Flew the coop



Our time as observers in the bird life cycle, like the school year, is drawing to a close. The kids have given the 3 chicks the unlikely names of Beezy, Brainy and Beatrice. (Editor's note: We assigned genders by the names that we picked and not based on any specific bird identification information,  plumage or otherwise. Knowing us the only one that is a male will be Beatrice. Whatever.)

Beezy was the strongest of the bunch and  I think he hopped away into one of the neighbouring yards a few days ago. Our fence is really only meant to contain flightless creatures or at least ones that are too short to be able to open the gate latch on their own. I think Beezy figured out that he has wings way before his siblings.

Yesterday morning there were only two little ones hopping around the yard.  This is what they looked like;  that is Brainy on the left and Beatrice on the right.

We started to put up the pool yesterday and were very careful to not have any baby bird sized lumps UNDER the pool.  The birds were mainly staying in the neighbourhood of the play structure so they were well out of the way. (So nice of us to build that giant play structure for birds, eh?)

This was taken this morning. George looked out the window and saw that one of the chicks was on the tire swing but I couldn't get my camera out in time. So I got this instead.

There really are 2 birds in this picture. Honest.

Brainy is taking the high view. And getting ready to fly away.

Beatrice still walking about.
She can fly too, I think, but not quite as well.

Shortly after these pictures were taken I saw Brainy fly away, sort of, into the neighbours yard.  He flew from the play structure to the fence (1 ft), hopped onto their shed (1 ft), slid down the incline to the ledge, jumped off the ledge and tried to fly to their deck (10 ft) missing the railing and plummeting to the ground. He's working on it. Let the bird learn.

It won't be long until Beatrice does the same. It has been interesting to watch the chicks grow so fast. Nature makes that necessary. My last thought on the birds was that I was glad that there were no cats in the yard because it seriously would have been like an all-you-can-eat buffet. And then I would have had to get all Cuckoo Momma Bird on that cat's ass.

And speaking of growing so fast... here is a picture of our crazy children in the pool this morning as the water is filling.  Note the pool is being filled with the hose from the outside of the house  I would estimate the water at about 10C, 15C tops. I do NOT foresee myself swimming today. Call me a princess, if you wish, but I do not think that I will be brave enough to get in until the heater can add at least 10C!

It is supposed to be +38C tomorrow, with the humidex. That will help.  Sure as hell can't hurt!

Gone to the birds...

The drama continues under the deck and in the backyard.

The nest had been moved (fallen?) off the beam and now is in the grass under the deck. So now there are baby robins wandering about in the grass like stealthy little ninja assassins.* We found two of them fairly easily as they were still near the nest. We couldn't find #3.

But the grass is pretty tall so it was tricky to find the little birds. Birds blend, yo. Can you see the bird in this picture below?**

These are Finn's legs.
As you can see Scott has been fertilizing.
And it has been raining a lot!

 We scoured the yard and finally found him hiding near the sandbox. (Aside: we also found a hammer***, 3 skipping ropes, many pieces of disintegrating sidewalk chalk, 5 soccer balls in various stages of inflation and about 15 of Finn's socks- all balled up and soaking wet. Not a pair in the bunch!)

This guy was speedy.

Scott was trying to mow the lawn and had the other 4 of us moving the birds out of harms way with shovels from the sandbox.  Very careful not to touch them.  Birds harbour disease, pestilence and possibly the plague. Don't laugh at me. I'm serious.  People still die of the Black Plague each year,  see here. Admittedly not a lot of people... but it could still totally happen. And I am pretty sure they can link it directly back to touching rodents- flying or otherwise.

Baby Bird Emergency Retrieval Team
(B.B.E.R.T.)

Scott had Olivia walking in front of the mower just in case. The last thing we needed was a sickening crunch and a puff of feathers coming out of the side of the mower.

I liked this little guy best. He had good hair.

