The O-Zone

Finishing up the top inner row of small snowflakes

Not exactly sure if I have enough yarn to finish this or not, so I’m just continuing to knit and crossing my fingers that it works out ok.  Matching dyelots is so impossible, even with a dark color like this.  The entire middle section is complete and I’m finishing up the last few rows of the small snowflakes.   I still can’t hardly wait until the last stitch is done, all the loose ends are tucked away, and I’ve got the shawl on blocking wires.  A few more weeks should see the end of this project.

We’ve been living here almost exactly 3 years now; it will be three years in a week and a half!  Time files.  Sunsets seem to be most intense colors this time of year, the sun is staying up a little later and has moved a lot farther north on the west horizon.  Lots of cloudy weather helps to contribute to sunsets.

Tuesday's sunset

Wednesday morning we woke up to a white yard again; a mixture of snow and hail fell during the evening and overnight.  It didn’t last very long but it was a little surprising to see that winter was still wanting to hang on.

Thursday's Sunset

Thursday the sky was almost on fire with intense and bright yellow light ringing thin clouds.  It was a simply gorgeous sky but it didn’t last very long.  It was a cold day.

Friday it was a very wet and rainy day, occasionally the house would be surrounded by a white fog bank and we couldn’t see anything.  It was a cozy feeling actually.

This evening the clouds lifted after the heavy rain and hail, while the sun was setting.  The sunshine was bouncing off the mountains to the east and creating this really neat light on the mountains across the vallley.  It looks like velvet carpeting the hillsides.

Clouds lifting and mist rising

Reflected sunlight on last years' brown grass

All of these pictures were taken with a slight telephoto lense, trying to catch the colors and textures that so intrigue us.

The view of the sky and the mountains seems to have an incredible variety in colors.  It so nice to see something other than snow and cold shadows cast by the conifers.  Spring!!!!!!!!

Today we looked out the front windows and what did our wondering eyes see but two deer and they were eating the Buttercups.  A few escaped the hungry horde, if two deer can be considered a horde, but it is substantially less yellow out there.  They didn’t appreciate Dan going out on the front deck to talk to them, and they high-tailed it down the hill.  But alas, it was not in time to save the flowers.

This afternoon we went for a walk by the river.   We have a four-mile loop, walking upstream, then looping back and walking downstream, and then looping back to our mailbox where we park the car.   The recent warm weather has really made the water level in the river rise substantially.  On previous walks we have seen quite a few species of water fowl, but today just one pair of Common Mergansers was floating around.

Looking for fish in all the right places

These birds eat fish, and they tend to hang out in the best fishing holes on a river.  This pair looked very business-like, cruising upstream near the far bank.

A ribbon of silver water

This river is pretty unique in that it starts in Canada, wanders around up there for a while and then crosses the border a couple of miles from our house, wanders around down here for a while and crosses back into Canada, wanders around up there again, crosses the border again and then ends up emptying into the Columbia River on the other side of the mountains.   Along this river, a mile downstream from where I took this picture, is an active Bald Eagle nest.  They had two babies last year.  In late February they were sitting in the nest, totally surrounded by SNOW!  I’m sure they were wondering when the cleaners were coming in to spruce things up for them.   We can pretty much count on seeing several eagles whenever we are near the river, cruising up or down, or perched in some of the big Cottonwood trees waiting for fish to leap out of the water and into their talons.   Eagles have good imaginations.

"House Hunters," avian edition

This pair of Western Bluebirds was perched on a fence wire next to the road.  They let me get pretty close to get their picture.  Such a beautiful shade of blue!  We have a pair of these at our house, laying claim to the nest box on the front of  the house.  They just have a fit when swallows fly up to the nest box and peek in the door, and so we know that we will get to see two more broods of baby bluebirds this coming summer.  So cool!

A flowering aspen tree down near the river, way ahead of our trees by the house.

Aspen trees are just beautiful, no matter what season of the year it happens to be; in the early spring they have light colored catkins, then they are transformed by a beautiful pale green that darkens over summer time, and then transforms again to the palest of golds in the beginning of October before falling and carpeting the ground.  The leaves quiver and quake in the smallest of breezes, and we love the sound they make.

