Belated Happy Summer Solstice
A belated Happy Summer Solstice to each of you! I lived in Alaska for 7.5 years and Summer Solstice was always celebrated there. Here, even in MN, it seems to go mostly unnoticed. I love the long summer evenings.
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Some things in my work life became all consuming. Nothing has changed - yet, but I finally figured out my options and that's made a big difference. I hope to have some news soon.
Knitting News
The green traveling shells cardigan is coming along. I think I would have made more progress but for the work thing which has kept me so preoccupied. I've knit to the arm holes and have started working on the left side. I'm behind my goal for completing this, but that's OK. Knitting is a hobby after all. I'm suffering badly from "start-itis". I so want to start a new project but I am going to finish this first before I move on to something new. My new goal is to have the cardigan completed before my mom goes back to AZ for the winter.
Bird News
I woke up early today with a busy Saturday in front of me. However, instead of diving right into my many chores, I was seriously distracted by the tree swallow babies who left the nest this morning between 6:00-6:30 a.m.. So much fun to watch! The phrase "it takes a village" is certainly true for tree swallows. Besides the parents, a whole flock of swallows flew around the nesting box encouraging the baby birds to get out and try their wings. Three of the four were out of the nest by 6:30 a.m. but one lone baby stayed in the nest for another 12 hours. I was starting to get a bit worried, wondering what to do with a tree swallow who either couldn't or wouldn't fly. But fly the bird did this evening!
The 5 blue birds are still in their nest. I have not opened the nesting box but I've peeked in and can see their blue feathers. I expect them to fledge any day now. Both parents are very busy feeding their youngsters.
I also have a noisy brood of house wrens in a bird house very close to my bedroom windows. (I won't make that mistake next spring!) These babies too look very close to fledging. Soon I hope my cat can become an indoor/outdoor cat again. He's driving me crazy!
Dog News
Shamrock tried for her PT herding title this past Friday without success. She's off to a good start here but she and I hit a snag in the course later on. As the judge wrote on her critique, Shammie needs more schooling. And so do I! We'll get there, we'll keep on practicing and training and try again this fall. It was a nice day to get out with just Shamrock and for the two of us to enjoy each other's company without all the other dogs around.
We went to a show in IA last weekend. It was blistering hot. Addie managed a Best Of Breed one of the days and Dak managed to lie down on the long sit both of the days, thus disqualifying himself after racking up some very nice heeling scores. Yeesh! You can bet I've been practicing the long sit with Dak both at home and in several classes.
Very Sad News
The dryer tried to eat one of my pink tennis shoes and it was irreparably damaged. Bummer! I did love those pink shoes.
Here's the pair of boring blue shoes to replace the pink ones.
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Some things in my work life became all consuming. Nothing has changed - yet, but I finally figured out my options and that's made a big difference. I hope to have some news soon.
Knitting News
The green traveling shells cardigan is coming along. I think I would have made more progress but for the work thing which has kept me so preoccupied. I've knit to the arm holes and have started working on the left side. I'm behind my goal for completing this, but that's OK. Knitting is a hobby after all. I'm suffering badly from "start-itis". I so want to start a new project but I am going to finish this first before I move on to something new. My new goal is to have the cardigan completed before my mom goes back to AZ for the winter.
Bird News
I woke up early today with a busy Saturday in front of me. However, instead of diving right into my many chores, I was seriously distracted by the tree swallow babies who left the nest this morning between 6:00-6:30 a.m.. So much fun to watch! The phrase "it takes a village" is certainly true for tree swallows. Besides the parents, a whole flock of swallows flew around the nesting box encouraging the baby birds to get out and try their wings. Three of the four were out of the nest by 6:30 a.m. but one lone baby stayed in the nest for another 12 hours. I was starting to get a bit worried, wondering what to do with a tree swallow who either couldn't or wouldn't fly. But fly the bird did this evening!
The 5 blue birds are still in their nest. I have not opened the nesting box but I've peeked in and can see their blue feathers. I expect them to fledge any day now. Both parents are very busy feeding their youngsters.
I also have a noisy brood of house wrens in a bird house very close to my bedroom windows. (I won't make that mistake next spring!) These babies too look very close to fledging. Soon I hope my cat can become an indoor/outdoor cat again. He's driving me crazy!
Dog News
Shamrock tried for her PT herding title this past Friday without success. She's off to a good start here but she and I hit a snag in the course later on. As the judge wrote on her critique, Shammie needs more schooling. And so do I! We'll get there, we'll keep on practicing and training and try again this fall. It was a nice day to get out with just Shamrock and for the two of us to enjoy each other's company without all the other dogs around. We went to a show in IA last weekend. It was blistering hot. Addie managed a Best Of Breed one of the days and Dak managed to lie down on the long sit both of the days, thus disqualifying himself after racking up some very nice heeling scores. Yeesh! You can bet I've been practicing the long sit with Dak both at home and in several classes.
Very Sad News
The dryer tried to eat one of my pink tennis shoes and it was irreparably damaged. Bummer! I did love those pink shoes.
Here's the pair of boring blue shoes to replace the pink ones.Labels: blue birds, herding, knitting, pink shoes
posted by mary at 8:51 PM
4 Comments:
I'm so jealous of you getting to spend time watching baby birds learn to fly!
Summer solstice is celebrated in Philadelphia with a 24-hour music festival at the symphony hall - people come and go all day and night, it's pretty neat.
Too bad about your shoes - it always happens to ones that are your favorites.
Good luck with your job thing. I'm really looking to make a change, too, but so far, no luck.
You've been gone a long time! I've missed your posts!
Bummer about the pink shoes. You can't get them anymore? The cardigan is looking nice...
I love your bird stories! Our swallows chase birds from our bluebird box! So frustrating. We've never had bluebirds.
However, here's a sad tale. Last summer, we actually had a Scarlett Tanager. I had never seen one. We heard it for several days and finally saw it. WOW!
With the construction (DEstruction) going on next door, I don't think we'll see him again.
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