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Wow, it is hot today, the AC has been running non-stop. Supposed to be 95 tomorrow…..here we go!

Ever since we got Theo just over a year ago, he has been really weird about drinking out of his water bowl, much preferring puddles and causing us to worry about his level of hydration. Finally the lightblub went on today as we watched Theo hesitantly approach his bowl, bob his head up and down, then back away even though he was panting and clearly thirsty. Dean, in a flash of brilliance, used Temple Grandin’s method of getting down on the level of the animal, to see what they see, and lo and behold when he got down close to the water bowl, its shiny stainless steel surface caused a reflection in the bottom. Poor Theo has been freaked out by the other black dog in the water bowl for a year now! We have always known that he does not like reflections, but it took us this long to put the two together. Temple, we owe you one

Carrier – If you have not seen this, hopefully you will have a chance or watch them online. KLRU our local PBS station recently ran this 10 hour series about life in the navy. It was very well done and worth watching every minute to get an understanding of the sacrifices these people are making for us.

Support PBS!

It is so beautiful right now – the best thing to do first thing in the morning is to grab a cup of heavily creamed coffee and go on a bird walk on the property (carefully avoiding the poison ivy that has made its home here). Right off I heard the Downy (Hairy??) Woodpecker, sounds like he belongs in a jungle. Then I heard a riot of Titmice and Chickadee parents and babies in the front oaks. Best of all, I spotted the male and female Painted Bunting on the side property in the sumac. They were just relaxing and taking in the morning like I was. Two Mockingbirds sat on the wire above me and Theo and chided us for even thinking about being anywhere near their nest. A male Lesser Goldfinch was swaying on some blown out grass happily picking out the seeds. What a perfect way to start the day!

How I have managed without this thus far is a miracle

The Weaving Finlander is a great blog that I just found today. Nothing better than weaving and being a Finn! Her colors are beautiful and the pictures are relaxing. Wish I could reach out and feel her weaving.

Just tackled tapestry crochet and it is super fun. The Takhi Stacey Cotton Classic is fantastic to work with and now I need more colors!! Just need to block this, sew the bottom shut and attach a handle and I am good to go.

Wishing you the best Thomas!

I wanted to get a list started here regarding our “green”-ness, unfortunately that word is getting a little overused and stale, but if for a good cause, why not.

So, here are some things that Dean and I have been doing for quite some time now to be more friendly to our mother planet:

* Recycling – plastic (what they will take…which is NOT enough), aluminum, glass. Now, where we live, we do not have curb-side recycling, we have to take it to a place out by Nanny Pop-Pops and load and unload ourselves. So, if you have curbside recycling, are you using it?? If not, why not?? Tell me you are not also using paper plates and napkins and plastic forks like our neighbor family….ugh.

* Clothesline – I had Dean hang this for me the second we moved in. I just LOVE my clothesline! It always smells good out there with the wet clothes breezing in the wind. We live out in the country where there are no idiotic restrictions on things like clotheslines….god forbid.

* Work from home – yep, I have not been to a gas station to fill my tank in well over a month. Not only am I saving on gas, but not sitting in traffic fuming the planet up for sometimes an hour each way. And you know what? I am a significantly more effective employee since I have started working from home over a year ago…and why not?

*Composting – this would work better if we have more fruits and vegetables than we currently do (oh, it is on the list..) but nevertheless, we like to compost any matter like this. Doogs likes to sniff the pile.

* Rain-water collection – we have a 305 gallon tank in which we collect our rain water. Why in the world is this not a practice for our water supply rather than sucking it out of the reservoirs??? This makes absolutely no sense to me and really hit home after watching a doc about the guy who built the original EarthShips, who went over to Thailand after the Tsunami and built a home for them out of old tires and sand in which the center of the house was a huge cistern in which the roof collected rain water for them since the tsunami had flooded all of their wells with salt water and they did not have fresh drinking water. In a country in which they have over 200 days of rain a year, they were dependent on the water coming out of the ground rather than the sky, which was more than plentiful. So, we should all take a page out of that book and look to see how we can utilize rainwater collection to reduce the drag on the water table. We use ours only for irrigating our plants at this point, but a plan for whole house rain water usage has been brewing for some time.

