My Blog

I was watching "Nova" the other night.  I don’t think any TV program has caused me to do so much thinking and pondering.  It was called "The Family that Walks on All Fours".  It was about a rural family in Turkey that has four adult children that cannot walk upright. They walk on their feet and hands, bent over.

The show started off with some evolutionary biologists trying to make the claim that these unfortunate people were missing a gene that was causing them to display "primitive characteristics"- walking like our pre-human ancestors walked.  In other words, like an ape.

I was flabbergasted!  I couldn’t believe it.  Such utterly ridiculous nonsense, when the real cause was so relatively easy to see.  Even I figured it out once the other facts came to life.

First of all, the parents were close cousins.  Ah HAH.  Inbreeding to be sure.  Both parents carried a recessive gene hampering the ability to walk, and 5 of the children recieved it.

Secondly, and vital to the story, the family was extremely poor and relatively uneducated. In fact the whole village was poor and uneducated.

The "scientists" who viewed these 5 people as "fascinating cases of evolution in reverse"  so offended the family that the military had to come make sure they weren’t being insulted. In turkey, insulting a Turk is a capital offense.  The female scientist had to work hard to convince the guards that all was OK.

Brain scans were done on the 5 afflicted children, and low and behold, each of them had severe brain damage- their cerebellum was greatly reduced.  This area is responsible for voluntary motor movement, balance, and equilibrium. In a word, it makes walking possible.  Apparently this recessive gene interfered with the development of the cerebellum, and thus interfering with their ability to stand upright to walk.  So they did what they knew how to do- basically crawl. What you don’t learn until the very end is that when the children were babies and toddlers, they crawled fine- but they stopped at crawling. They never made it beyond this developmental stage.

The family has drawn ridicule and condemnation from the village, who believe they are being cursed.  The family was forced to move. The son gets rocks thrown at him by the village children, and gets taunted more than the others.

Finally someone realizes that maybe they can LEARN to walk. No one has ever bothered to even try that.  The scientists invest in a walker, and many of them stand upright and take a few steps.  A set of parallel bars are set up in the yard for "practicing". The youngest girl especially liked this.  A physical therapist is also called in to help loosen up the necessary muscles. The son is proclaimed too severe to walk.

When the scientists came back several weeks later, all 4 of the girls were walking with either the walker or the bars. Only the son was not seen for a while.  Then, you see him walking - awkwardly but unaided, toward the house.  He stumbles, takes a few steadying steps on his hands, then rights himself again to walk normally.

I got to thinking about this whole situation.  I have come to several conclusions.

#1.  It was a genetic mutation that caused them to not be able to walk as well.

#2.  The "evolution in reverse" theory is just about the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

#3.  Blinding themselves to their dogma, they were willing to throw aside compassion and mercy in order to "prove" their pet theory- no matter how ridiculous it is.

#4.  Had this family been in a "developed" nation, a doctor would have recognized the delay in development, and physical therapy would have been given each of those children when they were still small.  The family believed it was the "Will of allah" that they children be that way- to test the faith of the father.  They had no idea that all they needed was a little help.

#5. Again, if this family had been in the United States, no scientist would dare compare children to an unknown human ancestor.  What an insult.  The parents would be educated enough to know total bunk when they hear it.  The turkish family was poor and uneducated.  Easy targets in my opnion.  The father expressed concern, however, that his children were in fact being compared to apes, and was afraid of even further abuse from the villagers.

All this to say that too many evolutionists try to prove their theory by assuming the truth of the premise they are trying to prove. For example- in order to explain the handicap, they had to prove evolution. They claimed it was a kick-back to a more primitive pre-human ancestor.  In order to prove this, however, they had to assume the truth of this common ancestor.  You can’t do that in science.  It’s a circular argument. And extremely bad science!

And, even if it was true, no scientific "fact" is more important than the dignity of a family that is already being ostracized by their own community.  The scientists were making a bad situation even worse. These people are not "freaks"- just victims of poverty, lack of education and medical facilities.

And victims of myopic scientists.

I don’t get it. 

