Dogs on Thursday: In Which the Bunny Hunter Gets a New Hobby

Well hello there! Where did you come from? Did you take a wrong turn in New Jersey? Did you make a break for it when my pal, Tara the Turtlehunter wasn't looking?

It's no use trying to hide from a beagle y'know.

With my powerful x-ray vision and supercharged nose, I know you're out there....

...I just don't know what you are. You may not have long ears and a cottontail, but I want to hunt you anyway!

(Chloe is confused by all of the barking and howling that is going on at this point. She prefers to save her energy for critters that are fun to herd, like squirrels and small children.)

A few days later....


I knew you'd come back! That's why I've been planted in front of the window every spare moment I haven't been eating or sleeping. Now come over here, a little closer. In fact, you're welcome to come in for my little snack...no, wait! I meant *a* snack. Wait! Don't go! I was just kidding!

(On yet another day....)



Turtle! Turtle! Turtle! You're more fun to obsessively watch for than bunnies, especially since you make a beeline for the same bushes under my window almost everyday and stay there for hours, where I can watch your every non-move! You give me something to live for! I love you, Turtle!


(She must love Abbie, too since she comes out of the woods every few days to hang out in the bushes below the back windows. We're assuming it's the same turtle. If not, we've had 17 different turtles showing up for the past few weeks.)

She is an ornate box turtle. We have also been visited by a very pretty painted turtle but that one did not have beagle-love and hasn't been back.

(Meanwhile, Chloe ponders what her new hobby shall be.) "Mom? Can I get some sheep?"

Summertime on the Prairie

No matter how hot it gets here, summertime in Kansas provides lots of eye candy. The main star of the show is the big, gorgeous blueblueblue sky full of clouds so white and wooly, it often looks like a whole flock of sheepies overhead.

This summer has apparently broken some very old records as being the coolest and wettest in over a half-century. Yes, that's right, Kansas stole Seattle's weather and left the unbearable Midwest heat for our Northwestern neighbors to enjoy. This means that we have had some of the most beautifully perfect days that I can remember in the 15 years I've lived here now.




This is one of the small wheatfields I drive by on my way to work each day. They still farm wheat, soybeans and corn on the many parcels of undeveloped land around here. Sadly, it will eventually be destroyed to squeeze in yet another shopping center. The good thing about the bad economy is that it is slowing down the warp-speed rate of development that has been happening in our county.

The next four pictures are from a teensy roadtrip I took a couple of weeks ago to Lawrence, home of the Kansas Jayhawks who won the 2008 NCAA championship. It's a great little college town and the 20 minute drive from my house is through gently rolling farmland. One of my favorite ways to relax is to take a long drive by myself and this is one of my favorites.

I love cloud shadows!

I had two reasons to head to Lawrence - yarn and eagles. There is a fabulous yarn store in Lawrence that I had never visited before called The Yarn Barn. It's right in the middle of the charming downtown and was all that I hoped it would be. There is a very nice selection of various yarns and the best array of knitting supplies I have found so far. However, the thing that makes this store so special is the unbelievable variety of big cones of laceweights and silk yarns. I am not sure why anyone would need such large amounts, but if they do, this is the place to get it. They also have large quantities of wool battings from all types of sheep and lots of undyed roving. They also have a large display unit with both sides covered with all types of undyed yarns. I am not sure if my next hobby will be dying, spinning or weaving, but whatever it is, this will be where I come to buy my crack, er, I mean supplies. I found a few souvenirs to take home, so the drive was worth it.

When is sock yarn not for socks? When it's for pretty scarves and mitts!

I also had another reason to go to Lawrence and it was to find a particular spot on the Kansas River, which is right across from downtown:

Even though I have seen a mated pair of American eagles on their nest down at the Lake of the Ozarks (an unbelievably close view, too), it was before I started keeping a life list of birds. So to me, it won't count until I see another one. plus, I'd love to see one or more feeding. This little waterfall is a prime eagle, hawk and sometimes osprey fishing site in the winter. This is because the moving water keeps ice from forming so the birds can fish even in subzero weather. I have heard of as many 17 eagles fishing at a time! I am planning to come here in the winter to see some eagles and wanted to scout the area out first. I only hope the eagles don't elude me the way the pileated woodpeckers have.