No rolling here

The solid granite that makes up the mountains where we live contrasts beautifully with soft mats of moss.  The sun peeked out of the spring clouds long enough to send a ray of light to the cliff while we were standing there admiring the moss.  These colors remind me of the yarn I just got, and I’m going to try to use this picture for my pattern inspiration.  The sculptured edge of the rocks and the roundness of the moss is a neat contrast.

All in all, it was a splendid day for a walk in the sunshine.

Spring storms blew around the house all day today, interspersed with periods of sunshine,  enough sunshine to charge the batteries fully. I don’t think we’re ever going to get tired of the magic of solar power.

Dan went out to change the solar panels to a flatter angle, and while we were walking around on the bare spots we found our first flower for the year!

Right next to a snowbank was not one, not two, but three Buttercups!

This is one tough little flower.  We were very surprised to see them gleaming in the sunshine, a bright yellow spot against all the brown grass.  Wow! And some green leaves are also peeping though the grass.  Spring really is coming!

Looking back to the house, it was bathed in the cold sunshine between storms.  Snow still surrounds the house.

From inside the house it looks like winter out of the windows.

Turning around and looking to the west, another storm is fast approaching.  About 20 minutes after I took this picture, the cloud arrived and spread snowflakes all over the sky.  It’s slightly above freezing though, so they don’t actually amount to anything other than floating around.

Dark clouds almost like thunderstorms roll across the sky

Close at hand, one of the many chipmunks scampered across the snow, heading towards the bird feeder for some of the dropped sunflower seeds.  These little guys spend as much time chasing each other as they do grabbing seeds.  Pretty soon there will be baby chipmunks and then the riot truly begins.

Yes, I know he's just a rodent, but he's such a cute rodent

Mishkin loves watching chipmunks out of the windows, and on the porch.  He spends a lot of time dreaming about what he would do with one if he should happen to catch one.  Here he is sacked out on the couch on his blanket, engaged in just such a dream.

Counting chipmunks in his sleep, and catching them if all the twitching is any indication.

Ok, so it wasn’t quite a blizzard, but we drove home through snow in the higher elevations yesterday evening, and it was snowing mixed with rain when we drove into our driveway; it snowed here overnight but not more than an inch accumulated.  This was just a little friendly warning that washing our cars is not approved behavior quite yet.  This morning when we got up it was +27F and a very stiff wind is coming straight out of the north, in case we get any other wild ideas about cleaning the car off again.

Mother Nature, "Are you listening when I talk to you?" (typical Mom question)

Even though the weather was, shall we say, interesting, we had fun going to visit friends yesterday.  It was our first long day trip away from the house since fall last year.  It was our first time leaving Mishkin for this length of time, and he didn’t seem to mind at all.  He was happy to see us but didn’t have his little nose out of joint that we had left him alone.

The fiber arts festival in Coeur d’Alene was fun but very noisy.  We aren’t used to that level noise at all, and my ears reacted to it by pretending I had just changed altitude drastically.  Once we left the building and were back in our quiet car, that sensation went away.  It was the oddest thing!

Despite my best intentions to the contrary, I couldn’t resist some yarns produced by my girlfriend Diana that I had gone to the festival to see.

This yarn was calling my name when I walked in the door, adding to noise levels! I HAD to buy it just so it would shut up.

I wish I’d brought a camera so that I could post pictures of all the yarns that she had there for sale, but alas I didn’t think of taking the camera with me.  Going To The Sun Fiber Mill  is the website for her fiber mill.  The yarn on the far left is a lace weight pure alpaca, and it is just heavenly.

The blues and greens in the sport weight alpaca/wool/silk yarn are destined for a vest.  I am not sure there is enough yardage for a sweater, but there is most definitely enough for a vest, with a collar and pockets 🙂  I am going to have an incredible amount of fun with this yarn and I’m already thinking about how to make my pattern.

But first I must finish my lace shawl which is at the half-way completed mark.  Hurray!  Another couple of months and it will be done and blocked.

He really can't resist this shawl, which may become a problem down the road....

Whenever I have this shawl out of the drawer to work on it, Mishkin can’t resist putting at least a paw on it.  He also likes to grab hold of the end of the knitting needle in his fangs and attempt to remove it from the stitches.  I hang on to my needles tightly when I see his approach!!!  I shudder to even consider the disaster this would be.  Picking up lace stitches is a major pain, and to be avoided at all costs.