I’ve been collecting photos of each kind of mammal (Each "order") for a class I’ll be doing this fall.  While I was searching on-line, I have often come across some pictures that either broke my heart or just saddened me.  Big strong "manly men" posing proudly in front of an animal they have just killed.  Like a lovely Arabian Oryx. Or big strong manly men clubbing a helpless one-day old seal pup to death over the head with a pick axe.  (Mustn’t mar the lovely white fur with a humane bullet, now, must we??!) I just don’t get it.  How does killing an animal prove your manliness?  Hand-to-claw/fang/tooth would be a better show, I’d think. Now if he could catch that Oryx on foot, wrestle it down, and then kill it- bare-handed- without being skewered by the horns first, that would be something. But a shot from a high-powered, laser-guided rifle from half a mile away????… that’s no contest. Nothing to be proud of.

I actually wept as I looked at the piles of bloodied seals in Canada, and the gorgeous "safari trophies", and couldn’t help but ask God for forgiveness.  This scene must just break His heart.  He declared it all "Very good", and here we are, behaving like..well,  humans. (Animals don’t do that!)

It’s enough to make me ashamed to be a human being sometimes.

But then I find a picture of a man bottle-feeding an orphaned pangolin, or a group of zookeepers celebrating the birth of  a baby aardvark, or a volunteer putting ointment on a koala’s burned nose. Or a man running in front of a bulldozer, uprooting the rare ground-orchids they are about to pave over, so they can be transplanted. Then I sigh, and think… OK….there’s still hope. 

It may be a lost cause. Humans have screwed up just about every thing they’ve touched. I might not even make the slightest little difference in the big scheme of things. But, when I die and get to heaven, I don’t think God is going to ask me if I saved the Philippine Eagle from extinction. He won’t ask me how many acres of rainforest I prevented from being destroyed.  He won’t ask me if I was able to reverse the greenhouse effect. I think He’ll just ask me if I kept trying, if I did everything I could.

And I’ll say yes. And wipe a tear.

As usual, wierd things have come and gone in my house.  Another school year is half-done, and the fun stuff is about to begin.  The 200-odd photos of mammals are gone, since I finally finished that lesson-plan. No feathers strewn hither and yon, since Buster isn’t currently molting.  Binocs, spotting scope and field guides are still visible.  No skulls presently. (Although I did find a beaver skull in my backseat last month that I forgot to put back on the shelf…)

I have fishbowl of liverworts- a "primitive" non-vascular plant.  Another frequently overlooked fascinating life-form.  I have a 5 gallon aquarium "phylum garden"- a terrarium with as many different phyla of plants as possible in it.  I can’t manage to keep that moss going, darn it!

I am currently in a "buggy" frame of mind.  Last fall I did a fascinating program on stinging insects, so I had a few wasp or bee bodies on my desk for study.  Nieghbors "donated" them- after spraying the hives. Nuts.  I’d rather look at the live ones in the hive- from a safe distance!

And my newest acquisitions are in two more 5-gallon tanks.  In one tank are my daughters "pets" - giant cockroaches.  One largish male Madagascan Hissing Cockroach, about 2 inches long. He’s a beaut. 

The other is "Tuck",  a lovely female Giant Cave Cockroach, a wee bit over 3 inches long, with a gorgeous golden shimmer about her shell and antennae that are always waving.  She just had 39 babies.  (cocroaches, anyone?).  These are the perfect pets.  They eat anything, don’t stink (really!), and don’t fly, don’t bite, and make no noise.  Hiss cost me the grand total of 99 cents!  Tuck was given to me.   

And in the other tank, is Rosie.  Ahhh, Rosie.  She’s my new pet tarantula.  Hah!  She’s very pretty, for a tarantula. She’s a Chilean Rose-haired- her cephalothorax (her "body") is a coppery metallic pink, and her belly is copper. The rest is a beigy-copper. Her toes are velvety black.   I do pick her up daily, with respect, since she technically could bite. (Her venom is about equal to that of a bee, so I’m not too concerned about that, but her 1/2" fangs would really hurt!) She’s very mild-mannered.  Another cool first pet for anyone with the nerve! (Remember, not all tarantulas are this docile- many will bite first and not bother to ask questions later…. do your homework first!!!)

