind storm. About a week later, we noticed that a huge tree in the woods was knocked over that night. This is a picture of the stump; our neighbor kindly cut up the tree and hauled it away. The root ball, when it was standing, was as tall as I am.


The other morning we drove extra early to breakfast and on the way, I almost hit a deer. It was very scary. There were three of them. The first ran in front of my car, and I thought "wow that was close". Then the second, which I never even saw until it was in front of my car, ran in front and almost into me. It had to jump to the side to avoid me. The last one ran behind me. Robert was several cars behind me, so he never even saw what happened. I should have rode with him.

Here are some pictures of Bobby doing his famous head tilt:





He really is a cutie.

On a sad note, Dr. Engelhardt lost his battle with brain cancer. He was Java's vet's husband and a veterinarian as well who saw our animals from time to time. We are so saddened by this and how unfair it is that he should have to leave his two little boys to grow up without a Daddy. Our hearts go out to Dr. Hart and their boys.

Things like this make you feel so helpless: to stop the cancer; to comfort the grieving. And it makes the problems you think of as large in your life seem small.

The good news is that I finished both socks, and wore them on Sunday. The bad news is that is the last time I'll wear them, because I accidentally felted them in the washing machine today. Here's a picture of how small they are now. My hand barely fits over them.



I guess it's a live and learn situation, but it bugs me because the yarn was expensive and I was so stupid and forgot to put them in the handwash cycle, plus I didn't think that you could felt wool in a front-loading machine. WRONG!

Java is still feeling better. Her pain patch was removed yesterday and there's no difference in her today, which is good. She even jumped on the chair this afternoon, which she is not allowed to do. She had a good acupuncture session yesterday and things for her are moving along. (That was a veiled reference to yesterday's post.)

The good news is that Java is feeling much better after being on the prednisone for a few days. I brought her for a re-check yesterday and the vet thought she was standing much better. I do too. Plus we haven't heard the pain noise she makes since she started the medicine. I'm taking her today for some acupuncture. I'm also bringing a little plant of flowers for the vet who does the acupuncture as a "thank you" from me and a "sorry" from Java for trying to bite her sometimes.

The bad news is that Java hasn't pooped since Sunday. It's funny how animal owners become obsessed with their animals' poop. It's a way of monitoring their health since they can't talk, I guess. Hopefully there will be some movement soon. I'm not sure if I'll update here or not. Probably not.

Another really upsetting thing is that I learned that Java's vet's husband, who is also a vet, is suffering from brain cancer. From what I understand it's just a matter of time for him, and I'm so sad. He has seen my animals on occasion and he is so nice. Plus they've got two little boys under three. I am just devastated for that family. I can only hope for a miracle.

Java is having a flare-up of her back problems. It's making me crazy and eating me alive to see her in such pain. She's on a bunch of medication, but I don't know how much relief they're giving her. When she's really bad, she can hardly stand on her back leg; she folds it up under her and sits and looks at me pitifully as if she's saying "why do I hurt so much?"

The good news is that there's medicine we can give her but we have to wait until the old medicine is completely out of her system. So there's a lag time where she's got no anti-inflammatory to ease her pain. Tomorrow morning is the earliest we should give her the steroid. If she's as bad as she was today, she's getting it.

The extra good news is that she was on this medicine twice before and it helped both times, so I have high hopes that it'll work this time.

Sock update - I'm over halfway finished with the second one. I should be able to wear them tomorrow!

Yesterday we got a little snow. I would guess about 6 inches. The world is sugar-coated. I love it when this happens, it's so pretty. Too bad it's so cold!





And we've redone the cellar, to make Robert an office. Here's his office and the new banquette and ottoman.



Today is the third anniversary of my Dad's death and the 2-month anniversary of my Father-in-Law's. I can't help thinking of them today and wishing they were still here.

I made a sock!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I made a sock! I started last week, paused for a few days until I could get some help and then finished today. Now I just have to make its mate. It fits perfectly and is very comfortable. I'm thrilled that I finished it.