I also love my garden in the summertime. The Annabelle and Limelight hydrangeas grow obscenely large, and so far this year I have harvested over 3 dozen large heads of Annabelle (shown here) to sell to a local floral designer as well as several bunches to give to neighbors. The Limelights aren't mature enough to harvest yet, but I should get almost 2 dozen heads from the one bush I have. I don't do anything special for them, not even fertilizer, but they obviously love the location on the front of my house (northern exposure).

This pretty little yellow flower is very special to me. It is a banana magnolia, which is an old-fashioned semi-tropical shrub that grows in New Orleans. The blooms are small and mostly unnoticed except for the heavenly smell that is like banana creme brulee. I brought one up here about 5 years ago and have babied it more than my other potted plants (who must abide by Darwinian rule in my household). It has finally rewarded me with 2 blooms! They only last for a couple of days, so I ran out to the porch several times for those days just to take a long whiff.

These are some shagbark hickories that grow not far from where I live. These are some of my favorite trees. I want to spread a blanket under them and knit all afternoon except there's a walking trail right there and I wouldn't want my yarn to get trampled.

And of course, the girls can't get enough of summertime in Kansas either!

In Which Criquette Finally Resurfaces and Writes a Post

I knew it had been a while since my last post, but I didn't realize it's been nearly 2 months. Bad, bad blogger! I was also surprised that I hadn't continued the story of my quest to see a pileated woodpecker, or of our wonderful long weekend down at the lake, or posted pictures of the pathetically few FO's I managed to finish since the beginning of summer (and let's not count the embarassing number of UFO's and frogs that I created).
First, the Quest for the Pileated WP. I did go back to the arboretum the following weekend and spent 2 hours lurking among the cottonwoods by the creek. I found evidence that I was in the right place, looking at the right trees:

Notice the huge holes in this tree

compared to these holes made by much smaller woodpeckers

The more I looked, the more of the huge excavations I found. There was a tree I suspected they may have been recently using as a nest, but I could only get glimpses of it through the foliage. I looked and waited and waited... Finally, I gave up and started heading back. Then I heard it, right in back of me: the pounding. Two beats, loud and strong, just like what I've heard on my bird sounds cd. It was soooo close, but I couldn't see anything. Some other people were close by and they heard it too. It drummed once more, then called it's kah-kah-kah sound, as it flew further away from us. Arrrgggghhhhhhh!

Some birders will count identifications by sound alone, but for my lifer list, I want an actual sighting. I went back 3 weeks later with a friend, very early in the morning, but didn't see or hear much of anything. The birds all seemed to be sleeping in that day. I've decided that during summer, the forest is too thick and lush to see much of any birds who perch or fly among the canopies. I decided to wait until mid-autumn, maybe October, to go back and try again.

Then, in late June, we headed down for a few days of r&r at the Lake of the Ozarks. We love staying in the quaint family cabin close to the water's edge in a quiet cove, listening to the birds and the gentle lapping of the water. Mr. Criquette, being a Type A personality, has no concept of the word "relaxation". I call him my 2-legged squirrel. He hauls down numerous projects, some of them work, or finds small fix-up projects around the cabin. His idea of fishing is to throw a line off the dock and bustle about doing projects until a fish snags itself on the line. He rushes back to release the fish, throws the line back in and bustles some more. It gets quite exhausting watching him in all of this activity, so I take little mini-naps in between knitting and reading.

I will usually stir myself once or twice a day to take a nature stroll, looking at the various wildflowers and birds that inhabit the area. I was on one of my strolls along the bank of the cove, and had my binoculars looking for the herons that roost in the swampy area at the far back of the cove, when it ocurred to me that the tree I was looking at was a cottonwood - a really big one at that.

