Enjoying the birds to relax

Are your nerves on edge?  If you are like most people, you are juggling multiple things.  It seems like, as a society, we are in a constant rush.  Sooner or later maybe everything feels like it is too much.  I am very busy myself, but I really do try to stop every day and admire something about nature.  It helps my nerves.  Soothing.  Here is what I do:  Just stop.  Take a DEEP breath in.  Oxygen is good!  Breath in even deeper now as you straighten your posture and put your shoulders back.   Slowly exhale, relax and be thankful for something.  
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The other day I was riding my bike and I saw THREE hawks playing in the air currents.  It was soooo windy, I can't even believe I was out riding, but there I was, trying to get a little fresh air into my lungs and clear my head.  The birds were playing.  I love to watch the birds play in the air currents.  Hawks are migrating right now so I am often lucky enough to see several at once, although it is pretty near impossible to get 3 in the view finder of the camera and in focus all at the same time.  Well, here is a photo of one of the 3 hawks and you can just see the tips of the wing of a 2nd hawk in this photo.  I just had to stop and enjoy watching them.  Stop.  Breathe.  Be thankful.  The hawks were really amazing and brightened my day.

Also this week - I was sitting in my truck in a favorite look-out spot eating a snack.  This bird was right in front of me and I took a photo and then got to wondering why I have never seen a seagull before with a black head.  So, I send the photo to my sister and ask her if seagulls have black heads?  She messages me back that this bird is a tern!  OK, goes to show how much I pay attention to nature, ha ha.  Well, I enjoy the birds, but I never said I knew all their names!

An osprey circling around the nest, protecting it, as my sister, nephew, their dog and I went for a walk.  As soon as we approached with a dog, the 2 parents flew out of the nest and circled around and around until we passed a good distance.  They make a high pitched cry.

And here is an on-line weblink where you can watch 2 eagles taking care of their 3 chicks.  They are right next to a fish hatchery.  Lots of noise!  Who knew eagles had so many different calls?  Well worth watching!  http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles
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I hope you all have a good day, take the time to breathe, relax and be thankful for something.  Try to make this ritual a daily habit and it will help you cope with stressful situations.  I don't think we can have a perfect life, per say, but we sure can have millions and millions of perfect moments if we stop to enjoy them.  Take good care, my readers!  I am thinking about you.
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Please leave me a comment about what you do to relax!  Thanks!

March mini-getaway

In March I was lucky to go to NH with a sister for a "mini" vacation. While there, we went to this fabulous yarn shop!  I asked them if I could take some photos and they had no problem with that.

Lots of yarn goodness!

And spinning.

Oh look!  I found the sock wall!  I got yarn to make some new socks, but first I had to finish the ones on my needles.  I was using Paton's wool - nice and warm!  My favorite 3/2 rib all the way down to the toe.  These are my favorite style "hiking socks".  I was in a sporting good store the other day and hiking socks were $15.  I know it is a bit expensive to knit your own too, but really, I just love hand knit socks!  And - nothing like new sock yarn in the knitting bag to inspire you to knit faster on your current project so you can go on to the next!  I am happy to say, that I did get these socks done and am now knitting that new yarn!  Mmmm.  I have almost 1 sock done now.

We had a good time.  Do you think these are mink tracks?

When we got there the ice was pretty strong and the guys were out there ice fishing.  Within the few days that we were there - well things started melting!

And on the way home... I always admire the ice coming out of the rocks on the side of the roads, but I am usually driving.  This time my sister was driving and I finally got a good photo!

It was the perfect March get-away.

Beach Photos

I am not really a summer beach go-er, but in the off-season, I love the beach!  In the summer you never can get parking anyway, but this time of year - no problem!  Here are some photos I have taken this past month at various beaches.  I like the beach above because it is a good spot to sit in your car and look at the water!  Not very many beaches have "front-row" parking.  It was actually pretty cold and windy this day, so a great day for sitting in the car!

This beach above was my cousin's favorite beach. I am almost positive that he drove down here every day to take a look. We do that - we like to drive around a take a look at our favorite beaches!  I like think of the tire tracks as him driving and never stopping - just driving out there.  He died a few years ago.  This is low tide.  At high tide the water pretty much comes up to the rock I am sitting on.

I took this photo right after leaving a wake for a young man in his late 20's.  I thought everything about this scene was beautiful.  Over 1000 people went to the wake; it was very sad.  So, this beautiful vista was very calming at that particular moment.  March was a hard month with 3 memorials and several anniversaries of loved ones deaths, including my Mom 13 years ago.  I find peace at the beach.

 This is a nice bay beach on a quiet day.  A lot of seaweed that day though.

The right whales have been right off-shore this past month.  We are looking for whales, but did not see any this day.  It is pretty common to have binoculars in your car in case you want to take a look at something far off.

