Wild kingdom

No, really, I am not talking about the inside of my house!

Although there are many, many (many many many) things that I do not like about living out here in Hooterville, Georgia, I do like our back yard. We supposedly have about an acre of land and we estimate that only about half of it is defined as yard. In the back, our yard gives way to fairly thick woods with a creek back there somewhere. Only in the winter can we see through the woods to spot the backs of the houses on the main road of our subdivision.

So with an abundance of trees and undeveloped area, we have lots of non-human neighbors, which tend to be much nicer and mannerly than our human ones. I have already mentioned that I enjoy feeding the local raccoons, and that we have lots of deer around, too. We also have some shy rabbits and opossums, and lots and lots of birds, including a red-tailed hawk.

The hawk was feeling sociable this morning and hung around our backyard for quite a while. He perched on the top bar of A's swing set and kept a watchful eye; needless to say, the birds did a disappearing act. I wish I could get a good photo of our hawk but my camera is not that precise, so I will just suffice with the photo at All About Birds. Handsome devil, isn't he?

Progress

I have been a knitting fool the past two days! It is getting easier and a bit more automatic, and I am thrilled to see progress on my scarf: I have about ten inches knitted so far: I am using Caron Simply Soft in the Embroidery Print color, which has turned out to be an excellent color choice - the various colors make it more difficult to see any errors ( and, oh yes, there are errors).

A asks to see my scarf every day when he gets home from school and offers encouragement...except he wonders why it isn't done yet!

There are two downsides to me taking up knitting that I have already identified. First, I am so focused on knitting that I am ignoring another favorite pastime, reading. I usually finish one or two books a week, yet I have barely read thirty pages since I started knitting four days ago. I am absolutely consumed with adding another row to my project and when that one is finished, certainly I can knit another row...and on and on. I am sure that eventually my passion will cool a bit and I will find a way to balance the two.

Second, I am having difficulty restraining myself from acquiring yarn, needles, books, bags, yada yada yada. I keep telling myself that I need to make sure that I like knitting and that I can actually finish this project before I move on to another project and certainly before I start buying more knitting paraphernalia. I am all about accessories (the contents of my jewelry box and my handbag collection confirm that statement), so I am itching to buy a cute little project bag, a Peterboro knitting basket, handcrafted stitch markers (although I have no idea how to use them) and every yarn I see mentioned in a pattern, article or blog.

So while I am having a great time so far, I need to moderate my enthusiasm and the amount of time I devote to this new obsession.