Knitty Gritty

I just got home from a really nice evening... of knitting. I'm not a knitter, though I want to be. Again... it must be that "I'm old now" thing like bird watching, on a previous post. Well I hit the mother lode tonight... I saw needlepoint birds at The Studio, where we were knitting! Cool! Here are some of them. I can easily do without the old fake vines, but cool nonetheless. Thanks to Felice Azorsky of Bagettes and Jennifer Roe of Tastebud Magazine for putting this together. GREAT idea!










The yarns were inspiring. I want to make something! I saw some cool knitted fingerless gloves... I had to put one on and imitate the poor little match girl from the old moral story. I can't tell you how many times my son has cut the fingers off his gloves so he could stay warm and still catch a football. Great colors and textures... wine and candy corn... gorgeous witty women... what a beautiful way to spend the evening.


On a completely different side note... TRAIN has a new album, due out Oct. 27th can be listened to here on MY999 ! The whole new album "Save Me San Francisco"! I particularly love songs "Parachute" and "Marry Me" and of course "Save Me San Francisco" where Train made a shout out via social media on Twitter and Facebook for their fans to come to the recording studio in San Francisco and clap on the namesake song. Many of the people I've met over social networking the last few years went! Here they are... Gotta love TRAIN! Congrats to Alisa, Monique and the others... fun opportunity. Take a listen too... tell me what songs you enjoyed too. The TRAIN tour is already under way and I hope you get to see them. It's a great date!

Confession Time...

It would appear I'm getting "old".

I like bird watching.

What is up with that? I would not have considered myself a fan of birds (Hitchcock's, The Birds, ruined them for me at an early age) until the last 7 - 10 years or so. I find myself perched on the wicker chair in my kitchen, feet propped up on the low window sill, watching out of one of the three side by side windows... waiting. There's a decent show at about any given daylight hour.

Cardinals. I adore cardinals. The beautiful bright red males fly fast, low and can manuever on a dime! They are fierce about their loyalty to their woman. The males will persistently drive away other males from their lovely ladies... all ... day... long. I kind of like that.

Our neighborhood is a happy little home to about two dozen yellow finches. I'm not sure how they came to our area ... but I'm so glad! They are very chatty and frequently congrugate together in my cutting garden to perch upon and eat the dead Black Eye'd Susan seeds. They are gorgeous and social... again, what's not to like about that?

Hummingbirds. Oh boy do I love hummingbirds! They are about the size of my thumb and can fly like a helicopter! They are the only bird able to fly backwards! We really only see them here in the 'hood from July through August, during their migration. You gotta like that they even stop by so we can see them.

Red Tail Hawks are so big, fat and healthy here in Round Hill. I saw one sitting high up on a limb in our backyard this summer and for just a moment, I thought it was a turkey. All plump and happy up there... looking for an easy snack. They have taken our ground squirrel population down to about 3. All of whom seem to be living under my house. Sadly though... the squirrel population is almost zero in my neighborhood this year. The hawks can easily pick up full grown squirrels and rabbits and carry them off ... clearly the mother lode of carry out meals.

The only wildlife I like watching more than a cool bird, is a funny squirrel... or 3. The only thing better than the squirrels... are watching mine and the neighborhood kids. Either way... you can find me at my kitchen window, watching... like some freaky old lady.

(vintage bird photo courtesy of The Vintage Workshop The squirrels are from a tree near my second story window in my backyard. So cute!! Probably hawk chow by now.)