Little J, Sockaholics, and A Horse Who Thinks It's A Dog

*The iPad blogging app I'm using uploads really crappy quality photos. As soon as I get home tomorrow, I'm going to edit this post with the much better quality photos. Don't want anyone thinking any less of my beloved camera ;) On that note, what should I name my camera? I rarely name things, but this thing never leaves my side and I love it so much. I want to name it. Suggestions?


Edited to add: I replaced the photos with their higher quality cousins. You can click on them to see the full size versions.

Right now I'm pet-sitting at a friend/client's house, nestled into a rather comfy souped-up futon and happily watching Ratatouille. After writing there will be knitting. Not that I'm a super foodie or a chef or anything, but Ratatouille was one of the best, most feel-good movies I'd seen in a very long time. It leaves me inspired and happy, and it's such a wonderful movie. Pixar, you really are somethin' special.

The Story of Little J: The other day, I was puttering around my room, doing laundry and vacuuming and such. The huskies were sitting at the glass door that leads to the backyard, both their heads darting and swiveling in tandem, which could only mean there was something VERY interesting out there that they wanted to get at VERY badly. I shooed them away and saw a little baby hummingbird clutching onto a plant outside, looking not so great. I immediately grabbed my camera and quick-like-ninja slipped out the door. Not ninja enough, apparently, and he flopped and fluttered his way over to a dead rosemary plant. He seemed comfortable there, so I carefully maneuvered around him, snapping photos and putting my new prrreeeeciousssss to work with its super fantastic macro closeup settings.

A couple of times, I had to hiss at my Mom to get Seamus (her sheltie puppy) back in the house NOW. If baby hummingbird was going to stay in the rosemary bush, he wasn't going to be safe. He didn't seem sick or dying, just very young, and kind of in shock. I broke a small branch off of the plant and carefully pressed it to his chest, just above his feet (that's how I used to get my parakeet to step up on my finger) and he flapped his wings and stepped right onto the branch.

Elated, I snapped a few (read: TONS) choice close-ups before slowly walking him across the yard and putting him into the high hanging fuscia plant. Before we could get there though, he flapped, fluttered and flopped his way to the star lavender plant. He was safe enough there, so Mom and I decided to leave him there for the day. We were sure his parents would find him (they were buzzing around, peeping at him).

After I got home from work that night, Mom showed me where he was hanging out, and his parents were indeed caring for him and bringing him food. I caught some pics just before the sun went down. I stayed stock still in one position for a half hour trying to get a shot of his parents feeding him, and this is as close as I got before the sun went down. (Just pretend like I actually loaded the photos onto my iPad from my laptop and posted one here. I'll edit tomorrow to add the pic) *added pics!*

There's one of the parents checking for "all clear" in the upper right

Feeding time! I was only able to get a quick shot with Mama sitting next to Little J

As far as we know, he's okay and back with his parents. We've seen his parents buzzing around, but no sign of him, but we're optimistic. My Mom named him Little J, I'm not sure why.

Overall, it was a pretty chill weekend, though there was a LOT more I would have liked to have gotten done. Pet-sitting saturday night and tonight, and today was the monthly Sockaholics Anonymous meeting at The Yarn Lady.

Kind of a small turnout this time, but always an absolute blast!

I've never felt this way about a shop. The owner, Ginger, has really turned it into something special and created a wonderful, supportive community of fiber lovers. The classes, workshops, and social knitting nights are usually very full, and the "it" place to be. ALL the cool kids hang out at Yarn Lady. By the way, I totally want credit for NOT buying two skeins of malabrigo. There was a colorway I've wanted for a long time, "hummingbird" (apropos, oui?) and a new one that's an absolutely stunning bright purple that made me gasp out loud. I'm going to kick myself when it sells out tomorrow, I just know it. It was hard, you guys. Really really hard. Like, addict saying no hard. I want credit, dammit!

Here's the project I'm working on, which I'll be writing up as a pattern. They're going to be yoga socks. Interested? Would you make some if I wrote up the pattern?






On the way home, I was totally tickled to see this:
A horse who thinks it's a dog! You go, dude. Hang your head out that window and be proud. Sniff those breezes.






I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing weekend!