Today, when I laid the shawl on the floor to spread it out for a picture, he lay down in the middle, rolled around on it for a bit to claim it for his own, and then was eyeing one of the lose yarn ends on the side for consideration of eating/pulling/unraveling, any or all of the above.   How he manages to consider such things and still look cute is beyond me.

He “met” his first chipmunk a couple of days ago.  Last summer and fall when we first brought him home, he managed to miss seeing the hordes of chipmunks running around in the grass and up and down on bushes; there was so much to see inside the house.  But that all has changed.  First there was a Red Squirrel sitting in the windowsill.  That was most extremely exciting stuff.  And then there was a chipmunk.  They were nose to nose and the chipmunk was completely unimpressed by the show of feline ferocity demonstrated by Mishkin.

Mishkin knows that besides the Bird Channel on Kitty-TV he views through the window, there is now the Rodent Channel.  I can’t wait until he sees and notices his first deer and bear.  He’s going to appreciate being an indoor kitty at that point.

Now that we know how he’ll react to our being gone all day, we’re planning on a couple of all day birding trips to see the spring migration.

And, we will be doing so in dirty cars.

Answer: Threaten to wash the cars. That’s really all it takes, and not even a threat, just a spoken outloud intention to do so, while outside so that the weather gods can hear you.  So, it has been snowing recently, since said intention was voiced over the weekend.  It isn’t accumulating, but Mother Nature is letting us know she’s listening and will smite us if we continue thinking crazy thoughts.  On the upside, both our cars look alike even though they are technically different colors, and they closely resemble the color and texture of our dirt road.

Our migratory bird population continues to expand with a new species or two arriving every few days.  It’s pretty exciting to hear Varied Thrush singing in the woods.  They won’t stay here as the climate is too dry, so they’re just sort of practicing their singing technique on the way to their breeding grounds.  No matter, we’ll take it while we can get it.  The ethereal notes are wonderful.  A Sharp-shinned Hawk just flew through the yard, causing an explosion of birds.

We have a deceased propane generator.  The repair guy was here yesterday and left, shaking his head and vowing to review the repair manual overnight to come up with some suggestions on how to fix it.  The obvious things have been studied and ruled out as the cause of its demise.  Now it is something esoteric 🙁  We both hate mechanical equipment when it doesn’t work, and have virtually no patience for dealing with such things.

The snow is melting overall; we’re down to a foot of it on the ground.  Our driveway is now a sheet of ice with only a few deep soft spots.  And today the sun appears like it is going to shine, so the solar panels will feed the batteries properly.  Yeah!!!!!

On Saturday we are driving to Coeur d’Alene to attend a fiber arts festival, a spin-in.  That is assuming Dan doesn’t get crazy and actually wash a car, thereby causing a blizzard of epic proportions.

I had fun this afternoon making muffins.  I made two kinds.  One is Banana Nut Muffins, and the other is a Cornmeal and Blueberry Muffin in a heart shaped muffin tin.

Banana Nut and Cornmeal Blueberry - which to choose?? Great problem!

Dan and Mishkin are enjoying watching television.

At least they aren't arguing about the remote control

Dan cooperates by providing belly rubs on demand.  Mishkin has come to expect this.

This morning I was awakened with a sports score update.   Bringing you the details we go to our sleepy correspondent… me!

I was awakened this morning with an exciting pre-dawn story.  Dan got up this morning and wasn’t greeted by Mishkin trying to trip him in the dark.  So, he turned on the lights and went looking for the Mishcreant.  Mish was focused on the table legs under Dan’s desk.  Dan looked to see what had the kitten’s undivided attention, and didn’t see anything.  The natural conclusion was that the “prey” was tiny, small spider perhaps?

So Dan ignored said hunting kitty and continued with the waking up routine.  Very shortly thereafter he noticed that Mishkin had changed the area of focus to running back, forth, through, and over the stereo and television equipment.  Mishkin INSISTED there was something there and Dan got out a flashlight to look underneath and, ‘lo and behold’ a mouse peered back at him from underneath the big speaker.

Dan lifted the speaker and told Mishkin to look, but in typical cat fashion Mishkin totally missed that message.  We all know that when you talk to a cat they hear “Mishkin, __________ ____________ __________” which assumes they do know their name.  But I digress.

Dan watched the mouse walking across the livingroom floor towards your faithful correspondent’s chair, while the fearless hunter continued to run around the stereo equipment stand.

