Hawks

I was jealous when Durwood called me at work the other day to say that first the Cooper's hawk came looking for lunch and as soon as it flew away the smaller, Sharp-shinned hawk arrived to survey the buffet.  Both went away disappointed, as did this Cooper's hawk yesterday.  I just love the sharp-eyed way they scan the feeders and the birdie tree.  Sometimes they even plunge right into the birdie tree after prey but they're rarely successful.





The sunset last night was gorgeous.  I am constantly disappointed when the deep, vivid colors I see in the sky look so pale on "film."



At Friday Night Knitting I finished the first sleeve of the Hello Hamish cardi and got the stitches of the second one onto DPNs, then I knitted rounds on the foot of the Jelli Beenz sock.  Sock feet are good, mindless, conversational knitting.

You know you live in "farm" country when the van next to you in the grocery store parking lot has this painted on the side...

It's a company that checks that cows are in heat and then artificially inseminates them if they are.  I wondered if the driver was buying beef...

January 30--Chipp Jamison, Aspen Grove.  The trees were so close together you could barely see through them.  It looked impossible to walk between them.  It had been a long hike to get to this point.  Jenn stood in the middle of the small meadow staring at the trees.  There were so many of them and they were so close together that they seemed like a single organism with lots of stems.  She shook her head and moved closer.  "I do not want to go around, there has to be a way through."  She eyed the trees, searching for a wider gap, one that would let her slip into the grove and slide on through.  Soon she was sorry that she hadn't gone around.  Branches snagged her clothes and hair, and roots seemed to rise up to make her stumble.  She had lost all sense of direction, for all she knew she had been walking in a circle all the time.

I was out at the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts today and once again I could barely tear my eyes away from the Chihuly chandelier.  I want to touch it, to examine it from every angle, take it apart to see every oddball, twisted component.  It's breathtaking, and I've probably seen in twenty-five times since it was installed in 2004.  The man is a genius.  That is all.
--Barbara