Wool and woodpeckers

[vaneramos]

Grey and gold 1





Grey and gold 2


I finished knitting a head-hugger hat for Marian, same style as one Danny gave me. I just have to wait until he's here next weekend to teach me how to graft ends together. Meanwhile I'm working on a scarf for Mom.

I want to make a hat for Brenna, too. Looking for ideas, I headed to Len's Mill Store this afternoon by way of the river.

In the tall elm at the entrance to the park, I was excited to see a pileated woodpecker, a large, striking bird that resembles the ivory-billed woodpecker recently rediscovered in Arkansas. I've seen the pileated in woods around Guelph before, but not for years, never in Eramosa River Park. They normally fly at first glimpse of a human, but this one seemed unconcerned about me.

The bad news is woodpeckers are making a feast of the elm, which indicates it is embattled with beetles, likely diseased and dying.

Len's offers a fair variety of yarn, but nothing inspired me. I'll probably end up hitting Romni Wools in Toronto for another ball of Noro Silk Garden or Kureyon in brighter colours, and knitting this beanie.

In other seasonal news, I baked Christmas cake this morning.

Comments

[missprune.livejournal.com]

What sort of cake is Christmas cake? Like Dundee cake? or a fruitcake?

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I would call it a fruitcake, although I Googled a recipe for Dundee cake and it is fairly similar. There's no rum in the recipe I used though. I wonder if I can still add some!

[dakoopst.livejournal.com]

Of course you can. Simply spritz it over the top.

After all, everything's better with rum...

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Everything's better with run...

For some reason, that reminds me of being locked face down on the floor.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I mean, it's hard to imagine something feeling better than that. Have to try it with rum sometime.

[dakoopst.livejournal.com]

*grin* Well, you know I'm willing to help with both pursuits....;)

[bearfinch.livejournal.com]

I like pileated woodpeckers. I remember one time when i was about 16, when I was visiting the elderly druid lady who lived in the woods near my place, a pileated woodpecker flew out of some bushes and landed on her apple tree. It was only a few feet in front of us, and I remember thinking that it looked much bigger than a woodpecker had a right to be. :) It watched us for second and then flew off, calling a rather nasal "yek yek yek".

My obervations is that they seem to be much more common and maybe bolder than they used to be. From what I read the numbers are bouncing back and they are adapting better to human intrusion.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I read something similar today. This one was certainly tamer than the ones I'm used to seeing up North. Most years we have a family of pileated woodpeckers nesting in the woods somewhere behind my family's cottage near Dorset. While being extremely wary, they also make an incredible racket! Those ones look bigger, too. They always remind me of pterodactyls.

[bearfinch.livejournal.com]

In many species of bird, the colder climate (i.e. norther) members tend to be a bit bigger than the southern ones. It makes sense...a bigger body means a lower surface area to volume ratio, so better heat conservation. Also they likely have fluffier feathers which add to their bigger apeearance.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I've heard that principle. The strange discrepancy I've seen is in great blue herons. The ones I saw in Florida years ago made ours look puny.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

As I remarked in a comment that somehow didn't get posted, I have severe Pileated Envy. I have never seen one.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

They mostly like deep woods and generally shun human proximity. For many years I had only ever seen them on my family's visits to Ocala National Forest in Florida! But as a teenager I started seeing them near the family cottage.

As we discussed here already, they're becoming more tolerant of humans and disturbed habitats, particularly in the East, so perhaps you'll be lucky to see one yet.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

As it happens, I spent Labo(u)r Day weekend at a house surrounded by woods in norther Vermont, and on the course of a walk with the owners we found a feather that one of them said was probably from a Pileated. No actual woodpeckers in evidence, however. I did see some bluebirds (my first) visiting the houses the owners had put up.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yay, bluebirds! They used to be common around the area where I grew up, with all its old orchards, but practically vanished by the time I was old enough to remember. I did't see one until my 30s, but they're making a comeback in Ontario. I've even observed them near the cottage on my annual count for the Breeding Bird Survey.

[djjo.livejournal.com]

The beanie will be fun. I'll give you lessons next week on using double pointed needles (DPNs) for the hat. I think I've got spare needles in the size it asks for.

Hugs and have a good weekend. Hm... I'll sniff the cake next week!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Oh thanks! I was going to ask you to interpret some of this. Now I know what dpns means.

The cake recipe didn't call for rum, but I wonder whether I can just drizzle it on.

[dakoopst.livejournal.com]

Beautiful, especially the second shot.

BTW...did you see this? It reminded me of the exhibit we saw on my last trip up there, but in photographic rather than painted form...

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Oh, color field painting! That show has stayed with me. In fact it influenced me to post these two photos together.

[dakoopst.livejournal.com]

LOL...thank you! I couldn't remember the name of the art form...I kept calling it colorform, but those were these little bake-down color things from my childhood days...

[thewindrose.livejournal.com]

I love that top photo! The textures in it are absolutely stunning!!

I too suffer from pileated envy. I have always wanted to see one, ever since I read about them in the first bird watching book I ever owned. But even though I grew up deep in the woods, I haven't seen on yet.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize you grew up deep in the woods. Where I grew up near Windsor, walking in deep woods was a rare treat. Maybe that's why I love it so much.

I do hope you get to see one of these pterodactyls soon. Winter is a good time for seeing woodpeckers in the woods.