Simple Pleasures

Hello on this bright December morning. I am watching a tiny tuft of a feather caught on the end of a birch twig outside my window. It has been there for at least a week, this little white feather with gray at the base, fraying a little more each day as the wind blows it to and fro. I took a photo but it's in the shade and doesn't show up against the birch bark. The birds have come and gone from the feeder. My husband is out for coffee with friends so the house is quiet. 

Or perhaps I am wrong about the birds. Now a flicker pokes his beak into the birchbark. Man, what a beak. He looks so large compared to the juncos, finches, nuthatches, and chickadees that are more common in this tree. The neighborhood fox just trotted though the cul-de-sac across the way. Maybe the neighborhood isn't so quiet this morning. 

But this is Unraveled Wednesday with Kat and company so on to the knitting and reading. I started Jonah's scarf three times. He requested a red scarf with gray. When we visited further, he mentioned "the same stripes as the mittens I like." He and his Mom hunted up the mittens and called back so I could see the hat/mitten set he had in mind. First I cast on way too many stitches and then I knit about twenty inches in a broken rib pattern that I use in the kids' hats. I hoped the broken rib would prevent the scarf from rolling but it did not. I did the thing a lot of us have done, I kept knitting even though the voice in my head said and eventually hollered "I don't think this is working." Perhaps blocking would have corrected the problem but the scarf was still too wide for a six year old.

So I asked Jonah if the stripe sequence could be on the diagonal. "Oh sure, no problem." He is an easy going kind of guy. I frogged the scarf and began again with garter stitch on the diagonal. I'm skating along 😉, knitting exclusively on this scarf, and relying on a progress keeper as motivation. When the scarf is finished, all four items can be mailed in time for winter weather.  

The picture book Red and Lulu is the story of a pair of cardinals who are separated when the tree where they nest becomes the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. Amidst the beautiful illustrations, Red searches and finds Lulu. When the tree is taken down, Red and Lulu find a new home in Central Park. Several years ago, I gave a copy of this book to Jonah who loves Christmas. He chooses Christmas-themed costumes on Halloween and also requests Christmas-themed birthday parties. Now and then he tells me he has seen Red or Lulu.  

As I read The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, I wonder about significance of the cover design. I'm about a third of the way into the book so maybe it will become clear as I finish the novel. Although the subject matter is never easy, Erdrich is a master at layering themes throughout a story. 

Today I am making a list so I can grocery shop for fresh fruit and veggies to balance to the butter, brown sugar, and chocolate I need for baking. I do like to make and share cookies. Last week the sun caught this small apple. Sometimes the simplest things are the most beautiful. What simple pleasures are you finding this week?