Birds

I was so excited to see a pair of Mourning Doves on the birdbath this morning. I grabbed my camera to snap a photo--just as one of them flew off.  Dang it, but you're getting it, blurry bird and all.


It was sunny today and, best of all, DD and family arrived in the wee wee hours of this morning so I had fun company today and for the next few days.  It's a real flashback having an active and curious almost two-year-old in the house again.  And may I say that blocks aren't fun to step on or kneel on.  Don't ask me how I know.



Yesterday I did a whack of laundry (only 3 loads) and while it was sloshing and tumbling around I finished sewing up this black and gray striped knit Dress no. 3 from 100 Acts of Sewing.  She specifically says not to make this in knit but I've made four of them now and really like them.  I've got woven fabric to use to make a couple more.  I'll get around to them, probably in the winter, which starts today!




During nap time today I started and almost finished another little sock to use for my Advent Garland.  Only three more socks to go and two (I think) mittens.  Yet another Advent will have come and gone and the garland still isn't done.  I'll get there, probably in the winter.

I got to spend yesterday evening with two of my favorite short people and didn't get home until after 11 o'clock (which is why I didn't blog) but I did get the brim rounds of the felted hat knitted.  Now all I have to knit is 8" of crown followed by the decreases.  I'll get there, sooner rather than later, because I'm determined to be a fairly monogamous knitter since I want to wear the danged hat this winter.  Which starts today.  Happy Solstice!

21 December--Barbara Malcolm, Spies Don't Retire. 

“Tell me, Harriet,” Billie said to the woman on her right, “how are you enjoying your stay on our little island.”

“Oh, we’re loving it, Billie, thanks for asking.  Max is loving haring around the island in George’s Rover and meeting all the diving and birding chaps.  Of course, he’d rather dive than tramp around chasing a bunch of foolish birds, but he says, when in Rome…”

Sonia looked a bit strained that her friend would pass along a remark that her husband had obviously made in private.  She moved Harriet’s glass toward herself and got up to pour her friend a cup of coffee.

Billie chuckled and said, “I wouldn’t want to get out of bed in the early morning dark when on holiday either.  Did Max work with George?  Is that how you came to be friends?”

Harriet opened her lips to answer but Sonia laid her hand on her arm and said, “No.  Actually, Max was in the Navy.  He was commander of a submarine.  Our families lived next to each other and our children were school chums.”

“You sent them to private school, of course,” said Billie.

“No,” Sonia shook her head.  “They went to the district schools just like the rest of the children in the neighborhood.”

“But with George’s high position in the government, couldn’t you afford to send them to better schools?”

Sonia hoisted a puzzled look on her face.  Irina could see the effort it took for her to paste it there.  “Billie,” Sonia said, “I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but George was a middle manager in the Fisheries Department.  He wrote reports on annual catch counts and legislation about limits and other boring things, including touring fish processing plants all over the country.”  She smiled at the memory.  “I used to make him burn his suit when he came home from one of those tours.  He prided himself on being a hands-on manager, not one of those government inspectors who presses the flesh with the bigwigs, peeks through the door of the plant and then goes off for a two-martini lunch.  Not my George.  He’d be in there among the guts and the scales, quizzing people on their working conditions and if they had any safety concerns.  He’d come home smelling of mackerel or whatever fish was in season and I’d march that suit right out into the garden and set it alight.

The three women looked at her in astonishment.

“Well, not the most cordial of welcome homes, I’ll grant you but I got so I hated the smell of fish.  Still do.”  Sonia’s eyes fell on the mound of conch salad on her plate and realized her gaffe.  “Of course, this perfectly prepared luncheon on your lovely pool deck isn’t even in the same universe with the squalid conditions of the places George was forced to work in.”  Sonia raised her blue eyes to meet Irina’s black ones.  “Don’t you think this is a lovely luncheon, Irina?”

A tiny smile touched her lips and Irina said, “I do.  Thank you so much for inviting me, Billie.”

Billie sat back in her chair, defeated, and Irina thought, good for you, Sonia, for deflecting that nosy old bat.

I made ham, green beans, and cornbread for supper tonight which was one of Mom's favorite suppers.  It was a big hit but, man, I have a lot of ham.  I bought the second smallest one in the bunker (the smallest was way too fatty) and still we'll be having ham everything--ham and eggs, ham-eroni and cheese, Dad's Out-of-Town pasta toss (rotini, ham, Calif blend veggies, with white sauce and parm) (oh, and onions), ham sandwiches, and ham, green beans, and cornbread the revival.  I'm going to need to spend time desalinating when this week is over.
--Barbara