These guys are pretty mobile now and we expect Cuckoo Momma Bird to start moving them around a little more. They likely won't stay in the yard for much longer. This will likely be a lot less stressful for her and for the cats who have been watching from the back windows. Howard, very thoughtfully, offered to take care of a few of the babies while we scouted for the last one. We said thank you but no.

Cuckoo Momma Bird and another one (Daddy Bird?) are still giving us the stink-eye when we are near and screaming at us from the fence. At least we know that we were trying to keep them safe too.

Don't worry Momma Bird, we don't want your babies
 or your plague.

That is, when we weren't trying to mow them.


*If ninja assassins eat worms. You don't know. They might.
**Um, so yeah... there is no bird in that picture. It was a trick question. Gotta stay on your toes if you are going to read this blog. But now imagine that picture times a thousand and there you have our yard and the difficulty of the bird search. Now it's a lesson to you all.
*** Okay, we didn't really find a hammer either. The bird search just reminded me of Finn's boom-a-rang hammer because we were near the play structure.

Cuckoo Momma Bird

A small robin is holding our back deck hostage. 

It started with a very persistent robin hopping around in our backyard. We kept calling her "cuckoo bird."  As in, " that cuckoo robin was sitting on the fence giving me the stink-eye again." Or "that stupid cuckoo bird is hopping around the backyard screaming at the kids again."

Since we have no trees we started looking around the play structure and the deck for a nest.  Clearly this bird had to be trying to defend something other than a wide open yard.

Scott found the nest under the deck. We weren't dealing with just a cuckoo bird we had a momma cuckoo bird on our hands. Everyone know that nothing makes you crazier than being a mom.

It was tucked up in a safe spot between the beams and under the top boards that we walk on. And directly under our BBQ. There was also an abandoned nest, maybe from last year. Scott pulled up a board so that we could all get a quick peek. Momma bird was shrieking at us from the fence.

We waited for a couple of weeks and noticed that cuckoo momma bird started getting a lot more aggressive each time we tried to cook anything on the BBQ or walk around the yard. Now she was dive bombing us and positively screaming at us each time we came onto the back deck.

I put my ear to the deck but could hear no little chirps. Scott pulled up the board again and look what we found.

We're not sure if there is a fourth chick buried underneath but my guess is that there will only be 3 to watch.

In the mean time... steer clear of of our deck unless you are wearing a hard hat. And  safety glasses might be a wise choice too.

To be continued...

Simple pleasures

I like to think of myself as a woman who enjoys simple pleasures ...and expensive shoes... but let's focus on the pleasures right now.

I like watching a storm build in the sky. I like the smell of baking cookies. I like holding hands with and getting sticky kisses from any of my children. I like sending hand written notes in the post. I like opening something (anything really) that is brand new and the joy of using it for the first time. I like when my favourite pen runs completely out of ink- just because I know that I write that much stuff down.

One of my favourite simple pleasures right now is winding wool.

This is a swift. It holds wool so that it can be wound.

With the use of a winder it turns this...
(SweetGeorgia Yarns, Tough Sock Love in Big Blue Wave)

... into this.

 Winding is supposed to be a quiet and meditative process. I turn my winder and it pulls the wool off the swift. When done right everyting should spin with a quiet hum.  That is except when cats help.

What's this? asks Howard.
Hmm, something that hits me in the head repeatedly and grabs my tail.
I don't like it. I will stay away.

What's this? asks Riffraff.
I see string.
I like string.
I want to play with string.



It keeps hitting me in the head.
I don't like that. Now I must attack and yowl at the string.
Mom is getting mad now.
I will eat through this to get to the string.



Why are you putting the string away now Mom?
Can I help?
I like string.

Why, indeed.