Wait a minute! Pileateds love them some big, old cottonwood trees and PWP's are listed as one of the regional inhabitants. I did a quick search around the cove and noticed several big cottonwoods. Best of all, I noticed that the huge, half-rotted tree that sits at one edge of the property is a cottonwood that has several of these:

Holes this big could only have been made by PWP's!

I about peed my pants as I ran off to tell Mr. C. He was very interested and we both kept a close eye on the tree the rest of the time we were there, but, except for a yellow-bellied sapsucker (a lifer for me), some extremely noisy titmice and chickadees, the herons, a mama wood duck and her babies (another lifer!), yellow finches, a phoebe, a great crested flycatcher, and 2 different warblers I could hear but not see, there was no sign of the big woodpeckers.

I was still happy about adding to my lifetime list, but still felt like the PWP's have a conspiracy to elude me. The most frustrating part was when Mr. C returned the key to the owner (his uncle) and asked about the big guys. His uncle, obviously not a fan, said, "Those big pests? They're around all the time. We wish they'd go somewhere else." Such is my luck.

Even though I've not been blogging, I have been knitting (with a little crochet thrown in for a change). I have made several dishcloths, including several for Ravelry swaps:












And of course, there are the ever-present UFO's, always lurking in my knitting basket...



My most favorite project right now is a very special one. One of my lovely nieces, who is majoring in hotel management and tourism, is taking a class in wines. As part of this class, they have to go on a 2-week tour of the California wine country, which of course includes mandatory tastings and gourmet meals. All this and college credits too!

I missed her birthday earlier this year, an important one. So I decided to make my first shawl. As in the kind of project where I must FOCUS and PAY ATTENTION. As you might imagine, my progress on this shawl is quite slow, despite the fact that the pattern is so easy, a toddler could make it.


I'm using Classic Elite Cotton-Boo in a beautiful light grey, the color of Spanish moss. The entire time I was working on the first 10 rows, I kept feeling like I needed to frog it. But I remembered reading that lacy projects look terrible the first few rows and so I kept going. Now I am past the second repeat and am loving what I am seeing so far!

I'm so excited that all I want to do is spend the entire weekend doing this and nothing else. However, there are massive dust bunnies gathering in force throughout the house, and my closet has become the equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle and must be brought under control, not to mention the mundane weekly chores that have to wait for the weekend. I motivate myself by remembering that we will be going back down to lake soon. And maybe, just maybe, the "big pests" will make me a very happy birder.

What's In a Name?

I have always been someone who is fascinated by names. When I was much younger, I used to entertain myself by making lists of names I liked, names for my future husband and kids (Mr. C's name was not on any of those lists!), names for pets, names of people I knew. When I was really bored, I would sometimes look through the phone book for really silly or weird names. Perhaps this is a strange fixation, but I am not alone. There is even a label for people who are fascinated by names: onamamania. Google "fascination with names" and see how many times this comes up. So even if I'm weird, I'm not weird alone.

I am sure this stems from my early childhood.

From as far back as I can remember, I despised my birth name. It felt ugly and awkward, not at all who I perceived myself to be. For anyone else, it is a perfectly fine name, and I have had many friends and acquaintences throughout my life who have been given this name as well. But it wasn't me. I was pretty angry and resentful as a child and, looking back, I think having the wrong name contributed to my overall lack of self-esteem.

In the summer between 8th grade and high school, when crazy hormones and 13-year old angst were at their peak, my friend (who also hated her name) and I decided to rebel against our parents by changing our names. I had a great-aunt named Katie. She had passed away before I was born, so I never knew her, but she had a reputation in her family as mischievous and fun-loving. This was the name I wish my parents had chosen for me, it felt right and it matched my inner view of who I am. Much more well-suited than the dignified, serious name they stuck me with. And so that day, my true self was born and I became Katie.

I went home and announced to my mom that I was changing my name. This announcement was, I'm sure, made with lots of nasty teenage attitude. I was just waiting for her to challenge me so I could launch into a full-fledged snit-fit. But, to my complete surprise, she agreed that my personality was definitely a "Katie" personality instead of the name I had been given. She started calling me Katie that very day and my siblings soon after. My dad had a harder time with it. Sometimes he called me Katie but more often, it was the original name. He is the only person I let get away with this.

