Another fish hat

Got to put on my thinking carp.

Friday fun

Kyle had yesterday off, so we got out and about and had some good times. For starters, we got the last bit of information for the taxes and got them finished.  That feels SO good.  Rather than stick them in the mail, we decided to hand-deliver them to the accountant.  As we were driving over there, the fog burned off and we got a big sun-break!  Woohoo!  We love those sun-breaks!

 The accountant's parking lot was full, but his office is near a riverside park, so we drove down there to leave the car and walk to the office.  The noise when we stepped out of the car was astounding!  There were hundreds and hundreds of crows in the trees.  The local CrowsaNostra had assembled and were having a cawcus.  The Godfeather sat on high and directed the occasion. All the trees were loaded with crows all up and down the park for about a mile, and they were all yelling at the top of their lungs. ( I'm sure a lot of the yelling was, "Hey baby, drag it over here!"   it IS spring after all.) But I have never seen such a huge murder of crows before!  (Notice how I slipped that term of collective venery in there?  Murder of crows, unkindness of ravens, knot of toads, congress of baboons; How apt those old terms were!)



All of this crow-foolery was being supervised by a rather fed-up bald eagle.  Every so often he would fly over to another tree, and all the crows in that tree would rise up with raucous cacophony, vacate that tree, and crowd in with their buddies on other branches.  I could have stood there and watched them for hours, but we did have taxes to deliver.

Our accountant is Ray Rowntree and if you are looking for a good, honest, hardworking guy who won't screw you to the wall with outrageous fees, Ray's is your man.  And with all the clients he has, he still recognized us when we showed up unexpectedly, remembered specific personal details about us, and chatted pleasantly with us, although I'm sure he had a stack of work awaiting him attention.  His lovely wife Louise is working with him and we got to meet her, too.  Such a sweetie!

We walked back to the car and managed to accomplish our goal of two miles of strolling.  Then we drove downtown and tracked down a sandwich shop we remembered from decades ago.  Downtown Freddie Brown's serves turkey sandwiches that would make you drool on your shoes!  I used to work in the neighborhood and oh, how it has changed.  When I started working there, it was a bit seedy and run-down, but starting to be re-taken by government and big business.  The building I worked in was owned by Pendleton Woolen Mills, and had originally been built as a livery stable for the delivery vans and horses of a local department store.  We weavers were up on the top floor where they used to store the hay.  Sometimes when the wind blew especially hard, bits of hay would drift out of the joints of the timbers overhead.  I hope they saved those beams when they tore down the old place.  18 inch square 20 foot clear Douglas fir beams.  Trees don't get a chance to grow that big anymore.

If it weren't for a couple of parks, the Federal building, and the city courthouse, I might not have been able to find my way around.  Why am I so outraged that the cityscape has changed while I wasn't looking?

The clouds closed in again, and we drove home, noticing how spring is making her insistent way through the city.  Mature geese have paired off, while last year's youngsters are still flocking around together.  Buds are swelling on the trees. Robins have returned.  And after all the snow and rain of the past week, the river is running high and silty.  Right now, it's cafe-au-lait colored with all that good, rich topsoil being washed out to sea.  Midsummer, when the run-off has abated, you can see almost three feet into the water, and watch the carp frolic with the nutria.

Sewing has been going on.  I used up some scraps to make a baby quilt.  Wrap the tot in that, and no matter where you put him down, you can find him again.

And Mary Jean and I finished another quilt for the Warmth and Water Project.  This one was planned!  The next one will be scrappy, stripy, leftovers, but this one was planned.  Lynn Baker, thank you for the sheets that made this possible!

oops

 I wrote a nice post about our tea party, and absent-mindedly posted it on my other blog - http://roxannawrites.blogspot.com.  It's got photos and everything, but I don't know how to bring it back.

During our snow event, I did a lot of knitting (big surprise) and worked this warm and wooly kid-sized poncho.  Actually, it fits over my head just fine and covers me down to the elbows, so I guess you could call it a ponchoette. Or a thermal layer that will keep a kid warm for decades as they grow.  I am diligently trying to knit down the stash, but I'm beginning to realize that I might not live long enough.

And then I pulled a sweater out of the closet and found moth holes.  None of the other sweaters have been attacked yet, thank God.  Now the closet reeks of naphthalene (moth balls) and It just made more sense to unravel a sweater I don't wear that often and would have been hell to mend.  There were lots of short strands.  I kept anything over a foot long, and spread the rest outside for the birds to find when nesting season rolls around.  Hoping the neighborhood will be full of smokey blue and dusty rose merino accents in the new nests.

