A Repeat Visitor

Last week I looked out my back window and saw a small hawk sitting on the fence. After a couple of minutes it flew towards the suet feeder under the plum tree, then disappeared. From its size and appearance I guessed it was a sharp-shinned hawk. On Monday it was back, only this time it landed on the deck railing. I managed to take some pictures and after doing some research I was able to confirm that it was indeed a sharp-shinned and learned that they like to prey on feeder birds. This afternoon I was on the phone with my mom, who is an avid bird watcher. We were just talking about the hawk when from the corner of my eye I saw a bird fly up to the deck. I couldn’t believe it--there it was again, right on cue!

I hate the idea that some of my beloved birds might fall prey to this guy (except the starlings--it can eat all of those it wants) but what a treat to see one so close up.

The flickers have also been frequent visitors lately and I am constantly interrupting my knitting to go look outside just in case there’s one on the suet. Even so, I am getting a lot done, though I don’t have any pics to share with you today. I am currently working my way through the cabled waist section of my vest, which has turned out to be a rather slow process. Every second row has 66 or 67 4-stitch cables and even with cabling without a cable needle, every 4-row repeat takes me about two hours to complete. I estimate that the entire 5” section will entail approximately twenty hours of knitting. The work is tedious and hurts my hands so I’ve limited my knitting on it to two repeats or eight rows per day. Meanwhile, I am making good progress with my Annetrelac and Mossinette socks. Pink Ribbons hit the frog pond because I didn’t like the way the yarn was knitting up but I’ll do them in the future with some different yarn.

Cameron and I had a lovely weekend, including a night’s stay in Vancouver. I demonstrated tremendous restraint (or stupidity) at Urban Yarns; even though they were having a really big sale, I left with only the pattern I’d come for and a circular needle I hadn’t seen elsewhere. Impressive, no?