And I started high school a couple of months later and introduced myself to all of my new friends and teachers as "Katie". It was that easy. It helps that it is kind of close to my original name that most people never question it, although it is not a nickname of my original name. I have never changed it legally, and while the original name is on a very small number of the important official documents, my chosen name is on many others. A couple of times, I have been asked for clarification, but I am continually surprised at how easy it has been to go through life with 2 different first names.

It is amazing the immediate impact this had on my personality and self-esteem. I became much more confident and outgoing. For the first time in my life, it was easier to make friends. And I began to like myself, which I had not done before. As a psychologist, I am now aware of the fact that our names can have a significant impact on how others perceive us. It makes me sad to think there may be lots of kids out there who feel this way, but never think that they have the power to change their names, unless they have the kind of name that comes with some decent choices of nicknames.

In the cyber world, we have a chance to choose any name we wish to be called. And it makes sense to have an alias. For instance, I have 4 different email accounts - the only one in my "real" name is the one associated with my practice. Then there is the one I use for ravelry and this blog, the one I use for secret swaps and the one I use when signing up for things where I might end up on a spam list. When I first created my blog, I wanted a place to share thoughts and ideas and a few personal aspects of my life without it showing up when my name was googled. So I borrowed Miss Criquette's name since the others I tried first had already been taken. She says she doesn't mind, as long as I don't do anything to embarass her or her fellow felines.

"This is NOT what we agreed on..."

"That's it, name-stealer! You'll be hearing from my cat-torney on this!"

"Okay, that's more like it. All pictures must show my cuteness at it's best."

(And just for the record, because when I have met a couple of my blogging pals, they did not know that the correct pronunciation is actually "cricket", like the insect. For cultural purposes, I Cajunized the spelling when we adopted her.)

So as you can see, we here at Criquette-world like alternate names. And I ran across something in a forum post on ravelry that is so much fun!!!! I had to share it with you. It is an alternate name generator. You can use it to create a new identity for yourself. You could use it to create crazy names for secret swaps and safe email addresses. Heck, you could even find the name of the "real you" that is hidden inside, just waiting to be released!

When I typed in my first and last name, here is a sample of what I got:

a city ukelele
cake lite yules
tease lucky lei
lacy lee sue kit
ictus la lee key
cute lea lei sky

These are sort of silly and upbeat, like me. Now compare these to my original name:

lunacy sleeker
scaly knee rule
acne seller yuk
ankle securely

Clearly, words and phrases that are Just Not Fun. Now we can see why I subconsciously did not want to be stuck with this.

Finally, let's look at the original Criquette's name:

cutely cirque steel (Addi's?)
celery cut see quilt
query lettuce slice
quest cute lyric lee

Many of her anagrams made no sense to a human, but perhaps would speak more clearly to other cats. But still, we can see from her anagrams that she is a cute, quirky little character.

Do you want to share in the fun? Click on over to the name anagram generator. Then tell us, what's in your name?

Cuckoo in Kansas

(Please note that these pictures all came from various birding organizations on the 'net. )

I love birds and I love watching birds. We put out several different kinds of feeders to attract a wide variety of birds, keep the birdbaths clean and full, and plant lots of bird (and butterfly) friendly plants. all of this pays off because we get a very wide range of birds who visit our yard for food, water or insects (I don't use any pesticides in my gardens and I never have insect problems thanks to my feathered exterminators).

I like to read books about birds and birding. I have narrowly avoided a few accidents due to bird-watching while driving (almost as bad as knitting while driving). Today, I took another step closer to becoming an official bird-geek - I went on a bird-watching walk at the arboretum near my house. Mr. Criquette's jaw dropped when he saw me appear at the coffeepot at the crack of dawn. I am not at all what we call a "morning person". But I was determined to do this because I have become A Wannabe Bird Geek With a Mission. The mission: to see one of these in person:


This gorgeous fellow is the Pileated Woodpecker. I have had 2 dreams about these beautiful creatures this spring. It is currently at the top of my lifetime bird list. They are not only strikingly colored, but apparently are also huge, like crow-sized or larger. Here is a map of their distribution:

According to this map, northeastern Kansas is out of their range. I pouted and started planning trips to visit family and friends who might live in their territory
.