I have taken my new critters to "bug" programs. (None are actually "bugs", mind you.) I once did a "misunderstood critters" program at a local library.  A streak of fiendishness came over me, and I "wore" Hiss on my shirt like a brooch.  He’s slow, so I didn’t worry about him scurrying away.  The librarian, bless her heart, didn’t notice him until she shook my hand.  Hiss took a couple of steps and waggled his antennae.  I have never seen a mild-mannered grey-haired librarian move so fast or shriek so loudly!  [heeheehee!!]   And when I went back to the desk to announce my departure, I was wearing Rosie.  Needless to say, the poor woman nearly had a coronary.  I’m so bad. A couple of months later, for the next program I did there, I was immediately recognized, and she looked me over carefully-from a distance- before shaking my hand!  We all had a good laugh over that.  It’s sorta fun earning this "wierd" reputation.

Can’t wait to see the reaction of my highschool students in a few weeks when I bring my critters to class. Who knows… maybe I’ll wear Hiss again.  It’s so fun being strange!

Well, it’s that time again… time to make those dreaded New Year’s Resolutions.  I’ve got quite a few, and hope to actually achieve most of them!

#1: Rid the house of the majority of the stuff in the garage, the storage cubbies and the basement.   I will need hubby’s help, but since much of it is his, we’ll hopefully accomplish this tpgether by Memorial Day (end of May) in time for the onslaught of garage sales!

#2: Lose about 7-10 pounds - hopefully in certain key areas! (hah!) Seems like I hit 41 years old, and suddenly got a spare tire and "thunder thighs".  I am up to 127 pounds.  Would like to be around 118.  (farewell, icecream! waaah!)

#3.  Take a brisk hike in the woods at least 2x a week starting this spring- when it’s at least warm enough not to catch pneumonia! This should also help with #2.

#4. Do a stunning backbend and handstand for my yoga.  Need to get those dratted hamstrings to loosen up first.  Among the many many things I would love to do for my yoga. Maybe just the backbend???

#5.  Learn Tai-chi.  Hubby wants to do it with me. Wouldn’t that be cool?!  Maybe our little girl would try it too.

#6: The most important, and probably the hardest: Live up to our new "Year Verse":   "A Gentle Answer Turns Away Wrath".  It’s in the Book of PRoverbs, somewhere.  We both need to relax, not over-react, and just "be cool".  Especially me, since I am so sensitive, and mirror hubby’s mood too easily. Then it all goes downhill from there.

Sooo… there you have it.  Feel free to check up on me, and pester me about them!  HAH!

They say "hindsight is 20/20".  Now that I have a little girl of my own,  I’ve been doing  a lot of thinkng about my own childhood.  While I have lots of wonderful, happy memories, I also have a lot of regrets. The kind of thing that makes one think "Gee… if I had known then what I know now, things would have been different!" .

What would I do differently if I could?  Here are some things, in no particular order of importance (except the first):

- Most importantly,  I would have valued myself more. I had such low self-esteem that I made some very poor choices.  I should have valued my body, my intellect, my spirit more.  I still struggle with this. I need to learn to see myself as God sees me- beautiful, smart, confident, a person worth loving. Fortunately I have been given a husband who reminds me!  I pray almost everyday that when she is older, Hannah will have the wisdom to see that she is "worth the wait". 

   - In connection with the first,  I would have stood up to the bullies in my life.  When you are constantly being teased and pushed around, you begin to believe what they say. This has affected me until this very day.  I don’t know which would break my heart more- if Hannah were bullied, or if she became a bully.  Another earnest prayer I have is that she will be able to channel her already obvious leader-tendencies to good.  Many times all it takes to fend off a bully is for someone else to come and just stand alongside the one being bullied- to stand up for them.  I pray Hannah will be able to be a friend when someone needs it most- even when that person is not "cool". 

-  I would have paid more attention to my Grandma’s stories of her own childhood.  I would have recorded it, either on tape or in a notebook. Family histories are so important, and with families being so spread out, it is easy to lose your identity.  Carrying on family traditions, nurturing values, avoiding negative tendencies, can help keep connections and a sense of "belonging".