"My God I've Gotten Fat" and Other Things Edna Whispers in my Head

It is spring time. Time where we dust ourselves off and come out of hibernation. Or at least come out of the basement. Depending on whether you are a bear or a person, I suppose.
The weather is favourable and the world seems quite determined to burst forth in green-ness make as much pollen as possible. This would typically be an issue for me but my new and improved sinus system seems to be dealing well with the season, so far.
The kids are busy with their activities throughout the winter and don't have as much winter downtime as some adults. (Namely me.) They get recess 3 times a day and get bundled up and go outside and play. So the transition to spring means less clothes but no less outdoor activities. Now they have traded their sleds for their bikes.

I recently dug out my summer clothes and while trying on a few items I could hear the nasal voice of Edna Mode (from the Disney-Pixar movie The Incredibles) whispering in my head "My God you've gotten fat!"  and "This is a hobo suit, darling."

Yes, the voice in my head sounds just like her.

So, that leads me back to my bike.  Only this time I get to be outside. You may recall that last year I attempted to establish a plan  to ride through the winter in the comfort of my own home. Yeah, I lasted about 4 weeks before giving into the inevitable. Obviously starting with a  rigid 6 day a week program was too ambitious.  And boring to be riding inside all winter.

This season I am going to be much more relaxed about it. I just need to get myself moving and away from my chair at work and the couch at home. I need to up my activity  levels so... I am just going to ride... without the pressure to chart and graph the miles.  Just ride.  What a concept.

And if all goes well I soon won't be sore while riding around town and will be better suited to tackle training projects that may accompany specific goals. Right now my specific goal is to be able to ride more than 3 days in a row without having to assign my children to help me with my personal hygiene for the next 3 days.

Until then I'll just ride.

Elastagirl is my role model. Mother, crime fighter
and wears spandex without embarrassment.

I gotta do something to keep Edna quiet in my head.

And call me when you get back, darling. I enjoy our visits.

*Quotes and pictures courtesy of Disney-Pixar's The Incredibles. Excellent movie.

Here we go again!

I went back to work today. Although I am still not 100% recovered it is time to go back to work. (I am starting to alphabetize stuff at home.) My doctor says that I still have another 3 to 4 months of healing until I can expect to be headache-free and to be able to tolerate glasses on my nose again. So I can't wear my glasses. And since driving without seeing is really not an option I have purchased contact lenses to get me through.

I don't really like wearing contacts; I prefer glasses. I like looking artificially smarter. It is like an accessory for your face- one you can hide behind.  I don't blink enough and contacts get dry when I stare at my computer. I rub my eyes a lot and accidentally drive my contacts into the back of my eyes. (Maybe the reason I have headaches is because I already have two or three contact lenses back behind my eyes that I have thought I lost otherwise. Hmm.) I forget that I am not wearing my glasses and go to push them up in between my eyes while suddenly remembering that I am NOT in fact wearing glasses I have to casually feign that I meant to fix my hair or eyebrow or something. I hate doing that.

Otherwise I am still not finished my Vergennes sweater. Although I do have the whole body complete and 9" of sleeve #1. And with less than 25% of the project left to finish I am already looking ahead to my next project. This time I am thinking I will make a shawl. I am leaning towards the Colour Affection shawl, by Veera Valimaki. I am also going to make it with lace weight yarn.

Last night I wound up my colours and got them ready. These are Tanis Fiber Arts' Pink Label  Lace Weight, single ply yarn in (starting at top left and going clockwise) Gold, Frost, Grape and Midnight. 

Aren't they pretty?



Twitter Illiterate

Scott started it.

He joined Twitter (@sid748). He says it was partially to satisfy some curiosity and partially to see if there are some ways to lets his clients know when he is available to take their calls. I say this with no judgement but I think he really joined was to get his next-level fanboy badge; so he could follow comic book artists and other geek boy stuff.  Whatevs. And because I have nothing to do right now I joined too. (@JacflashAbel) Knit-girl fanboy badge here I come.