I guess Kansas doesn't have the kinds of thick forests with humongous old trees that they like - oh wait - yes we do! There is a large patch of virgin forest just 20 miles south of my house! Is it possible there may be one or two who venture north from time to time? The arboretum's website actually mentioned pileated woodies as one of the birds that have been sighted there. Be still my heart!

So I went and today could not have been more gorgeous in terms of the weather. It was warm with low humidity and a very nice breeze. We had a very nice young biologist as our guide and he did an outstanding job. We only covered about half of the park today, but I added 4 new birds to my list that I have not seen before!

Great Crested Flycatcher - I am a huge fan of flycatchers. Not only do they eat more than weight in nasty flying critters, but they are also extremely attractive birds. I've been wanting to see one of these.

This is a much smaller member of the flycatcher family, the Acadian Flycatcher. Since the word "Cajun" is derived from "Acadian", these were on my list - I really wanted to see a little Cajun bird. Today, I saw 2. C'est bon, cher.

This one was completely unexpected! I had no clue these little guys even existed, much less in this neck of the woods. But the arboretum was full of the little cuties - the Northern Parula. Right after the guide told us we'd never see one (just hear them), I saw a small bird flit into a tree in front of us. Guess who spotted him first?

I did think there was a chance I might see a Summer tanager, which has been on my bird list for a long time. We rounded a bend, and there they were - a pair. Just gorgeous!

Male Summer Tanager

I never did get to see a pileated woodie today. But I did get the inside scoop. There are a couple of nesting pairs in some huge old trees by the river. The guide gave me exact directions on where to go to see them and where I should look. If I can drag myself out of bed early tomorrow, I'm headed back.

I was only a tiny bit disappointed because I got a fabulous consolation prize, #2 on my lifetime list:

The elusive and rarely seen (around here, at least) Yellow-Billed Cuckoo. We heard it's lovely cooing during parts of our walk, but didn't even see a glimpse. The group was watching a chickadee but I was bored. I was randomly looking around in the treetops with my binoculars and all of a sudden, one landed on a branch not far from me. I (and the rest of the group) was able to get a long, clear look at him. I almost wet my pants I was so excited! As you can see, I am ridiculously easy to entertain.

So I am off to bed, about 2 hours sooner than usual on a Saturday night. But I have an important date in the morning!

If It's Summer, It Must Be Rerun Time

It is a known fact that, in TV land, summertime means either endless reruns or really bad fill-in shows. The jury is still out as far as which is more intolerable. But the truth is, actors, writers, directors, producers and all of the people who are responsible for bringing our favorite shows into our homes, need a break in order to refresh their creativity. Makes sense to me.

That's why I decided to borrow a page from their screenplay and present a rerun today for my Dogs on Thursday post. I thought I would share one of the earliest posts, when my blog was still in her infancy. Most of my 1 or 2 readers may not have seen it before and I figure it may be better than posting nothing.

The title of the post, "Another of Abbie's Escaping Escapades" alludes to her obsession with escaping whenever possible in order to hunt bunnies. As a beagle/Jack Russel mix she can't help it: it's genetically programmed. It's a good thing she has so many other good qualities (we will overlook her other obsession with snacking from the litter box). Hope you enjoy!

The Pi is done!

This morning started off with an obscenely early rude awakening. Mr. "Refuses To Listen To Me" woke me up 30 minutes before the alarm to tell me he dropped Abbie's leash while on their morning walk. Of course Abbie Bad Beagle, who is suffering a bad case of Bunny Fever grabbed her chance and was off and hunting. Her speed makes Gone in 60 Seconds look like a turtle race. So Mr."Why Won't He Use A Second Leash On Her Like I Suggested" ran home to wake me up to help him find her.
Ha, this is the challenge. Abbie never runs away in a straight path. She zigzags, zogs and zooms on her quest for bunnies. She seems to vanish into thin air and so the first part of the hunt for Abbie is to locate her - she could be anywhere, in any direction. Fortunately God sent the little miracle I was praying for and gave us a break. She had doubled back to a large field near our house and had her full attention on the bunny she had located.

