Feathered Visitor

I was lucky enough to spy this female Cardinal at the feeders today.  Usually Cardinals don't stick around long enough to have their picture taken but I managed to snap one just before she flew away.  Actually I don't know if it's a female or a male from this year's eggs.  Males don't get their red plumage until after their first molt which won't happen until next spring.  So this could be a teenage boy Cardinal, I just don't know.

 

 

Another one of the last flowers blooming is the white salvia.  It doesn't look exactly like the red variety, only white.  It looks more like the perennial purple salvia but that's okay.  I asked for white salvia and this is what they gave me so that's what it must be.  They oughta know.

I spent most of today knitting the Wheat Colvin Hat to completion.  I have a new audiobook so I cued it up and listened while I knitted.  An excellent way to spend the day.

05 October--Barbara Malcolm, Better Than Mom's. 

The next Thursday Fay made sure to put her knitting in a tote to take to the diner.  The knitting ladies had said they’d be back this week to show her how to purl and she wanted to be ready.  She had struggled for days with the metal needles, acrylic yarn, and the pattern she had picked out and finally gave up and went back to just doing the knit stitch on the bamboo needles and wool yarn from Dorothy and Iris.  She debated taking it all along but settled for taking the book alone.  She figured she could make notes on the page when they showed her stitches so she could make them again when she was by herself.

The morning went by in a whirl of coffee mugs, plates of eggs, and smart talk from the coffee codgers, especially Raymond.  Raymond was different somehow.  Taffy had said that he was in one evening with a lady friend for pie and coffee.  Fay wondered if the lady was anyone she was familiar with.  She remembered that one of the bridge ladies had given Raymond a calling card when he helped her pick up a dropped deck of playing cards.  Hm, that could be interesting.

At the end of the lunch rush in came the three knitting ladies.  They asked to be seated at the table at the back of the restaurant so they could knit all afternoon and not disturb anyone eating.  By then Stevie the scribbler had packed up his briefcase of manuscript pages and gone home so that end of the diner was empty.  When Fay delivered their drinks, Patti reached up to touch her forearm.  “Did you bring your knitting, Fay?”

Fay nodded.  “I sure did.  I’ll be over just as soon as I’m through.  See you around two-thirty.” She took their lunch orders and went to put them in.

For the last hour of her shift Fay cleaned and sanitized the tables, booths, and chairs.  She made sure to wipe down all of the condiment containers, the dessert menus, and the napkin holders.  She kept an eye on the few scattered customers and made sure that they had what they needed.  When the knitters were finished eating, she cleared their dishes and cleaned the table so that they didn’t get food on their knitting.

Today's toss was an ancient kitchen scale and an even older cabbage cutter/mandoline that Dad had as a spare in his saurkraut making arsenal.  I am never going to make saurkraut again so I feel safe getting rid of them.  If I want kraut (which I won't), I'll buy some.

There's a home football game tonight and the cheering neighbors are at it again.  I know that they pipe crowd sounds into the empty stadium but I'm too far away to hear that.  I'm sure someone down the street has their windows open or has an outdoor TV because I can hear them clearly.  I kind of like it.

--Barbara