Our Big Summer

A few weeks ago, Luke, Paul, and I watched The Big Year featuring Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson. It's a delightful little film about extreme birding. I haven't read the book on which this film is based yet, but it's on the GoodReads to-read list! The Big Year is an annual contest where participants count how many different species of birds they see in a year. It's not a cheap endeavor. Extreme birding involves a ton of traveling to remote places to see rare and hard-to-find species.

 Luke used to love birds. For a long time, he never went anywhere without Stan Tekiela's Birds of Colorado. His copy is in tatters. I still buy him a bird book from every state that I visit and he has collected many bird field guides. We are heading to the Outer Banks for our Summer vacation and fortunately, we already own a Carolinas bird book!


  Anyway, after watching the movie, I challenged him to a Big Summer. I thought this might be a fun way for both of us to get back into bird-watching. Instead of a full year, we would count the birds we see just this summer. I showed him how to use the list function on his Ipod Touch and I'm keeping track of my birds on my phone. I even downloaded the free Ap of the Sibley Guide to Birds on my phone. Unfortunately, it's only a demo and it only has 30 birds species on the free version. I have never bought an ap for my phone, but I am considering buying this bird guide because I'll be able to see all the birds of North America!

We'll see who wins at the end of the summer. He won't tell me how many birds he's already seen. For the record, as of now, I have 11. It's a big bummer (not a big Summer) when I continue to see the same birds over and over.  (If you haven't already seen The Big Year, the winner had well over 700 bird species on his list.) I'll be lucky to hit 50!

 

Yarn Along

The other night I was at Barnes & Noble. I was sitting in the Starbucks section . I took the time to organize my knitting bag. After a while, I went to peruse the magazine section and of course, I glanced through the knitting magazines. Normally, I don't really care for Knit Simple Magazine. It's usually full of things I'd never knit , but this issue (Spring/Summer 2012) had a handful of cute little girls' dresses. So, I picked it up and cast on for the Textured Dress immediately. It's top-down knit in one piece and that pleases me immensely. I'm  just getting started on the skirt, but even though it's seems like endless stockinette, it will go quickly.
As for reading, I just started Charlotte Au Chocolat, a memoir about the author's adventures growing up in her mother's restaurant. It sounds slightly enchanting. I'm looking forward to reading this, but I haven't had the stamina to stay up late and read lately.
That's it for today. Don't forget to check out more yarn and book adventures at Ginny's!

A boy & his chickens

Here's Luke with one of his 15 baby chickens. I have to say that I was extremely unenthusiastic about him getting chickens. My sister and her husband (who live across the street) keep chickens and Luke
got very excited about owning his own. I have to admit that I told him a big NO on getting chickens. Did I mention that he wanted to keep them in my garden? Well, good old Uncle Markie told me that he could keep his chickens at his house. Really? Well okay, then.

Luke went and bought 6 baby chicks and somehow, he and his uncle bought 9 more. He tends to them several times a day.

Today, he's building a bigger coop to house all of his rapidly growing baby chicks.  He's learning a lot. Why did I ever say no?

I'm happy that he's taken on the discipline of caring for all of these birds. It involves a lot of time and commitment and I'm proud of him.When these chickens start laying, I think he's going to charge me for eggs though.

Luke's latest hat creation

Thanks to Mary, Luke used her suggestion for thicker yarn and knitted another hat on his circular loom. It's a little big so he gave this one to Daddy and he will start making another. I'll have to put in my request for a hat!

The joy of yarn

This is my new yarn basket. Isn't it beautiful? I think this basket adds some warmth and coziness to my living room. I admit it. I am a new knitter, but I'm already addicted to it. I can't purl (yet), increase (yet) or decrease (yet) but I'm enjoying myself immensely. I am currently working on my first project, an afghan for my husband which I hope to have completed by St. Valentine's day. I enjoy keeping my fingers busy while watching a movie. I love that it's portable and I can bring my knitting anywhere. I love looking at yarn and as you can see my basket is already full ready for future projects.

I gave my son Luke a circular knitting loom for Christmas and he just finished his first hat. I think he likes keeping his hands busy while watching a movie too. Paul is working on his first hat as well. We're all slowly learning a new craft. It's so exciting to acquire a new skill!

There's nothing like the accomplishment of creating something of one's own.