"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

5/25/08

We Have Grosbeaks

New birds have come to my feeders. I'm SO excited. I got pictures! By the way, if you click on the pictures, they will get bigger.



Male


He has bed head! LOL! It took him awhile to get that sunflower seed cracked open.

Female


Much more muted in color, but very pretty pale peach breast. The male stood guard over the tree for a long time, chasing away any birds that might bother her, letting her eat in peace. When she was done, then he ate-along with 2 Chickadees, a finch, and a male Towhee. No peaceful meal for this guy!

I am amazed by the birds I am seeing this year. I had no idea there were so many brightly colored ones. All these years I've been envying my Dads Cardinals and Goldfinches, and here I had a whole host of rainbow feathers around. Just needed the right seeds in the feeders. Black sunflowers and thistle. Oh yes,`and shelled peanuts (NO salt!). I swear by them now. Avoid too much millet. They like to throw it on the ground more than eat it.

Knitting news:
I have got some more done on my Pomatomus sock, but to be honest, not much. If you've been a reader of my ramblings for very long, you know how stubborn I can be. I could not leave the bag pattern alone. I'm glad I didn't.

I stopped being so ferociously set on my original idea-basically a fern leaf in lace. I allowed other ideas into my brain. When I did that, the problem solved itself. I got so excited I sat down and knitted up the whole thing right then and there (after I fixed the virus problem on my computer). It turned out absolutely FABULOUS! So much better than the original idea.

While it was still fresh in my head, I wrote up the pattern right away. Took me five hours cos my notes were all over the place. Some parts I'd forgotten to write down, and other parts I'd discarded and forgot to cross out. Most of my time was spent figuring out where the extra 4 rows came from on the front (that was the stuff I forgot to cross out). Eventually, I figured it out. Ah, the joys of designing. I love it!

Now that I have that figured out, I can knit my Pomatomus sock in peace.

Ruth is still working away on her fingerless gauntlet gloves. She is spending a lot of time knitting.

Sometimes, Tommy thinks he is a cat. Silver does this all the time. Tommy seems to want to copy him.



I am going to attempt to start planting the garden today. I've got my seeds, Sweet Hubby gave it another rototill yesterday. Let the growing begin!

Have a good day.

2 comments:

  1. Your grosbeak couple are gorgeous! Great picture! Try adding a suet feed to attract the woodpeckers. Also, try adding a gazebo feeder of straight safflower seeds which will bring in the cardinals. My suet feeder is an actual log that has four holes drilled through it that are about an 1 1/4 inch diameter into which I shove suet. My woodpeckers love that feeder alot.

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  2. My cardinals love the sunflower seeds. What they don't like is hanging feeders, they refuse to use them. They need the seed spread out on some kind of platform feeder. They're the first at the feeder in the early morning dawn and the last at the feeder at sunset.

    Careful - it's possible to go broke buying birdseed.:-)

    Great picture. Love to see the birds from the other side of the US.

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