On days like today,

I am really thankful for Polar Fleece lined jeans when I go walk my friend's dog. Oh, and hand-knits too, of course.

 Current conditions:
    Blowing Snow and Breezy
    5°F (-15°C)
   Wind SpeedNW 24 G 30 mph
   Wind Chill-17°F (-27°C)

Apperantly

blue jays can be rather picky eaters. I know they prefer peanuts, and definitely in the shell is the best in their opinion. I have watched them toss aside sunflower seeds, dried fruit, and other stuff in their pursuit of finding peanuts in the bird seed mix. Saturday Hubband and I went to the feed store to get some corn for the poor starving peasant that lives in the woods. He comes into our yard pretty much every day and we are doing our part to turn him back into a pheasant. While we were getting corn (and water softener salt, since they sell that too) I decided to get a bag of peanuts in the shell as well. Yesterday I filled garden pot with some and put it on the same pole that holds one of our bird feeders. This morning Hubband got to watch a blue jay pick through (and toss aside onto the deck below) several peanuts in the pursuit of the perfect breakfast. Later on the rejected peanuts seemed to be perfectly acceptable to a couple of jays that didn't even fight over them. (With any luck, I will be able to figure out the problem I seem to be having getting photos, my computer, and blogger to all play well together.)

The other day

 I finished an excellent book, The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman.  It is primarily the stories of four different women, how they came to be at Masada around 70 CE,  and their lives there. The writing is excellent and well researched, so it is enjoyable from that standpoint alone, but there were some extra connecting points for me. In the spring of 1997 there was an exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art about Masada (which of course I went to!), with artifacts that

represent both the life and death of a group of Jews who rebelled against Roman rule, leading to the Roman's destruction of Jerusalem.

One of several other connecting points was Hoffman's descriptions of women gathering in the evenings to weave, and one of the characters designing a "new to them" pattern from a scrap of fabric she had.
I hadn't read this book before now, but had suggested it to our book group based on the recommend of several friends. I am very glad I have read it and would strongly endorse it to others to read. Now I just need to come up with a few discussion topics (in addition to the questions in the included "reader's guide").

Conversations

"You know, for something labeled 'Cardinal Blend' I haven't seen very many many eating it this week."
 "They heard they were needed in Rome. They will be back sometime in March or April after they release the white smoke."

Love

is often found best in the little things. Things like having the tire pressure checked for you, coffee brought to you every morning, being picked up at the door so you don't have to walk across the icy parking lot, having the one you love take your car out to fill the gas tank so you don't have to worry about it.

Cycles

The scree of "our" Red-tailed Hawks calling to each other, hooting of owls late at night into early mornings, calls of coyotes across the fields, a season of reflection, all lead to spring and the journey of cycles in all our lives.

She smells like mud,

and her feet were clean when she came inside.

Last Friday,

the 16th, I ran into a dear friend at the post office. For a variety of reasons we hadn't seen or talked to each other for some months and were glad to see each other and do a little bit of catching up.
The very best part of catching up was finding out that she and her husband are about to finalize their daughter's adoption; the second best thing was getting to hold said daughter!


I am sure you all know what this means.

 

Last week

I knit a hat.

 

This week I got to deliver it.

 

This week I made another hat,

 

and today it is being mailed to its new home.

 

A few weeks ago,

(well, February 22, to be precise, since that was when this picture was taken) our front west-side yard looked like this.

 

A few days later (February 29), the morning after an ice/freezing rain storm it looked like this.

 

Saturday our west-side neighbors (the ones that are on the other side of that forest and don't have to drive past our house to get to theirs) came over to see if we wanted to borrow a chainsaw. Pretty much not, since we don't have a 35+ foot ladder to reach all the broken stuff, nor the desire/time/insurance to do it ourselves. As soon as the ground dries out just a little bit more, the tree folks will be out to make it better, plus they will haul it all away. Which we are sure the neighbors will prefer to what we would do with it, aka leave it piled in the forest to decay away.