- I would have appreciated my father more when I was younger.  I was so wrapped up in "me" and so busy being sensitive that I could not see the wonderful man he is.  He is a kind, generous, talented, loving, very funny, very smart, sensitive, supporting person who loves me and our family very much.  There’s not much he wouldn’t do for us. I’ve put a wonderful shot of Dad and Hannah in my photo albums.

- On the same note, I would have seen the willingness of my mother to set aside her own needs and wants to make others- especially me- happy.  (Sometimes to a fault!) I only hope I can be like that with my own family.  It’s not easy!  There’s a nice picture of her in my photos too.  Check them out!

- I wouldn’t have quit the violin at the age of 16.  I did take it up again a few years ago, but a loss of 20 years’ worth of practice can’t be made up with a family in tow!

- And with that,  I would definitely have taken Celtic fiddling along with the classical training.  Dog-gone it,  I know I can do it, but again… if only I had started when I was 8!  Imagine how good I’d be by now, 32 years later.   All I can do now is dream about it!  (I’ll play jigs and hornpipes in heaven.. d’ya think I can ask for a fiddle instead of a harp?)

- I would have paid more attention in botany and biometrics class! I would have kept all my notebooks too!

- I would have tried to be calmer when Hannah was a newborn.  I was so tense and frazzled that I didn’t spend enough time just cuddling.  I missed so much.  IF there’s a #2 in the future, I need to remember that laundry and lesson-plans aren’t as important as my baby!

I guess one good thing about hindsight is the fact that you can hopefully teach your children to learn from your own mistakes. I think this is one true way of going back and undoing the past- making sure your beloved children won’t have the same regrets!

I might think of other things, in fact I probably will.  Check back and see.

I just read over my blogs.  Most of them I still like.  I still especially like the " I Don’t Get It" entry.  I guess you could say that’s my "purpose" in life.

I got to thinking about one phrase I used.  I said I might not even make the slightest little difference.  Perhaps on a global scale that’s true.  But at this moment, as I sit on my porch, there is non-stop action at my pond. A pair of cardinals, a pair of catbirds, a pair of mockingbirds, a grackle, my resident sparrows, 3 mourning doves, and several robins. Not to mention the rabbits and the squirrels. Soon the butterflies and other insects will arive.

They all have fresh water to drink. There is mud a-plenty for the robins to line their nests with-and the coconut husks from my planter!  Dried grasses for the sparrows and finches. Trees and shrubs for shelter and nesting. Later in the season there will be berries and seeds, and nectar, and leaves for caterpillars to munch.

This might seem like a small thing.  But, 6 years ago, all that was here was grass. And cement. It was a biological waste of space, offering nothing.  Not even starlings bothered to visit the yard. Now, with a little care and a lot of work, my yard provides living things of all sorts with the basics of life- and a few little luxuries as well.  Now it sustains and comforts dozens of creatures.

I remember a story I read somewhere.  A boy was travelling down a rainy road with his grandfather.  Every few feet he made his grandfather stop the car. The boy’d get out of the car, and remove a toad from the middle of the road, carefully placing it in the brush along the sides.   After the umpteenth time, the grandfather was getting irritated. "Son,  you can’t possibly make a difference!  There are so many of them!"  The boy stopped, and replied -as he picked up yet another toad- "Well, it makes a difference to this one!". 

I guess that’s how we must look at things.  Every living thing has a desire to live. And God made each and every one of them. It matters to each bird that they have fresh water to drink and bathe in.  It matters to each dove that they have cool mulch to sun themselves in. It matters to each squirrel that they can find warm nesting material for their babies. And it matters to each creature that they have food.

So… I guess I did make a difference. I have provided food, water, shelter, nesting materials and places for creatures….in a place where only a few years ago there was none. I have made a difference for that robin who is pouncing on worms in my garden bed where before was just cement. I have made a difference for that silly dove who is trying to decide how to get in the water for a bath, where before was just grass. 

So here I sit, glancing at "Frankie" - my St. Francis of Assisi statue in front of my pond- Yes.  I have made a difference. A mighty difference, in the eyes of those who are affected.

