Birthdays and an Owl

A friend showed me a beautiful scarf she's knitting, the pattern is called Ocean Waves, and is available free on Ravelry (www.ravelry.com).  It's very simple and goes very fast.  I'm making two at a time, this one in yarn that really is the color of ocean waves:

And this one:
What I learned is that the more frequent the color changes in the yarn are (every 2 - 4 inches), the more evenly distributed they are in this scarf; whereas when the colors change less frequently  (every 20 - 25 inches), colors appear in large diagonals, as in the first photo.  I may like this better when the scarf gets longer, but for now, I prefer the scarf in the lower photo.  I'll have to remember this in future.

This morning we had a guest during breakfast:

He (or she) has been perched in branches near the house during the day several times lately.  This morning he (or she) stayed a good half hour before flying away.  We have always had a pair of these barred owls in our woods, and we frequently hear them hooting in the night, but we rarely see them during the day.

My friend Diane's birthday arrived last week, one of the ends-in-zero ones, and our quilting group has a tradition for ends-in-zero birthdays:  Each of us makes the celebrant a quilt block in the design and color of her choice.  Diane wanted churn dash blocks in green on tan or black.  Here's the one I made her:

Yesterday was my birthday (not ending in zero -- that was three years ago).   Everyone was so nice to me I felt quite elderly -- no Boy Scouts helped me across the street yet, but I expect that's imminent.  We had a lovely family celebration at an Indian restaurant Friday evening, and a lovely dinner with friends last night.  Roses, candy, heavenly-scented soap and candle (Frasier Fir), a beautifully-bound blank book, phone calls, cards, a portable DVD player on which to play my quilting tutorials -- I am spoiled.  

Early in the morning Jim flies to Florida for a week of golf, and I drive to my friend Renee's house, from whence we will go on to Fox Valley Technical College for a couple of days of quilting.  This is a new group to me, and I'm looking forward to making new friends and learning new things.

Gratitudes:

Another year of a good life

Owls in the woods

Birthday cards handmade by my grandkids