Mom and I were figuring up my subjects for school and when we will finish up the necessary courses, when it dawned on us that I could/possibly will graduate a year early (in 2011). I will only have to spend one more year learning in a formal education, and then I can continue to learn day by day and let the winds of knowledge take me for an enjoyable ride.

We have also been dog sitting Bently, of the house of Noble Rose Press, while they were away.  Like the last time we watched him, I have grown to think him adorable even more…though I am still borderline on my feelings for little bitty dogs.

And I just received my yarn for the above project a few days ago. It will be a 4-H project and go into my hope chest when it is finished. Aren’t they adorable?

This evening at Granny’s we could hear the chirp of pond frogs as the cool of the night began to descend. They seemed to serenade the tune of the warmer months. Instead of the orchestral harsh winter winds at night, the sweet lullaby of critters floated across the land and into the room through an open window. That is a sound I want to hear as I rock a child to sleep, or when I sit down on my porch and contemplate. I feel pity for those in the big cities, who cannot rest in the quiet, but are trained in loud sirens and noisy neighbors. I feel sorrow for the child or adult who has never seen the stars in all their vastness due to the presence of a streetlight, or hear the call of an owl because there are no trees for miles.

And here I am, never having lived in the wilderness, or slept near mountains. How can I feel homesick for something I’ve never had? To look out and gaze upon a seemingly silent giant, isolating me from the horizon. When shall I rise and fall in the shadow of a mountain?

from my journal dated March 23rd, 2010

image credit

In the last half of February my cousins and I went to go make our annual 4-H baskets, though this year, since Breezy has graduated, she was able to make a basket and then be able to take it home and use right away. Emily and I have to kept it safe, clean, and fresh until fair time, and then we have to wait until after State Fair to be able to  bring them home and actually use them for how they were made. Ugh, the only drawback when you do baskets for 4-H.

On the way there, that morning was beautifully covered in a  veil of frozen fog on the tree tops, and the air was brisk and near zero.

Our teacher always has felines that keep us company while we weave, and this year was a new little munchkin named Cheeto. Anywhere from inside our baskets to tangling herself up in bags, she was always near.

This is not the best picture, but it is how my basket turned out. It is a traditional Wool Drying Basket. I can’t wait to have it piled high with skeins of wool ready to be made into items. I have been warned that I shouldn’t put magazines in it because it will ruin the bottom.

“The most notorious incident of all was not understood until recently. In 1961 residents in Santa Cruz, California, awoke to the sound of birds slamming against their homes. Some locals rushed outside with flashlights, only to find dead birds in the street and disoriented, sickened gulls rushing straight at them, attracted by the light.

This story drew the attention of Alfred Hitchcock, who had considered basing a film on a Daphne du Maurier story called “The Birds.” Motivated by the real-life incident, Hitchcock got to work on the film. It took more than fort years for scientists to realize that the bizarre behavior of those seagulls was probably caused by a toxic algae bloom that poisoned the anchovies the birds ate.”

-from Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart, on the subject of toxic blue green algae