Another favorite - the Atlantic side with high dunes.  Look at the sandbars this year - next storm will probably wipe them right out!  Can you see the 2 people in the shadow making their way along the dune?  I love these beaches - they have the biggest surf, but they are also a challenge to get up and down toting all your beach gear!
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Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little photo show.  I am very busy right now, but look forward to when I can get back to blogging on a more regular basis again!  Maybe I will just try to do some short "photo posts".  Just to show that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth!  Although I do love to stand on the edges of those dunes!

The Night Trip to the Vets

This is my sweet little friend Hopie - she is my sister's dog, but gosh, do I love her.  How can I not love her, she loves me!  When I come in the door she tears around in very fast circles all around the living room.  She bounces off of me.  She smiles.  She laughs.  When I walk in the door, she lets me know that she is happy to see me!  How can a person not love that kind of reception?

She is a lapdog for sure and her favorite place to be is on your lap, especially if you even think that you might put your laptop on your lap.  She is very snuggly and playful.  

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So you can imagine how concerned I was the other night when she did not come running to greet me.  No sirree.  She sat on the couch and looked 100% miserable, her ears folded down flat like Yoda.  When I picked her up she wimpered and yelped and acted like she was in so much pain that I promptly thought she was for sure deathly ill and I burst out into tears.  Nothing doing but my sister and I had to bring her to the vet... at night, which is after hours.  Which, where we live,  means you have to go to the animal hospital that is $165 just to walk in the door.  X-rays were $200.  They gave her a shot for the pain which they charged $9 to dispose of the needle.  I didn't see the rest of the bill - my sister read those parts off to me.  Yikes!

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The good news, Hopie is fine.  She strained her neck and after a day or two of rest and some pain med, she is back to her job as a very enthusiastic greeter.  I am so happy!  But you never know - she could have eaten something sharp or had a bad infection or something.  Seriously, she was in complete agony.   So yes, it was an expensive vet bill, but we got the good news we wanted - some pain meds and rest and she is back to being her silly little self.  Still, I feel badly for my sister that the charges were so high.

And a photo of my quilt.  I started it in September, put it away when I went away at Christmas and got it up to this stage sometime in February.  I probably will tie this one with wool yarn and maybe just stitch in the ditch or quilt big X's through the squares - I have to get batting at Joanne's, but out Joanne's had a big fire and I do not think that they are open again yet.  I heard over $500,000 in damage and arson is surely suspected.  The fire broke out in the yarn and batting department and the flames were very bit - all the way up to the ceiling.  Glad I wasn't there that day!

We Found Snow!

My son just loves snow; yes winter is cold, but there is fun to be had!  Except this winter it has just been cold.  And gray.  No snow.  We have spent our time at the ice skating rink and swimming pool, and have gone to the movies some, but a kid should have snow in the winter too.  So this Saturday we took a day trip bus outside of the city of Graz to a small mountain region nearby.  Yup, we found snow!  It was really fun because one of his friend's was able to come too, plus her Mom and her 2 little sisters.  So, there were 6 of us total.  Plus all our "stuff". I always seem to be lugging around extra "stuff" with me, but it all comes in so handy!  As soon as we got there I said to my son - your snow pants are in the bag under the bus.  He jumped out with the other kids before me and proceeded to get entirely covered in snow within 3 minutes.  Yes, his pants and socks were soaking wet!  In the first 3 minutes!  Good thing I had my "stuff" because I had dry clothes for him to change into and then quick, quick - get those snow pants on!  DH has an awful cold so couldn't come, but he packed ham sandwiches, oranges, ice tea, hot chocolate, plain bread and peanut butter and we had chocolate bars!  

Almenland.  It was supposed to take us about an hour to get there, but it was really snowing on the way up.  The bus crawled up all the hairpin turns with stunning drop-offs (no guard rails).  Then we had to stop and the driver put snow chains on the tires - that took time too.  The trip took us 2 1/2 hours, but once we got there, the weather was absolutely perfect!  Beautiful!  Ahhhh.

There are lots of things to do here - cross country skiing, downhill skiing, ice skating (except the lake wasn't really frozen), a big indoor pool, carriage rides.  We came to go sledding and brought lots of different slides with us, plus rented one for $2.50.  No charge to use the hill - but it is a bit of a walk UP there  Phew!  But the walk was worth the fun!

Really, we had the hill to ourselves except for later in the afternoon when some other people came, but by then the weather had closed in and we headed to a small restaurant for a hot meal before the bus was scheduled to leave at 5 pm!

Here we are!  After I took this photo I pulled a sled with one of the little ones because it was a bit of a distance to the restaurant.  It was the perfect time to take a little break.

