Betrayed

Our concerts are coming up this weekend. I hope they go well, but I am filled with foreboding. During the semester, I really enjoy the practices. They are like a mini vacation. When you are singing you can't really think about anything else. Our rehearsals are very fun.
Then comes the performances. Oy. We get out of the rehearsal room and onto the risers. We are crowded and uncomfortable. The accompanist stops playing our parts and plays the accompaniment. Our conductor adds instrumentalists. Often they haven't practiced their parts, and they aren't very good. The conductor is very indecisive, ( I know, totally unlike any conductor you've seen before). The whole thing is a slow moving train wreck. Lots of time is spent sitting around while our leader and her advisors dither. But on the plus side I finished my socks.
I am thrilled with my new socks, but I'm ticked at Noro. In spite of all my efforts to get two matching socks, and note that these socks are knitted from the toe up, the yarn betrayed me. After finishing sock 1, I spooled off lots of green yarn so as to start sock 2 in the same place in the pattern.
But, does the color pattern repeat? No!!!!!! Maddeningly, Noro has betrayed me!! Why do people buy this stuff? I'm never buying any again. Of course I didn't buy this, it was a gift. The socks will look good with pants and Birkenstocks, which is my usual uniform. But- I also like to wear my wool socks cycling, and they are going to look odd with shorts. I am wearing these socks right now and they are nice and toasty. I'm excited to see how my next sock skein, which is Happy Feet yarn knits up.

Update Dec 14 2010.  These socks, which I love in spite of all my complaining about the pattern, are just about worn through in the bottom of the heels.  The heels are hanging together by a thread, so to speak.  None of my other socks are even close to wearing out in the heel.

Goodbye white-crowned sparrows

One of the joys of winter is the white-crowned sparrows. They arrive about by the fall equinox, and they usually leave around the spring equinox. Well, that's not quite true. Sometimes, as this year, there will be migrating birds around until mid-April.
They sing constantly, and their song is so sweet, it makes me happy just hearing it.It's a rare moment when I look out my window and don't see one. They flit from shrub to shrub and run around on the ground looking for food. If I go outside I am sure to see some, hurriedly slipping away from me to a safer bush.
Often in the fall they migrate in with the golden-crowned sparrows, but the golden-crowneds tend not to hang around the yard, it's not really their preferred habitat.They've been around the past few days though, so they must be migrating back north.
I didn't see or hear any white-crowneds today. How I will miss them over the summer! And how I will long to hear them again. The days will be all too silent.

Hike to Feather Falls

Finally got everything coordinated to take Pam's birthday hike, and she suggested the hike to Feather Falls in the Plumas National Forest. None of us had ever been there, so we were all quite excited to be going to a new place. The drive was pretty easy, just long, about 2.75 hours. The location satisfied the rule that all hikes must be longer than the drive.
You can make a loop route, and that is what we did, taking the shorter 3.3 mile trail in and the 4.5 mile trail back. This was the perfect way to do it, as there were a lot of interesting wildflowers on the trail in and we had lots of energy to ooh and ahh over every one. We were on the trail for an hour and a quarter and had only gone about a mile. By this time it was 1.15pm and we were planning to eat lunch at the falls overlook, so we tried to step up the pace a bit. One of the things that delayed us was a snake convention.
The snakes were holding their convention at the Indian grinding rocks. We saw a dozen of these meter long garter snakes.
As we continued down the trail we ran into a friend of ours from town! What are the chances?
Eventually we came to a view across the valley of Bald Rock Dome. Continuing along the trail we reached the overlook for the falls, which allows you great views up and down the river valley. All cameras were busy. As we ate our lunch and admired the views a sudden roar broke the silence. A T-38 Talon supersonic jet zoomed just over the river, climbed the falls, rotated 90 degrees and zipped over the top of the falls. The roar and echo in the canyon were deafening.
The hike out was pretty but by that time my dogs were barking. Finished up the day by having dinner at Star of India in Yuba City. Another great hike!

Coyotes and violets

Read our plots at the King Ranch today. What gorgeous weather! Instead of being blown off the mountain it was shirt sleeve weather, and no wind. Most unusual.
We had the place to ourselves all day, except for the coyotes and cows. Right after we walked over to our first plots a group of coyotes went wild. Their calls and odd yipings went on for several minutes and then all was quiet again. I looked and looked but couldn't see them.
After lunch we hiked up to our upper set of plots. Who should we see loping along but a coyote. It didn't hang around once it got wind of us. It took off straight away. The cows ignored it.

A Trip South

Since F had spring break, and she hadn't seen her SoCal relatives since last summer, it seemed like a good chance to head south. We decided to drive, which economically was a sound decision. I've sort of gotten a workable philosophy for the long drive. After all, all you have to do really is hang out in the car for 8 hours, and then you are there. No worries. Just concentrate on your driving when it's your turn and daydream or think about something else when someone else takes the wheel. Unlike Ted, I can't read in the car, although I can knit. I continued working on my Noro socks. I'm getting very close to finishing.
I enjoy travelling. My main problem is overcoming the inertia that seems to set in and make travelling seem like a BIG DEAL. Even though I know it isn't. So a very nice time was had by all on this trip. We mostly hung out with Ted's family. Saw Jesus Christ Superstar at the Fox Theater. Had a nice hike through the UCR Botanic Garden. Played Penochle and cribbage with the inlaws. Celebrated Preaster. Two days travelling and two days there.