After the snow and the freezing rain, we are now getting a bit of a monsoon - torrential rains and unusually mild temperatures.  Portland KNOWS how to do rain.  And we need it, so it's all good!

The ice rain cometh

Yesterday we got more snow.  It was about belly deep on a long-legged cat.  Our cats stay inside, but the neighbors have an Abbasynian (sp?) that is a peerless hunter.  Fun to watch him try to get enough traction to jump on the hungry little birds yesterday.  Birds - 15, cat - 0.

As usually happens when we have a "snow event", the snow is followed by freezing rain.  When it started last night, public transit closed down.  Churches cancelled services.  police were coming on the TV asking people to stay home because the roads were NOT safe, and they couldn't even GET to some of the accidents.  "If no one is injured, exchange information and walk home."

This morning, we have about a quarter of an inch of ice over everything.  As long as I can sit inside and look out at it, it's pretty.  The street is a sheet of glass, and we are staying safe and warm inside and thinking good thoughts for the poor souls who actually have to GO out there.

I put on my big boots, went out, and brought in the humming bird feeder to clear ice off the feeding spouts.  It sounded like I was marching across a field of fine china in steel-soled clodhoppers. Crack, crunch, shatter!

The neighbors have some decent icicles.  Ours are just little toothpicks.  Guess all that insulation in our roof keeps the snow from melting so fast.  I'm so grateful for all that insulation!!

And here's a photo of one of my knitting projects being put to good use.  Dad said that Mom's favorite color was brown, so I knitted a brown baby blanket. At least it won't show stains.  and doesn't that little rosebud look cozy?

Stay warm, my friends.  Spring will come!

If it weren't for the internet. . .

front yard at 5AM, Feb7, 2014

 If it weren't for the internet and my friends on Facebook and the blogverse,I would have no idea that it is predicted to be 104 today in Melbourne, and that most of Australia is under fire watch warnings.  If I saw only our local news, I would think the whole world was under a blanket of snow they are ill-prepared for.   Why, even the Olympics are ill prepared and snowy.

So what else is going on out there that I don't know about?  Are the hungry being fed?  Are the naked being clothed?  Are people celebrating birthdays and weddings?  Thank Goodness for the internet. It's my window on the world.

Here in Portland we are having a cross-country ski parade in downtown, because we can.  And the annual Polar bear Plunge has been re-scheduled because of snow.  We are expecting more fluffy white stuff today, then rain and freezing rain tomorrow.

Kyle, my intrepid husband, quite calmly drove to the bank and to the store yesterday, and reported that the idiots are out in force.   You can drive as safely as a tank, and still be wiped out by some maniac in a Trans-Am with bald tires.  When your light turns green, you wait while the stupid people with the red light slam on their brakes and slide through the intersection, then you carefully thread your way between them. I'll stay comfortably inside, thank you.

(not my photo.  I have a friend who sends me "Digi-prizes" for getting 5000 steps in a day.)

For my friends in Australia

Most of the winter we have managed to dodge the bullet, but last night, we took a direct hit.  Tonight, more is predicted.

I hate snow with the cold bitter hate of a Klingon warrior.  I spent yesterday in my pajamas in protest.  I may repeat the act today.  I want to curl up with blankies, light a fire, and ignore this freezy skid stuff right out of existence!

But I know you folks in Oz would be thrilled with the water and the cool temps.  It's below freezing since night before last.  It will stay that way till Sunday afternoon.

Portland is not good with snow.  We don't salt the roads, because it poisons the soil and rots the cars.  And Portland has lots of hills.  Add to that the folks who have moved up here from Southern California and think that their four-wheel-drive vehicles have excellent stopping traction on snow and ice.  The city will be pretty much shut down for the next two days.

The groundhog was right.

Doors

A recent blog challenge was to post pictures of doors for January.  So, I'm a bit late.  What's the challenge for Feb?

Another quilt

Mary Jean and I finished another quilt.  Did I tell you about our new project?  We're calling it "Warmth and Water."  Mary Jean's son Tim has joined Engineers Without Borders, and the chapter at his college are planning to go to Thailand and build a water-purification plant for a village in Thailand.  But they have to raise the money to do it first.  So, to support their good works, Mary Jean and I will be donating a quilt to Medical Team International in the name of anyone (or any group) who donates $100 to the cause.  Now I have to get all techie and figure how to give you links to the engineer's website and to the blog MaryJean and I have started.  But if you're interested, lemme know.

We also accept donations of fabric (cotton or cotton-poly, please) quilt batting, old sheets, and old blankets.  this quilt is made from  donated sheets, fabric remnants from an Aloha-shirt factory, and polyester batting from an estate sale.  We do pieced and tied quilts because they're faster.