The trick with catching Abbie (assuming you can even locate her) is to be patient and try your best to keep up with her until she has the bunny cornered. Then you stroll up in back of her and scoop her up. Of course she always chooses the day after a storm to escape so she (and you) are covered in mud. So you haul her home, wipe her down, and put her sternly into her kennel for a timeout. And she totally knows she is being punished. She starts howling and singing the blues pathetically. And then when she comes out, she falls on the floor with her head down in the most contrite manner you will ever see in either human or beast.

So of course you have to pet her and reassure her she is still loved and won't be shipped off to the Big House and say a prayer of thanks that she didn't run into the woods where there are wolf-sized coyotes and bobcats looking for a little beagle bagel to snack on, or get hit by one the cars speeding way too fast down the busy street at the front of the subdivision. And tonite, she insisted on lots of snuggling and playing so no knitting today. I had to content myself with taking some pictures of the unfelted Kitty Pi with your choice of either Criquette or Bad Beagle filling.

"Why would you run off when there are such lovely wooly things at home?"

Still looking Very Sorry

Criquette In the Garden

Here at the Casa de la Criquette, spring has finally sprung and I have been as busy as a hive of bees getting the gardens ready for summer. Would you like a tour? Let's start at the front...

This is a very shady and damp bed as it faces north/northeast. It's not good for colorful flowers, but in the heat of the summer, it is a very restful green and white. I grow Limelight and Annabelle hydrangeas, astilbes, chelone (turtlehead) and wintergreen boxwood.


I also have a white dogwood tree, variegated false Solomon's Seal and sweet woodruff groundcover.


Walking around to the west, there is a large berm that runs along the property line and gives us some privacy from the neighbors as well as serving as a windbreak from the wind, which can get pretty ferocious. We grow mainly white pine in the berm, but there is also a Fat Albert blue spruce and a blueberry cobbler viburnum. If you look closely, you'll see that a robin built her nest in this tree. She reared 1 baby, who fledged early this morning.



Our bird feeding station is in this curve of the berm. We have a birdbath, a big cardinal feeder, two finch feeders and a hummingbird feeder.


Moving south to our backyard, we have a patio under the porch, with a small curved bed in front of it. It contains salmon-pink non-stop roses that will start blooming in a week or so. Before that show, the Japanese iris gives us a gorgeous shot of purple for about 3 weeks.

This is one of the earliest perennials to bloom - 'Carolina Dawn' baptisia (false indigo).


If we keep heading south, we get to the woods that run the entire back of the yard. I planted a little plant of white violets last spring and the rabbits ate them down to the ground. I was pleasantly shocked to see this big patch. We have several bunnies this spring, but they haven't taken even a nibble.


This is a honeysuckle shrub, which grows wild in the Kansas City area. It is not a native, but is an introduced species that has started taking over native woodlands and so is considered a pest. I think it's lovely and allow a couple of them in my patch of woods. (Warning to the honeysuckle shrubs: I'm keeping an eye on you!).


When the builder first cleared the land, they left a little copse of trees. We love it, and turned it into a little island bed. I'm growing some daffodils and columbines in the shade and there is a beautiful wild white rose. We hung one of the wren houses there. This year, a little male wren worked very hard building a nest in the house. I saw him bring the female to inspect it. She must not have approved, because after a brief look inside, flew away, with Mr. Wren close behind.

Also in the copse, one of my favorite statues. It belonged to Mr. C's parents. I like to think they are looking out for us whenever I see this little guy.

There's more, but I don't want to test anyone's patience, so I'll save it for another day. Happy summer!

Cornus florida (dogwood, 'Cherokee Princess')