When we got out of the restaurant, the weather had cleared and my son wanted to have a few final runs before boarding the bus.  He had a wonderful day!  I am so happy that I was able to give him at least 1 day of snow fun this winter!

Fun Baby Booties to Knit!

These baby booties were so quick and fun to knit!  I got the pattern here:  http://ullenteventyr.blogspot.com/2008/11/babysokker-igjen-og-igjen.html
Scroll down for the English version.  I  made the small size and there is a small error - at the decrease for the footsole you need to knit 33 before turning (not 31).  I would assume you would need to knit 35 (not 33) for the large size.  Still, it is a small issue and you really don't notice.  The pattern says you can use straight needles but that was difficult at the heel/foot part so I added some DPN's into the mix.  Size 2.  This is a great pattern for left-over sock yarn because it really only used a little tiny bit of yarn!  I grafted the heel and then ladder stitched up the back - next time around I think I will just knit it in the round.  I know a few people with babies due and these are a fun, quick, easy gift to pair with a baby blanket.  Ummm - make that a store bought (gasp) blanket.  I am opting for quick and easy projects these days!

Speaking of babies - here is a photo of a very funny baby seat/windshield combination I saw the other day while walking the streets of Graz.  I almost always have my little camera in my coat pocket because I never know what I will see.

Graz is a beautiful city...

The December Crafts

I had dreams of crocheting a "blizzard" of snowflakes this year.  No matter that I had no idea on how to make a snowflake - I have access to You Tube!  So, here are the 3 I did make - out of "regular" weight yarn with a "regular" sized crochet hook.  Can't tell you the exact size because my son needed the hook for some school project so I ended up sending it to school with him and it hasn't come home yet!  I figure if I do 3 a year for the rest of my life - some day I will have a "blizzard"!  And please don't ask my why the 1st one looks so different, I really do think that I used the same video for all 3.  I think so anyway - I honestly can't remember anymore!

Always on the look-out for fun "kid friendly" crafts, I stumbled across a little template for a Christmas tree garland at www.attic24.typepad.com - go visit!  What a wonderful blog!  I enlarged 1/2 of our trees so we had some variety.  We decorated our trees with glitter, sequins and various do-dads from a sort-ov craft store in the area.  I got card-stock weight green paper for the trees - we used a pizza box to trace our initial template onto.

Here is what ONE of our garlands looks like.  We made 3 altogether; one for the front door, one for over the tv (this one) and one over another entry way door.  I like them.  I would say it was a successful kids craft project!  When my son's friends came over they would go over to the craft table and make their own tree out of the blank green trees we had over there.  

I mustered up the nerve to invite my son's best friend AND her little sisters (who are terrors!) over one night to make cookies.  DH and I made the dough ahead of time.  2 colors of dough make great spiral cookies (sorry - didn't get a photo of one).  I like the taste of spirals. The kids had fun making all sorts of designs, including faces.  Of course, we made lots of "traditional" cookies too.  We "decorated" said cookies with a thin frosting and sprinkles.  Actually, the cookie decorating party is sort-ov a family tradition for me, so I have a good idea of how to "run" it.  It is good to be "fast".  That butter dough cookie gets soft fast so you have to keep it in the fridge and bring it out in little balls.  Gingerbread dough is very durable!  If the kids are rolling out their own dough (of course!) they each need their own rolling pin.  Also, we roll out between TWO sheets of baking paper which prevents all that sticking.  My niece did one better than me this year and pre-baked TONS of cookies for her party so they could get right to the decorating part - but the kids also had the opportunity to roll out their dough.  What you do is ask each parent to bring some dough if you have a BIG group (with baking temperatures/times).  I just made my own dough this year because it was a small group.  Good thing too because my grumpy neighbor downstairs was knocking on my door at 7:30 PM (on a Friday night, no less) to complain about the noise.  I guess I spoil him with how quiet we usually are!

Any my son and I managed to cut out 2 paper snowflakes before he lost interest and meandered off to do something else.  Still, 2 is 2, and I did forget how fun they were so make.  I think maybe next year I might make more!

Our tree this year with all our presents!  My son likes the chocolate umbrellas that we put on the tree.  No lights - people in Austria usually put candles on their trees, but paranoid me, I don't like that idea!
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Well, I am not Martha Stuart, that is for sure.  But we have had a fun December.  I try my hardest to create fun memories for my son. You can see - presents don't play a main role of Christmas in my family (although one of my sisters did send my son a present which did not arrive in time to be under the tree for the photo).  We tend to concentrate on special meals, baking and crafts for Christmas.  And of course, the MAIN present was my airplane ticket to Austria so we all could be together for Christmas this year.  
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Got to run - we are headed out to the swimming pool now!  Time to get motivated and create new memories.  Life goes so fast!
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Happy New Year to everyone!