Here is a video of Java being bossy. Bob is making a ham sandwich and Java wants some:

The laundry is one thing I refuse to let Robert do. I mean the actual placing of clothes into the machine, adding soap and turning it on. The machine we have seems to act up if we add too many clothes, so the load size is a concern to me. If it becomes unbalanced it can take up to two hours to run one load. Ugh. Who has time for that?

Robert has always thought I was mean for not letting him run the machine. I don't think I am mean. I know he loves to tease me about stuffing in a whole basket of clothes to be washed, but he always tends to add more clothes than I want in there at once, so I don't allow it.

Hence my surprise when this morning I heard the washing machine beep after he went into the laundry room. I questioned him and he explained that he had sat in some mysterious goop at breakfast and wanted to wash his pants. He added a few other items he said so he wasn't washing just one pair of jeans. I thought to myself "Maybe this man has some laundry potential. Maybe it wouldn't be too dangerous to allow him to do some laundry once in a while."

My warm fuzzy feeling about Robert doing laundry screeched to an abrupt halt when I heard the expletive he uttered upon opening the machine after the cycle was completed. Yes, he had neglected to take his wallet out of his jeans before washing them, so it and many things inside were ruined. The picture is of the things that could be saved drying out.

I should learn to trust my gut.

We got Java's tumor results back yesterday. It was a Grade II, which has a chance of recurring, but if it does, it'll be somewhere on her skin. While not the best type it's far from the worst type. The vet got clean margins which is the main thing. So we're happy and we're going to keep our eyes on her and check her over thoroughly for recurrences. I feel like we dodged a bullet.

I've been making a few beads lately. I don't find myself working for hours and hours anymore but rather for one or maybe two at a time. I need to get on the stick and start listing my beads somewhere for sale. Once I start selling again, I'll get motivated to make more.

It's been quite a week. We had a lovely time in Vermont. We had a very homey room:



We went to Simon Pearce and watched them blow glass:


We dined with movie stars:


We sat by the roaring fire:


We watched football:


We played foosball:

And we worked on the crossword puzzle:


It snowed:


It got more eventful when we got home. I don't think I want to dwell on it, because we're waiting for results, but Java had to have a tumor removed from her leg this week. It popped up almost overnight because I never saw it. Luckily some sharp eyes at the vet's kennel did see it. It's gone now, along with a painful broken tooth, and we're waiting to see what grade tumor it was. Cross your fingers for a good pathology report!

This weekend my family and I are going to the Woodstock Inn. We went last year and it was a blast. I read, knitted by the fire and relaxed. I plan to do the same this year. Last year's weather was brutally cold, but this weekend is supposed to be a little warmer than normal. That means no hunkering inside, but we'll be able to enjoy the outside too. Several family members plan to ski and I plan to shop downtown Woodstock. I hear there's a nice yarn store there. We're going to go to Simon Pearce for lunch and watch them blow glass. That's always a fun time. I'm bringing my netbook and my camera, so I hope to be able to update daily.

More knitting and other stuff

Here are some knitting projects I finished recently. This is a cowl. You wear it on your neck to keep warm. It's kind of like a neck hat, LOL. No ends to tuck in or worry about like with a scarf. I like it. It's made from Malabrigo Marino Worsted, one of my new favorite yarns.

This is the same hat I made for my mother in law, only in red instead of blue. I made it from some other merino that kind of matched the Malabrigo, which I couldn't find any more of. It's missing the orangey notes of the cowl, but it's close enough.

And here is me, wearing both and taking a picture of myself.


They will definitely keep me warm this winter.

I made a hat for my mother-in-law. I think it came out just like it was supposed to, which is great! I love the stitch pattern, it looks like it's really difficult, but it's not. It's the Amanda hat on Ravelry. I made it out of Malabrigo Merino worsted. It's soft and warm and snuggly.


Bobby is as cute as ever. It amazes me how sweet he is. It takes me aback sometimes.

This weekend was my father-in-law's funeral/memorial/mass whatever. It was very nice, with Frank and Angela giving the eulogies. Angela's made me cry. It was beautiful.

A picture of the snowfall:


The birds love the feeders when it snows:


Java and Bobby love the fire:

Gary relaxing:


Begging for cream cheese: