Easy Crochet Flowers

Needing a specific color button, and wanting it knitted or crocheted, I looked for directions on how to make a button ornament. Here is an excellent tutorial video showing that within six minutes, one can be created:



So I got out my yarn stash, reviewed the video several times for accuracy, and made four buttons with beads as centers. I used a size G crochet hook and various weights of yarn in differing colors. Depending on the size crochet hook used, and the weight of the yarn and number of stitches, the flowers can be made as large or as small as desired.

Here is a picture of four of the completed flowers:

The center of the magenta colored ornament at the lower right of the picture was made with a small crochet hook and sock yarn, again using the same technique. Then the small pink rose was sewn into the center of the larger crocheted flower. If made about the size of a US quarter, they will look cute on a baby sweater.

Scrabble Tournament in Ohio

Competitive Scrabble playing is one of my time suckers. I. Love. It. If you'd like to play online with people from all over the world, go here to sign up, create a player name and begin the adventure. My name on the Internet Scrabble Club is "templeton7", so give me a shout and we can play an online game.

So, in two weeks I'm off to the beautiful city of Dayton, Ohio to compete in the 2009 National Scrabble Tournament (over five days, 31 games total). As of today, I will be competing with 483 registered entrants, having the opportunity to play with the best players from all over the world. If interested in this tournament and organization of players, visit Scrabble Players Organization.

While perusing a chat site for players who are addicted to this game, I came across the New York City Scrabble Club site. It gave me a laugh, and you might grin while reading it, too. Their website is: New York Scrabble.

Our mission, and what you should and should not expect from us:
1) To foster competitive Scrabble® play.

... our regulars include the highest percentage of the most skilled regular club attendees in NYC.

... all are welcome, we also have plenty of players at various lower levels of skill. Our players range from teenagers to octogenarians; from writers to chefs to dog-walkers. We also let in braggarts and blowhards, but we don't let them out without giving them their comeuppance.

... it's not a social club that also plays Scrabble, it's a Scrabble club that occasionally also fosters socialization outside of the club.

... you come to us because you're looking for a stimulating challenge, a genuine battle of wits, as you've run out of that among your relatives, friends and neighbors.

... we're not a substitute for something missing in your life, tho many do view competing at Scrabble as a form of therapy; we're the focal point of something you already had at least a minor obsession with.

... we're not going to take it easy on you just because you're a "beginner" -- lots of players are developing their skills online these days before they ever come in for face-to-face play, so we can no longer make assumptions that you're unskilled just because we've never seen you before. But if you are relatively unskilled, we hope you're mature enough to take a beating or several and view getting your revenge as an intellectual challenge, and we will gladly show you a few ideas to help you improve quickly.

2) To increase your awareness of the vastity of language, the variation in North American usage of English, and the amount of international culture it now absorbs.

... your degree in English doesn't mean you know the only way to use English, and more words than the average bear; our dictionary is THE dictionary, arguing with it is tiresome and pointless. Our dog-walker will defeat a surprisingly high percentage of English professors and scriptwriters, and he’s not even Hank Azaria.

3) To increase your understanding of how to mathematically optimize the application of your vocabulary and spelling skills in conjunction with values of the letter set and the geometry of the game board.

What a hoot. Those New Yorkers know how to say it.

This will be my third national tournament to attend. Over the past 13 years, I have competed in about 25 sanctioned tourneys; too bad my scores don't reflect that I am anything other than your average nerdy, obsessed, Scrabble player.

Endearing Geeky Spouse Habits

Husband sent me a link to a self serving post about geeky husbands. The original post can be found at top-10-endearing-habits-of-a-geeky-spouse. He gets lots of accolades from me, so the passing on of the article was not really necessary for him to get even more brownie points.

To summarize, here are a few highlighted endearing habits of a geeky spouse that hit right on:

Finding the best deals in grocery stores. Not everyone will notice that, even though the 12-pack of Coke cans is on sale for $3, it’s still not as good a deal per unit as the 2-liter bottle at its regular price of $1.29. But a geek will — we knew math skills would come in handy one day, even if nobody else thought so!

Not being glued to the TV when a sports event is on. Now, I realize that plenty of geeks love sports (I’m a baseball fan myself). But as a general rule, the typical geek is much less inclined than the typical non-geek (particularly the male variety thereof) to insist on watching every minute of every game their favorite team plays in a season

Providing technical support to friends and family. We may grumble and sigh about doing it so often, and we may get frustrated when our in-laws don’t know the difference between WEP and WPA. But don’t be fooled: We actually enjoy this on some level. Everyone — geeks included — likes to be needed, and geeks also love few things more than to look like an expert. So this is really a win-win: The non-geeks get their computers and gadgets fixed, and the geeks get to look like geniuses for doing things that wouldn’t impress a single one of their geek friends.

Cooking. I’m sure there are lots of geeks who don’t like to cook, or don’t think they do, but if you’re one such, I humbly suggest you give it another few tries. Cooking has so much geek potential it’s a wonder it’s not considered a “typical” geek activity: you’ve got lots of different ingredients to pick from, measuring implements, heat, chemical reactions, gadgets galore and a great deal of nuance. Plus, it’s like doing scientific experiments where you get to eat the results! And there are few things more endearing to potential life partners than being able to cook well (and not just on a grill).

So husband hit four out of the ten points. How geeky is your mate?

Ham Radio 101

Daughter Julie's husband, Jack, is a radio ham operator. He is always coming up with conversation on his radio and making contact with people from all over the world. There is a whole lot out there of which I know nothing, ham radios being one such subject.

Jack wrote an email today which I thought I'd share here about the subject of "ham radio in a nutshell". Every time he gets a contact, postcards are shared and the ham operators collect those cards, called QSL cards. He has several dozen neat ones from all over the world.

This is Jack's picture and his call letters:

USA, KA4WWN, JOHN P HENIFORD, 1729 CRICKET RUN RD, YORK, SC 29745; from his email:

My friend Joe, ham operator KP2AE, Extra Class licensee, says, "there's some science in it...". He means whatever contacts you get depend on the Ionosphere. We use High Frequency radio (HF) from 1.3 megahertz to 50 megahertz for long distance contacts. That part of the spectrum doesn't travel in straight line-of-sight paths - it bounces off the Ionosphere, maybe multiple times.

A lot of things affect how many bounces there will be. One factor over a period of years is sunspots. They are solar storms, and they cause heightened ionization in our atmosphere, and therefore , more radio bouncing in HF. Actually we're still in one of the seven - year low periods, probably starting to come out of it so long contacts should soon become more frequent. Medium long wave radio gets the bouncing too, but not as much. That's regular broadcast radio. Very High Frequency, like police use, hardly gets it at all except sometimes it might. Long wave , below half a megahertz, doesn't get it, it's used for sending code to submarines and other special applications. Some hams can use Extra High Frequency, up in the gigahertz range, that can go straight through the atmosphere and bounce off the moon.

I said Joe is an Extra Class. I'm a General Class. Joe passed a more difficult test than I did. The Federal government produces the tests, and we're licensed by the Feds. Some of the things we're allowed to do could interfere with government radio applications, so we have to follow the rules which have the force of law, to avoid such. CB used to be regulated, but there's so much trash on it I think they just gave up the regulation, and should probably abolish it..Family Radio, like campers use, as you know, is regulated only by power limitations. The Feds assign call signs, too. Joe's indicates he was licensed in the US Virgin Islands when he worked there, and he retains that call. Mine shows that I was licensed in the Southeastern US.

So, there you go - ham radio in a nutshell.

Enough said. Thanks, Jack, for sharing your expertise.

Moss instead of Grass for Lawns

Walking along and listening to podcasts this morning, NPR Science Friday had an interesting story about how one guy on the East Coast of the US (Pennsylvania) had ripped out all the grass in his lawn and replaced it with moss over forty years ago. Note that one must have a shady lawn in order to accomplish this green feat.

Here is the website from a researcher who looked into the problem from NPR Story.

...and this talks about cultivating moss on acid soil. Buffering is slow, but about half way into the video, you will see an amazing lawn of grass, so it may be worth your wait to view the show.

Painting a Day Lily in oils

This is one of our front yard day lilies blooming. Yellows, reds, rust colors, oranges, burnt sienna and greens set it off. The bloom lasts less than a day, so you have to admire it when you can.

Now to try to paint a likeness of a day lily.

Step 1: Outline the day lily in pencils, adding in some leaves and filling in the background with some color:Stretched canvas painting continues after a week of work with further definition of petals:

Here is a picture of the day lily still in progress after about three weeks:

It is about half finished at this point. It is 30" x 40", and there is still lots to do on it. Grounding the leaves from the base is a hurdle that needs to be overcome. Any helpful suggestions?