Cloth grocery bags – nuff said

* SolaTube lighting– These have been incredible. We keep asking each other “who left the light on?” in the rooms that we had them installed in. Nothing is better than heatless bright natural light for free from the sun.

Here are some things that we would like to add to the list in the near future:
* Solar – come on, we live in Texas. Why would this not make sense??
* Rain water collection for the whole house
* Electric or bio-fuel VW Thing – or other vehicle

So what is on your list?

Oh this yarn is going to be fun to play with. It looks and feels like giant embroidery floss

I just love these little Lesser Goldfinch, we have 2 thistle socks out for them this year and they are SO happy! We have at at least 4 pairs and they are nesting in our big Live Oak trees out front. They are usually the first out with new babies each year, just saw the first ones yesterday. The male was singing when I took this picture – “poooo-eeee” with a lilt up at the end.

This little guy is a Yellow Rumped Warbler and had been hanging around the suet all winter. I have not seen him or the Orange Crowned Warbler in days, so I am thinking they are nesting right now too. I love this guys little heart shaped marking on his breast.

Yes, that’s right you heard it – I have started knitting! It was easier to learn than I had thought (as with everything) – the much talked about scary long-tail cast on was probably the most surprisingly easy part which makes me nuts since everything I read or hear about casting on is about how hard it is to do and maybe you want someone else to do it for you…etc etc. It was freaking simple!

Soooo, from now on, I will not pay any attention to the voices in my head or elsewhere that say things are hard to learn, ooooh I could never learn that, maybe you should not try that, that looks hard, scary, fear fear fear. The key is just sitting down and trying it, only then can I really see if it is hard or impossible or impossibly easy or not. The website Knittinghelp.com has excellent teaching videos that has helped me greatly so far in my learning.

Now having said all of this, my knitting form is atrocious, I am fighting the yarn and needles with my too tight stitches, my hands ache due to the struggle. But form comes with lots and lots of practice which I am more than willing to do. The even more exciting part about learning to knit is that I can start translating my needlepoint patterns into knit patterns, which is awesome. Which of course means that I need to conquer multi-color knitting. I was successful in my first attempts at adding colors in rows but also knitting with 2 colors as shown in the little green and cream example. I am all about little pixels of color creating an overall pattern and in this way knitting is no different than needlepoint but with the potential limitation on the # of colors used in a single piece. I have read that you can only knit with up to 5 colors at once (why? not sure yet – probably because we humans have only 2 hands) but will love taking that challenge on once I can knit without fighting the needles and yarn.

My my, now I can indulge my yarn fantasies and work in 3 mediums, needlepoint, crochet and knitting. I am waiting on a shipment of mercerized cotton in some fantastic colors (maybe it will come today UPS man?) that I ordered from Tahki Stacy Charles. Look at all those colors!

So, does the resurgence in popularity of knitting and crochet cause a resurgence of leg warmers?

Methinks it does:

hot pink leg warmers
killer leg warmers
fleece leg warmers
furry leg warmers
steampunky spats leg warmers
unfreaking believable leg warmers
funk-ay leg warmers
alice in wonderland leg warmers

I got these great fat quarters yesterday and the colors are perfect for a new pic of this pincushion.

Loving the new craft area and have managed to fill it up real quick!

Irish Rose Choker listing on Etsy today.

Here is my first creation with the malabrigo merino wool – I just love crocheting with this wool!! This is also my first attempt at irish crochet with the little flower – too fun. Looks like I am definitely on a blue kick lately.

Here is the latest update on Gram’s purse – getting there. I am using a real snap on this one which I think will be more durable and easier to open and close.

Finally went to a new local yarn shop The Knitting Nest today. They have a pretty good selection of yarns and I was happy they had some Malabrigo Merino Lace weight. Had to get a couple colors to play with – it crochets up really well and is super light and airy