Dan sighed, picked up his leather glove and picked up the mouse, which he then threw out the sliding glass doors onto the snow beyond the deck.

Mishkin missed the whole thing.  He did bring us his white toy mouse later, looking for approval and a rousing game of fetch.

Score for today reflects Dan is in the lead.

The temperature outside isn’t what you’d consider balmy, being +24F, but the sunshine more than makes up for it.  It feels wonderful!  The birds think so too.  Going outside on the front deck, the sounds of spring have begun to arrive.  Robins are bupping, chickadees and Juncos are singing, woodpeckers of all sorts are drumming, Song Sparrow is singing, and more species will be arriving every new day.  We expect the Spotted Towhee and Meadowlarks back next, any time now.

Snow is melting off the rocks, and bare patches are spreading

The air smells fabulous this time of year, brisk and clean and completely invigorating.  Our plan is to go for a three-mile walk today on our loop route down by the river.  The wind isn’t blowing and it should be above freezing by the time we set out.  It makes our spirits rise to see the air so full of sunshine.

Dreaming of mices....

He looks like he had a tough night, chasing mice or moths or fairies.   He loves to sleep next to my chair with his nose in my slippers.  It must be comfortable, or something, but it looks ridiculous.

He has woken up from this little nap and right now he’s hiding under the small rug by the sliding glass doors onto the deck, watching the jays feasting on leftover banana pancakes that Dan put out for them this morning.   It does make going in and out of the doors a little tricky, as he is smack dab in the middle of the doorway.

We woke up this morning to blowing snow and cold temperatures, and we decided that today would be a good day not to be out on the highways driving around looking for birds.

See, we can be sensible given an opportunity. So, instead we had our picnic lunch at the kitchen table. It was delicious.

By afternoon the snow died down and the temperatures went above freezing, not a lot above but above nonetheless. We went for a three mile walk on the main road, down by the river.  There were hardly any birds to be seen along the river or the road.  The wind was still blowing quite hard; our hands and ears got very cold, but it was invigorating and we are both awake now.

The insurance company wanted pictures of our house, for no known reason, but their wish is our command. Besides it shows how much snow we have on the ground right now.

Somewhere under that pile of snow are a bunch of sleeping chipmunks

At least it was a sunny day when Dan took the pictures.  The weather has turned a bit and we have cloudy weather today, and snow flakes drifting by the windows.  It will go above freezing, though, and this snow should start melting soon.

View of the back of the house, down by the satellite dishes

The topography drops down fairly steeply on this side of the house, a north facing slope that will hold snow for quite a while.  Hard to believe, but I’ve shoveled the path multiple times, and finally gave up.  It almost doesn’t look like I ever did anything to clear the path.

A successful experiment - foccacia bread made without wheat or gluten

Tomorrow we want to go see some Sandhill Cranes dancing and carrying on, and other migratory waterfowl.  I wanted some bread on which to make sandwiches, and decided to try the recipe I found online for foccacia.  This is the results of my baking immediately after I took it out of the oven.  It has rosemary leaves in the bread, and olive oil, salt, finely diced green peppers, sliced tomatoes, and a few thin slices of onion on one loaf.  It is a totally delicious bread, and hopefully will make great sandwiches tomorrow.  Dan thought that the tomato should be on the inside of the loaf.  I suppose so, but artistically I liked this plan.

I’m also making a pot of black bean chili so that I can put it into a thermos for a warm addition to our lunch tomorrow.

Simmering on the stove

Bananas, pecans, and a sugar/cinnamon topping

Chili and sandwiches, along with a pot of tea and some banana/nut muffins, should all combine to make for a delicious picnic lunch.  The muffins is also a new recipe to try, using mainly brown rice flour, with tapioca flour and cornstarch, plus the usual rest of the ingredients for normal muffins made with wheat.  They certainly smelled wonderful baking, and hoping they taste as good.

Yesterday we went for a walk down by the river and saw a returning Western Bluebird.  They haven’t made it up the hill to our house, but the first ones are in the neighborhood.  It is spring!!!  Even though it doesn’t look like it at our house, and the below zero temperatures we had early in the week definitely made it seem like mid winter.  We’re glad we went down yesterday since it has been snowing and blowing and generally looking winter-ish all day today.  It may be a very cold picnic tomorrow.