Finches, Flying the Coop

I have been amusing myself with watching the wrens over the past few weeks, from nest building to egg laying to bird hatching. And this morning, here is a picture of one of the little ones right before he flew the coop:

One of his siblings still in the nest about an hour ago:

Their size is deceptive in the picture, as they appear larger than their actual size of a silver quarter coin. That bird poop around the perimenter of the nest is disgusting, but they don't seem to mind.

This YouTube site, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMJIFYcru-E, shows 10 minutes of finches in their nest.

Mint in Dips and Salads

Tons of mint are grow in our back. What to do with it? From Indian Food Forever:

1 bunch fresh mint leaves
2 green chillies
1 tbsp tamarind pulp
Salt to taste, a little water

How to make mint (pudina) chutney :
To make tamarind pulp soak a little tamarind in water and keep aside for 2 hours. Then strain the mixture in a bowl with the help of a spoon. To make tamarind juice add a little water to the pulp. These days ready made pulp is available in the market.

Wash the mint leaves well. Grind it to a smooth paste with green chillies, salt and tamarind juice. You can add water if the mixture is thick.

This mixture is similar (or the same) to that green dipping sauce served with appetizers at Indian restaurants. It is delicious with Frito's!

And from Lowfat Cooking:

A bright green salad of sugar snap peas and sweet green peas in a light, mint dressing. Cook Time: 2 minutes

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups frozen peas
1 pound sugar snap peas, strings removed
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp
white wine vinegar
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup freshly chopped mint

Preparation: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add frozen peas and snap peas, and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse immediately with cold water to stop cooking, and empty peas into a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine sugar, white wine vinegar, olive oil lemon juice and mint. Drizzle over peas. Toss, then refrigerate for 2 hours. Serves 8

Per Serving: Calories 83, Calories from Fat 17, Total Fat 2g (sat 0.2g),
Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 53mg, Carbohydrate 12.6g, Fiber 3.8g, Protein 4g

Here is a picture of this refreshing summer pea salad with mint sauce:

Another summer salad shown below is my husband's invention and can be found at his weblog recipe for pasta primavera salad. (no mint in this salad)

And here is our Tuesday Ladies' Auxiliary yesterday after our salad repast. Let's do it again soon, friends.

Faroese Shawl

Over the past couple of weeks, little progress has been made on a lace shawl I have been knitting because I have ripped out more stitches on it than have been accurately completed. But FINALLY, I'm about 10% through it.

It should end up quite large, if perseverance continues, roughly five feet at the top edge tapering down to a modified ending point four feet from the edging border.

The pattern begins by casting on 423 stitches and continues row by row for a bit less than 200 rows. Here it is at row 20 on size 7 circular needles:

The Faroese Shawl was named by Marily van Keppel as she translated the pattern from the Faroese language and has it published in A Gathering of Lace (complied by Meg Swansen). This shawl has its own thread on ravelery. Moderator Diane at Bella Vita Farm has been a great help in interpreting this pattern. Thanks, Diane.

House Finch: New Family Arrives

SIL Jack asked what kind of finch we had nesting in the arbor. Here is what Birdsource had to say:

The identification of these three finches of the Carpodacus genus can be extremely difficult. Each species is about the same size and shape, each is colored red with varying degrees of brown streaking, and each is common to feeder areas. What's more, the ranges of these birds overlap quite a bit, primarily owing to the ubiquitous distribution of the House Finch.

The picture of the male house finch, courtesy of Larry McQueen, appears to have similar colorings to the one I see going in and out of the nest.

Dragging out the ladder again, here is a picture of the newly hatched finches this morning:

It's off to fill the finch feeder again, so the hatch lings can receive supplements to their diet of insects from their parents.

Finches: Their Diner and Nest of Four Eggs

Look what I found in our honeysuckle arbor today: a tiny nest of finch eggs!

I have been feeding finches for about two months from one of those bird feeder net socks. The feeder sock is about five feet from the honeysuckle arbor, so it is a convenient diner for mom and dad and soon-to-be kiddos. There are four eggs in the nest, and I was very careful in not leaving my scent too near the nest.

Catherine wrote this blog post about wrens nesting in cactus, and it spurred me to get a ladder out and look up into the honeysuckle branches where finches seem to be nesting. Sure enough, there were the pretty little eggs in a wee little nest.

It takes 21 days for chicken eggs to hatch, but only 14-16 days, according to Yahoo Answers, for finch eggs to hatch.

What is hatching in your neighborhood?