Ahhhh!   At last!  Spring has sprung!  Once again I can sit outside on my porch in the mornings and watch the "traffic".  Nowadays the visitors consist of Goldfinches, House Finches, a few pairs of Cardinals (newcomers), Chickadees (also new!), several Robins, two Mourning Doves, one Mockingbird, and as of this morning, my favorite— at least one Catbird!

One of the Robins has been stealing the lining of my window-box, made of shredded coconut husks. I know it’s for her nest, so I ‘m only mildly annoyed. Now the soil washes out little by little every time I water it. And a squirrel stole about 1/3 of the stuffing of the pillow on my seat- a very pregnant squirrel, so I let her have as much as she wanted. 

The house finches have set up housekeeping again in their box, and a pair of Cardinals had a nest in the backyard hedge. ("had" a nest…. Jef trimmed the hedge and the nest went with it. Sayang!  3 eggs and a newly-hatched baby! Hannah found it, and was very distressed! She grabbed Jef and said "Daddy!  Bee nest fall! Babyegg fall, broke!  Oh! Back? "  She was gesturing very dramatically!  (She says "bird" as "bee".  Eggs to eat are "egg", but wild eggs are "babyegg".  A baby bird is "babyegg out". So cute!) She wanted the nest fixed! So sweet!

Yesterday afternoon two male Robins were duking it out over something! What a ruckus! Hannah scolded them for fighting - "Stop bee!! No!  Nice!"  (Translation: Stop fighting, birds! No!  Be nice!")

My garden is different every year- between my rearranging and the plants’ spreading and reseeding themselves, I am hard-pressed to remember what is what as it comes up.  OK…. is this thing way over here a goldenrod…. or is it an aster…… didn’t I move those asters last fall??  And WHERE did I move those milkweeds to? 

I have declared war on the Canada thistles this year!  Those suckers hurt when you step on them!  And both Hannah and I love to walk around barefoot (when Daddy’s not home to scold us!) I hate using sprays, since it kills whatever it touches. (I….ahem… accidentally killed my neighbors Peony’s last time I used it…I dropped the hose and it squirted on them…oooops!) Thistles are a product of the Fall- I know it! Everything God made was "good", and as far as I know, there are no redeeming qualities to Canada Thistles.  Aside from herbicides, the only way to rid them from your garden is to yank… and yank, and yank.  If you leave even 1/16 of an inch of root, it will grow back. BUT..they put most of their reproductive energy into spreading via their root system as opposed to seeds. So, if you keep yanking, eventually it will die of sheer exhaustion. It can take a few years in a bad infestation! But I am a very stubborn person!

     Every morning, since I am not knitting anything presently, I make my coffee, put on my work gloves, and grab my weeding thingamajig. I swear.. there are thistles growing this morning where there were none yesterday!  grrrrrrrr!

Well, my hubby and daughter are waiting, perched in front of me, wistfully sighing; Hannah said "Go voom voom!"  Jef said "I’ll go get my KEYS…." . I guess we are going somewhere. Besides… my daughter just presented me with my shoes (threw them at me, actually) with "Mama soos! One two Mama’s soos!"  I get the message!

Filipino food has got to be some of the best food in the world. But, let’s face it…sometimes it’s not the healthiest when prepared the "traditional" way.  Lots of fat, salt, cholesterol. (chicharon, anyone?) I adore Filipino food, and I want to give my family healthy food. So I usually end up tweaking recipes. While they may not quite qualify as "real" Filipino cuisine, they are still really yummy. 

While our cook in Dumaguete had the time, patience, and talent for spending all day in either the market or the kitchen minutely chopping carrots or hand-grinding pork, I do not. So I cut corners in that department too. (Gotta love food processors!)

So give this recipe a whirl, and let me know what you think!

Note:  After making this, I realized there is left over filling. So I have increased the dough measurements. Should be just about right.

-KAREN’S HEART-HEALTHY EMPANADAS

Filling:

- Canola or sunflower oil

- 1 pound (0.5 kilo) lean pork, either ground or cut into small cubes

-2 or 3 med. red potatoes, skin on, scrubbed, chopped into small cubes

-1 large onion, chopped in food processor

- 3 cloves garlic, peeled, finely chopped (I use the bottled garlic, and just use a nice large dollop!)

