Tuesday, March 14, 2006

fo fog & phenology

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I finished this prayer shawl about a month ago, and just recently gave it as a gift.  I was very glad that the recipient was so happy and touched by it. 
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The mohair roving came from Tintagel Farm , a cottage industry run by Leslie & Ron Orndorff...They pride themselves with fiber originating from their farm (Made in �PA� USA)...Llamas, alpacas, angora goats, and sheep.  This was my first experience purchasing from them, but it will not be my last, I assure you!  The name of the roving was red turnip", and had some beautiful flashes of color that spun up like butter, and knit like a dream.  The finished product was so soft and fluffy and cozy...however, I did make an error in the pattern that I did not discover until I had blocked it!  Because this was a prayer shawl, I was concentrating on other things while knitting, and not the pattern.  I decided to leave the error rather than rip it out...because as my good friend Judy  pointed out..."It is a prayer shawl, and like life, it can be imperfect...and the imperfection does not make it less beautiful or useful."
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The temperature around the riverrim has been warm.  Yesterday, the high was 70 degrees!  What little snow that was left is gone now and resulted in a dense fog overnight and into the early morning hours.  The sun has been burning it off, and when I look at the overall landscape, I can see a flush of green and yellow rising into the branches of certain trees...like the willows and birch.  I think the sap has started to rise, however, when I cut some grape vine to root, it did not drip.
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I was busy in the garden yesterday, and spent a few hours in the rhubarb and asparagus beds.  There was an abundance of acorns to be cleaned out.  I use some weed block fabric in the asparagus bed, so it needed to be rolled up and cleaned off.  As I was working, I heard the eastern phoebe arrive!  I also saw my first moth.  I made a mental note to chart these events on my calendar.
 
When I noticed how jammed my calendar was getting...I decided that I needed a way to condense all my records.  I have been charting events around here for at least 10 if not 12 years.  I chart the arrival of birds, insects, flora and fauna, bear etc.  Even things like when they come to stock the river with trout...I log all of it, and need some sort of program to average out these numbers!  I found a 30 day free trial of phenology charts that I downloaded
but darned if I can figure how to save my data!   If anyone out there knows of a better way, please contact me.
(you can find the email address on my sidebar)

10 comments:

vanessa said...

what a lovely gift!

cyndy said...

Hi Vanessa-

I had almost forgotten to post about the shawl (I took pictures and sent it off weeks ago!)...but then I got to thinking about keeping track of FO's and remembered!

Dawn said...

Cyndy .... The prayer shawl is lovely, and I agree with Judy's thoughts on the little imperfection. Your description of the snows leaving and the fog arriving pretty well match what happened here but I've not been up to posting much about it; so thank you for yours. For marking events I'd just get myself one of those daily personal calendars. Unless you wish to make lots of notes, then a large notebook of some sort would be in order. I heard a robin this morning and the wild ducks will soon be arriving to check out the stillwater in the section of Wine Brook across from our house here. Isn't Spring wonderful?! :-)

cyndy said...

Hi Dawn!

Yes, spring is wonderful...so much to see and do after the winter months! I've been keeping those personal calendars for years, I was hoping to condense the data into one main place, and with the click of the mouse be able to tally averages etc...For instance, I could click on a certain species and see 10 years worth of data in one spot. Seems the computer would be the right tool for that kind of thing, eh? Perhaps then I would be able to notice trends....

Anonymous said...

The prayer shawl is extra special with an imperfection. Many of these imperfections are not noticed until we point them out, so are they really there? I also keep note of birds, weather, animals, first blooms, you name it...when you find software, please let me know! What a great idea that is. Nice spring report!

Anonymous said...

The prayer shawl is extra special with an imperfection. Many of these imperfections are not noticed until we point them out, so are they really there? I also keep note of birds, weather, animals, first blooms, you name it...when you find software, please let me know! What a great idea that is. Nice spring report!

Leslie Shelor said...

Spring has beaten its usual retreat here, with harsh winds and cold temperatures. Just to tease, while poor robins and red-winged blackbirds shiver and blooms toss in the breeze!

The prayer shawl is lovely; both in form and idea!

Kathy said...

The only reason you can't save your data using that phenology program is because it's crippleware. That is, the trial version lacks the ability to save the data. If you want to save anything, you have to buy the software.

If you already have a spreadsheet program (such as Excel) you could set it up to record data. It would take a while to figure out how to structure it to get it to calculate averages.

cyndy said...
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cyndy said...

Hi Kathy-

Thanks for weighing in on this topic, I was hoping to hear from you. At least I know the problem is not mine (duh, not being able to figure out the software!)


The freeware is OK...maybe it is worth $45.00....but its hard for me to justify spending that much money, just so's I can keep track of when (and how) the seasons change! I presently have 15 years worth of calendars hanging on a penny nail at the top of the cellar steps with all my data...big difference!

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