We get on and immediately realize that neither of us speak Twitter. We text each other with our own marital shorthand but this is a more public forum and there seems to be protocol on how to communicate here.  Sounding very much like anthropologist examining a new and foreign culture we ask each other questions sounding puzzled.

• What is this hash tag business that everyone speaks of?
• Is that what the # symbol is called for real? 
• What does RT mean? (re-text,  re-tweet, return, right turn?)
• Do I have to end each tweet with "WOOT!WOOT!"?
• How do I find and talk to other people?

It took a quick google search and less than 3 minutes of reading and we had cracked the code and we ready to  talk, er, I mean tweet. Twitter is all about who you are following and who is following you.  And seeing that we are not politicians, comedians or people with late night talk shows that meant we were following each other. Then he got one follower and then I got one. And just like that our competition was born.

Scott and I are having a friendly competition to see who will be the first to collect 100 followers. Okay, these are not the loftiest of goals but let's be realistic people- we are NOT Ashton Kutcher or Oprah. Unlike some celebrities, which shall remain nameless, neither of us have a staff of writers and 3 interns a piece, smart phones in hand, ready to tweet our collective stream of consciousness.

As of today I am winning in that I have 20 followers (only 5 of them are sex-workers) and Scott has 7. But seeing that he has only tweeted once, so far, statistically he is doing better than I am.

It is honestly kind of amazing to see the variety of people available to follow on Twitter. Some of them are even who they say they are but it's hard to tell. Twitter is awesome for the self-employed as it is a creative and interesting way to market yourself. Explaining, perhaps, the plethora of sex-workers who seem to want to follow me. 

It is also a pretty cool way to find other like minded geeks - whatever your interest. Scott has found lots of artists and comic book stuff. He was thrilled to get a return tweet and thanks for following from @OfficialKeef, Keith Richard's official twitter page apparently. When he mentioned the return tweet to a colleague she knocked him down a peg and said that unless Keith was coming to our house for dinner she wasn't inclined to be impressed by him getting a return email from someone working for Mr. Richards. Funny but just so that it is said out-loud: Keith Richards is welcome for dinner at our house anytime. Open invitation.

You can see to the right that I have updated this blog to have a link to both of ours Twitter feeds. We're having fun with it. Join the fun and follow us, or at least one of us. Not only am I now Knitwit but I am also Twitwit too.

So what HAVE I been doing?

So... I've had some time on my hands lately. I'm healing or so the doctors tell me. To my observation "healing" is a way to make being lazy sound purposeful. I am doing as much staying still and resting as I can but I'm not exactly a patient person. I'm trying but only because I know that I still have a way to go yet.

So, what have I been doing with my time, you ask?  Well, to start with... the aforementioned healing. It looks a lot like this except I am on the chair too. Covered in a blanket. And likely sleeping.  I have to give thanks to my Dad for the loan of the Sleep Chair. It's powers of healing and napping are strong!


Howard, my handy assistant in healing.

 While sitting I have often been knitting.  This is my Vergennes sweater, knit in Woobu yarn by Blue Moon Fiber Arts. True Blood, colourway.  I started it on April 19 and I am hopeful to have it done (or at least mostly) before I head back to work.

Yes, knitting a "blood" coloured sweater while recuperating
from surgery is my idea of a funny joke.

I have had difficulty watching TV as I cannot wear my glasses yet. Not that it bothers me all that much to keep things quiet.  I listened to audiobooks while knitting. I highly recommend "Is everyone hanging out without me? And other concerns." by Mindy Kaling. I just finished this one. She is hilarious.  Another laugh-out-loud funny one is "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris. This one is extra funny to me because a large part of the book chronicles the American author's attempt to learn french while living in France with his partner. They say laughter is the best medicine, right?

