Petunia rambles on and on….

I always have chores to do on my day off, and usually do at least some of them! Saturday was a nice day, and Sunday was predicted to be even warmer.  All pretty freaky for the beginning of February, to be able to go out and about in shirt sleeves. Now, I could have stayed home, cooked, cleaned, sorted, scrubbed, tossed shit out that I don’t need. I could have done all of that – or some part of it.

Ha! I tossed the cameras into the car and went up to Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, a short drive north. It was just too nice a day to stay indoors and do chores. They’ll wait patiently, and if not, I don’t much care! Bombay Hook is a tidal marsh, protected lands, and is part of the Atlantic Waterfowl Flyway. That means that somewhere up above us all, there’s a big sign in the sky, and in Goosian, it says “For a Free Meal, and Comfortable Lodgings, Right on the Waterfront, Come to Scenic Delaware.” Whatever.

So this is going to be picture heavy – because it was a lovely day!

Holly is the Delaware state tree, and they are everywhere.

The Wildlife Refuge is big, thousands of acres. Much of it looks like this, salt marshland. It is a main “stop-over” point on the Atlantic Flyway, and millions of geese travel north and south through this area every year. Most of the world has heard about the large passenger aircraft that went down in the Hudson River last month, due to the increasing frequent phenomenon called “bird strike” and most specifically, geese. Because of their size, they can cause a jet engine to stall. If a plane flies into a flock of them, the suction pulls them in and there can be multi-engine failures.

Ice melting in one of the fresh-water ponds. It went up to 66 degrees F today (19C), which is damn near unbelievable for early February.

I’m not sure why cattails fascinate me. We had lots of them growing in the town where I grew up – maybe they remind me of that. But when I see them, I always stop and take a few pictures.

If you catch the light just right, the sun makes it look as though the water is wearing diamonds. It was sparkling today!

The Allee House, outside Leipsic, DE, now sadly closed.

Everywhere, as far as the eye could see, were geese. In the summer, corn will be planted here. What’s left on the ground this time of year is a Sunday Brunch for them, and they all stop in for a peck to eat.

A beautiful day, only 10 minutes from home,

Then back to the damned chores.

Here’s how to keep a poodle quiet and happy while you’re turning a heel on a sock.  On those first few rows where you have to count and get it started properly, and don’t want to be interrupted or annoyed.

I don’t think there’s a dog born that doesn’t like peanut butter, and that’s a LARGE jar. She somehow managed to get almost every bit out of it. She started neatly, delicately, ears staying out of the fray, licking the upper inside.  But after that was done, the scent of the remaining peanut butter that was clinging to the bottom was driving her crazy. Eventually, she was in up to her eyeballs, and fancy hairdo be damned.

Both heels are turned on my Tempted Bordello socks and I’m going up the cuff now. I do like doing socks from the toe up. When I start out at the cuff, I always fear running out of yarn before I get the second one finished. I’m much more comfortable weighing my yarn on a gram scale to split it in two, starting at the toe, and working them two-at-a-time until the end is nigh. Hey, the worry-free method works for me.

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Yesterday mid-afternoon, immediately after I promised Pop a lovely dinner when he came home from work, my phone rang and it was Daughter, who was in town for an OM-related event. For those not familiar, that’s Odyssey of the Mind, a great project for school-age children that will not continue without support from adults willing to donate time. Son #2 was involved in this program as a young fellow through high school age, and now, both he and Daughter volunteer their time, year after year, to the Delaware Chapter. Daughter was even involved in 2005, when she was extraordinarily “heavy with child(ren).”  The competition is held in March, and by that time she was nearing the end of carrying her twins to term.  Running after a group of second-graders was out of the question, but she is a speed-demon on a keyboard, and instead lent her secretarial skills, worked with all the paperwork and tabulations needed.

Anyway, Daughter wanted to go to a local department store here in tax-free Delaware and had several things in mind to look for. I went along just to look, and to spend time with her before she had to head back home. I have some disorder that prevents me from looking without buying. Maybe I’m just so very polite that I’m concerned about hurting their feelings if I don’t chose something.

Maybe it’s a sign of how badly I’m longing for warm weather, summer clothes, no wind blowing.

And maybe it was just because they were on sale. And brown.

What a week! Between the pneumonia, the bills from it all that are starting to trickle in, and finding out how little the insurance will pay, I’m lucky I didn’t have a heart attack! At work, there were equipment problems – first this would go down, then that. Nothing hugely horrible, just lots of small crap that had to be dealt with.

Truly, I needed the calming, healing properties of knitting. I’ve got that k1,p1 scarf almost done. But unless it’s done in 2 different colorways of Noro, as is all over blogs and Ravelry, it’s BORING!!! I mean, I’m dying here. It’s killing me, not soothing me.

So I went stash-diving and found this lovely stuff.  It is Good Grrl, 100% Superwash Merino, by Tempted that I ordered from The Loopy Ewe.

I split a 100 gr/400 yd skein in two for this project.

Beautiful yarn, no splitty stuff, colors are bright, intense.  Bordello is a great name!

See, I’m really getting something done. And since I took this picture, I’ve turned one heel, and now in the solitude, I’m gonna turn the other before Pop gets home from work! Note wee bag beneath the socks, to carry a small project about – sheep fabric!! I love it.