- 3T raisins

-1 T soy sauce (I use reduced sodium)

- 3T pickle relish

- 3/4 C shredded carrot

- 1/2 tsp black pepper

1. In a small bowl, combine  pork, onion and garlic. Mix well, and set aside.

2. Put about 1/4 inch oil in wok or large frying pan; fry potatoes on medium heat until lightly golden.

3. Add meat mixture. Cook, stirring occassionally until done.

4. Add raisins, carrots, soy sauce, relish and pepper.

5. Stir fry 5 -10 minutes or so, until heated through. Set aside to make the dough.

Dough:

- 4.5 cups "Heart Healthy" Bisquick mix

- 3/4 cup water

- 3 tsp. oil

-3T milk

1.  Combine bisquick, oil and water in a large bowl until dough forms.

2. Sprinkle surface of countertop with bisquick powder. Transfer dough onto countertop and roll in powder to coat it. Form into a ball and knead about 10 times, or until smooth.

3. Form into an even no. of balls about 2" across.

Fill and Bake: preheat oven to 450 F

1. Roll balls into flat circles about 6" across. Not too thin!

2. Place about 2 generous spoonfulls of mixture into center of 1 circle.

3. Cover with the 2nd circle, form around the mixture. Roll edges of circle up and press around to seal it. Press fork tines around the perimeter "for pretty".

4. Repeat with remaining dough balls and mixture.

5. Brush tops with milk and place on ungreased cookie sheet 2" apart and bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden.

6. Allow to cool about 5 minutes on paper towels before serving.

Grab a bottle of banana ketchup (I actually miss the stuff!) and enjoy!

I hope you enjoy this! Let me know what you think!

Well, I have learned to knit mittens and socks!  It is so gratifying to knit something so practical!  I found this pattern on-line , and I really liked the looks of it. (Here’s the link, if you want to check out the original.)(http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTfetching.html

But, true to form, I just had to tweak it after making the first one. I found that way of doing the thumb to be very cumbersome, and it pulled the glove in such a way so it distorted the lovely cables. So I used a different thumb technique. I also added an extra twist at the top to give it a full twist and to add a wee bit more length. I rearranged the picot bind-off row so that the little picot bumps are always above the purl ridges. I also used a gorgeous yarn- Chunky Al…50/50 merino/alpaca. Super soft and toasty warm! A delight just to run through your fingers as you work it! (Hannah loves to pet the ball of yarn like a kitty!)

ANYHOW… here’s MY version of this cute fingerless glove!  If you give my version a whirl, let me know how it goes…I’ve never "published" any tweaked patterns before….and it’s easy for me to know what I did- but getting the idea across to others is a bit different!

And now… pray for me…I’m off to teach myself to do sweaters!

Materials:

1 ball Chunky Al wool yarn, by Elsebeth Lavold.($7.00)

1 set of size 6 Double-pointed needles.

1 size 7 or 8 knitting needle for binding off if you tend to bind off tightly.

1 small cable holder

1 small stitch holder (for holding thumb stitches)

1 Small stitch counter.

2 small stitch markers.

1 yarn needle for weaving in yarn ends.

Crochet hook for rescuing dropped stitches!

Gauge: 21 stitches/30 rows = 4 inches

Special stitch instruction:   M1 increase: pick up the loop of the stitch under the next stitch on left needle (insert as to knit). Place it on the left needle and then knit it. (Be careful not to pull that next stitch off the needle as you do!) Knit the next stitch.) A nice increase without that annoying little "bump" or hole will be the result.

Instructions: Left Glove:

1.Using the cable-cast-on technique, cast on 45 stitches. Divide between the 3 needles (15 per needle) (This cast-on method is stretchier, and conserves your expensive lovely yarn!) Join.

2.  Rows 1-4 : [K4,P1] ribbing around.

3. Row 5. Work cable round as follows: [Slip first 2 knit stitches to cable holder. Hold this to the back of the work. K2. Replace stitches from holder to left needle and knit them. P1 ]. Work this pattern around.

