Frustration, Thy Name Is Knitting

I tried to work on my Idea #2 "fer reals" swatch at work yesterday because the software tech person was busy with someone even newer to the program than me, but none of my ideas for gradually decreasing the stitch worked.  So this attempt and the next attempt (that I didn't even grant photo room to) are frogged.  I cast on one motif to see if I couldn't figure out a way to work it into my idea... and that didn't work either.  So, after flinging those needles and yarn back into my basket, I cast on the amount of stitches I thought I'd need for Idea #1.  Not enough.  So I'll be visiting the frog pond again and rejiggering my count to make it the way I want it to be. This sure is fun.

Durwood watches the birds and squirrels most days but by yesterday all of the seed and peanuts and corn I'd put out a few days ago were gone so there was little entertainment out there for him.  So he spent a bit of the afternoon photographing the "snow cone" out there.  See, I left an orange half in the oriole feeder (that's frozen into the ground so it gets to spend the winter outside instead of in the garage) just in case any wintering bird might be interested (they're not) and the little bit of snow we got the other day made it look like a snow cone, he said.  That little bit of snow's mostly melted today.  But at least the freezing rain they said we might get today has decided to stay away.  Whew.

This morning after I went out and spent a few minutes filling feeders the wildlife came back.  While I was filling a chickadee was chattering and flitting back and forth from the birdie tree to the main apple tree, so I guess he/she was the herald that let everyone know that the food was back today.  Mr. Cardinal waited patiently in the secondary apple tree while Mrs. Cardinal visited the feeder.  The Bluejay wasn't so patient, it just swooped in and grabbed a peanut then raced away.

January 29--Brinkerhoff, UFO.  Gail thought it was a trick of the light at first, a reflection of the setting sun off the wing, but it stayed where it was even when the sun went down.  She wasn't one of the crystal gazers, didn't consult tarot cards, or follow the newspaper horoscopes.  She glanced at the businessman seated next to her to see if he had noticed anything odd out the window but he was buried in his computer and he was wearing earbuds.  She tried to do the same, pulling out her Kindle and trying to engage herself in a book.  She even tried to distract herself playing Angry Birds in all its myriad forms, but her eyes kept being drawn back to that little metallic disc keeping pace with the wing.

I would like some sunshine today, please.  It's dreary and gray out there and I feel much better when it's sunny.  So I'd really like some if you could arrange it.  Thank you very much.
--Barbara