I have restarted reading "Talent is Overrated" by Geoff Colvin.  It only sounds like a pessimistic book. It's purpose is to explain "what really separates world-class performers from everybody else".  The book discusses a very interesting premise: that there is no such thing as a "natural talent". That "talent" is just really hard work and an ass-load of practice and perhaps the incentive to succeed. What it also suggests is that success is not limited by a person's intelligence or memory- it's not just for super smart people. (Yeah, us regular people have a hope!) I haven't finished the book yet but I am enjoying the read so far.

I've been playing my favourite new app on my ipod touch: SpellTower. I tell you this is an additive game. I have wasted a lot of time on this over the past week or so. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Scott and I also have a new pass time and a new friendly competition... but more on that tomorrow. In the mean time, I guess I have some knitting to do.

6000!

I have something I am pretty excited about: my blog, which I started in 2009, has now had more than 6000 page views!  YEAH blog! Yeah YOU! Thank you for reading.

I started this blog as a way to try to keep our extended family informed about what we were doing- breaking news style. We aren't world travellers, poet laureates, or a family of hard-to-look-away-from circus folk. We are a normal busy family and generally have many things going on at any one time. I am a working mom with huge pride in my family, an interest in writing, a weird sense of humour, varied and somewhat random interests and a proclivity to over share. Sounds like I should be a natural blogger, no? Well, maybe.

I also started it as a way to practice my writing and to let my voice be heard. It may be a quiet voice right now (I'm fine BTW, thanks for asking) but I do have stuff to say. Being part of a family, in whatever shape or size, is a pretty amazing thing and lemme tell you something you already know, friend: time goes FAST. I have to write this stuff down because there is no way I am going to remember all of the firsts or the funny things the kids say and do in 5 weeks never mind 5-70 years. Life just moves way too fast and some things in life need to be savoured and replayed for posterity.

As a blogger I struggle with what to say and whether what I have to say adds any value.  It seems harmless telling funny stories about our family and whatever items triggers my mind and imagination today.  However, there are enough people on the Internet, radio and television who enjoy their own voice and talk just to talk or to stir controversy. I don't want to be one of those. And still... I blog.

So where does that leave us?  On the road to 10,000 page views BABY! I'm still going to blog but I think I am going to try to add more varied content.  I appreciate every reader but I'm thinking about how to expand readers beyond those who are related to me by blood and marriage. (I have lots of aunts and uncles! I am sure they and my mother make up at least 4500 of the 6000 views.)

Let's take a call...phone in question from a long time reader but first time caller:

Me: Go ahead caller.
Caller: Congrats on hitting 6000!
Me: Thank you. I'm pretty thrilled.
Caller: I like your blog just fine but you, like, only post every 2 months or so. Can you try a little harder to hold my interest maybe? And could you totally post post-op pictures of your uvula?
Me: Yes, I will. And, um, no, I won't! Do you even know what a uvula is?!

Point taken- it is hard to follow that which never changes. I will work harder on that. Pinky Swear.

For an erratic blogger over the past 3.5 years the numbers are not too shabby.  I am grateful that you take the time to stop by and read what it is I have to say. Come on back again. I'll try to make it worth your while without stooping to flashing my uvula. ;)

THANK YOU!

For your reading pleasure these are a few of MY favourite posts from this blog over the past few years:

1. I love cooking for my family, sometimes. This post, Part 2, is the blogs top viewed entry. I liked Part 1 even better.
2. For reasons I cannot explain my family falls apart the week before we leave on holidays.  See here and here.
3. I'm normal. My Doctor had me tested.
4. The reason why I will always been the bad cool aunt!
5. I love to knit. This was my version of a love letter to the sweater that just would not end.

It changed my life, Dad.

We had a pretty important benchmark in our house today: Finn sucessfully learned how to ride a two wheel bike today!

Like his siblings before him he was taught by his Dad.

Like his siblings before him there were some tears and some challenges to overcome. 

But it wasn't too long until we had this:

The quote of the day was Finn telling us how much he had enjoyed learning to ride his bike. "It changed my life, Dad. It really did!"

Indeed.