4.  Row 6-10: Work 5 rows of the ribbing.

5. Repeat #3 and #4 two times, then one more cable row- for a total of 3 cable twists.

6. Reset your row counter to zero. Now work 8 rows of the ribbing pattern.

7. Row 9: Begin thumb gusset as follows:

a. K1. place marker. K2. place marker.K1. P1. Then continue ribbing around the rest of the stitches.

b. next row: begin increasing: refer to special stitch instructions at top. [K1. M1.K2. M1. K1. P1.] Do ribbing around the rest of the needles.

c. next row: rib around..be careful when knitting those M1 stitches that you don’t pull off the second stitch! (voice of experience…hence the crochet hook….) 

d. continue the M1 increase pattern of b and c, placing the increases in the first and last stitches between markers. You’ll see the pattern! Do this until there are 12 stitches between markers. (14 if you have a pudgy thumb!) End at row 23 (I think. I forgot to write that one down….)

e. Row 24? Rib around.

f.  Row 25? M1 in the first stitch before the first marker. Remove marker. Slip next stitch to right needle without knitting it. Place all but the stitch before 2nd marker on the stitch holder.Return slipped stitch to left needle. Knit these 2 stitches together. Continue ribbing around.

8. Starting at next row (26?), work 2 cable twists as in the cuff..to the back, and with 5 rows in between. End with the second twist row.

9. Next 2 rows: rib around.

10: Really cool picot bind-off: [Bind off rather loosely the first 4 knit stitches. (Stop before the purl stitch.) Slip stitch from right to left needles. With cable cast on, Cast on 1 stitch back to left needle. Carefully bind off up to the Purl stitch. Bind off that purl stitch as to purl] A little "bump" should appear just above that purled line. Repeat between the brackets around. Break yarn (leave at least 3") and pull yarn through last stitch.

11. Finish thumb: Place stitches from holder onto needles. (About 4 per needle) Join yarn at crook of thumb. (Leave a good tail!)Pick up one stitch and place on left needle. K these 5 stitches. K around the other 2 needles. Pick up one stitch and place on right needle. (It will get knitted next time around.)

12. K 4 more rows.

13. Bind off loosely. (Mine is a wee bit tight, making my thumb squirm a bit! Use a larger needle for the bind-off if you need too! It’ s worth the bother!)

Right mitten:  Do as for the left, but hold the cable needle to the FRONT instead of the back. It will twist nicely in the other direction.

Wow!  At my last post, I announced with great joy the discovery of monarch caterpillars in my garden.  At last count, I have at least 25 of them!  Hannah is the expert "buffeye" finder, and she knows what they are. She tries to be very gentle with them. Not bad for a 2 year-old!

The other morning I was jolted awake by the crash of the little 2-gallon tank. I was foolish enough to leave it perched on the windowsill, by an open window. The wind blew it down. The impact dislodged the last of the chrysalises, which I knew was about to emerge. I didn’t know if the thing HAD to be hanging or not, but I gently picked it up and tried to prop it as vertically as possible in the corner of the tank. (-after I moved the tank away from the window…) Two hours later, Hannah broke into my room. As I apprehended her, we passed by  the tank. The Chrysalis toppled over and began to twitch. OOOooh! The Big Moment! As we watched, the casing cracked, and a very bedraggled and crumpled "thing" emerged- a fat black and white speckled worm with tiny shrivelled wings. Great, I thought- the first time I get to witness a butterfly emerging, and it’s a mutant! Nuts. But then again, It was my first time, so I didn’t know what was vs what wasn’t supposed to happen. So I ever-so-gently picked up the pathetic creature and let it hang on my lampshade. The body started to pulsate, and the wings began to expand! It was amazing! As the body grew thinner, the wings grew larger. The antennae also grew, and it uncoiled and coiled it’s tongue. WOW! The wings were so delicate and limp. It hung there for an hour, and Hannah was fascinated with it!  She even tracked down a magnifying lens to look at it!  (Atta girl!!!) I transfered the now-obviously-magnificent Monarch Butterfly to a rope on my front porch, where it rested for another 2 hours before flying off. Just think… that butterfly will fly all the way to Mexico!

I put some pictures in the album, If anyone is interested.