Aren't You Done Yet?

That's what I imagined this trio of sparrows were saying to the male Downy Woodpecker on the peanut feeder this morning.  I watched first one sparrow, then two, and finally three of them land and glare but Mr. Woodpecker just kept on pecking away at his peanuts.  The sparrows ruffled their feathers and looked around at each other until he flew off, then they pecked a bit and flew off themselves.  One of the sparrows flew right into the patio door as they left but it didn't fall, it just flew up into an apple tree and shook it off.  They're tough little buggers for an invasive species.  Which reminds me, I need to get some finch seed today and probably some safflower seed to tide me over until the seed store has their annual fall sale when I can buy a 50# bag of it for a lot less.  See, most nuisance birds (can you say "sparrows & grackles"?) don't like safflower seeds, squirrels don't like them either so that means putting out mostly safflower attracts more of the cardinals, chickadees, and finches that I want and fewer of those other messy and greedy birds.  (It's like serving only animal products so that your fussy, vegan neighbor, Moonflower, doesn't crash your dinner parties.)

I finished the Big Fat Hat at work yesterday, deciding not to make a giant pompom for it or to turn it inside out so that the reverse stockinette stitch side shows.  I know that's the trendy stitch and if you knit cables you surround them with reverse stockinette to make the cables pop but it always looks wrong-sided to me so I avoid it when I can and, on this hat, I can.  (so there)  Last night after supper I finished Sudoku Almond #8.  Later today I'll cast on Almond #9, probably finish it by bedtime and be on to knitting the last four Stone ones next week.  That'll leave only the last three colors to go, each of which needs eight squares knitted.  *sigh*  I keep dreading that but actually these are going pretty fast plus I thought I'd knit one of each color in a rotation so I have a bit of variety, at least in color, to drag me through the last slog before assembling the blocks, then knitting the joining strips, and figuring out how I want to edge the thing.  But I'll tackle that when the time comes.  (quit looking so far ahead, Barbara, enjoy the moment!)

I noticed a spark of red against the bricks when I went out for the paper this morning and look what I found.  One of Dad's roses is blooming.  Thanks, Dad, you sure know how to brighten up a dreary day.

September 18--Bob Krist, DS95-15.  The woman lay on a red and white striped towel in the center of the beach.  There were no other people on the beach and there were no footprints in the sand around her.  Jean stood on top of the dune in the shade of the pine trees trying to figure out how she got there without making prints.  Jean looked closer and noticed that the woman's upturned hand was filled with sand and her feet were splayed like she was asleep.  The longer Jean looked, the more convinced she was that the woman wasn't sleeping.  She was dead.  A gull landed near the towel, waddled over and pecked at the limp hand in the sand.  Jean hollered "hey" to scare away the bird but she didn't move closer.  She heard car doors slam behind her in the parking area.  Maybe they would keep watch while she went for the police.

Cheerful, no?  I was wishing I was lying on a sandy beach on a tropical island instead of lying in bed in the upper Midwest with a thunderstorm outside.  I liked the thunderstorm and the sound the rain made on the window over my head but I sure was wishing I was on an island on vacation--and then I had to go and put a dead body smack dab in the middle of my beach.  Darned imagination.  I have to go find some unscented mousse to take to The Clearing.  So far I'm not having much luck.  Maybe there isn't such an animal.  It's going to be a shopping morning.  Bye!
--Barbara