Requiem for a squirrel

When words don't flow, pictures elbow their way onto the blog.  Drama usually works, too.  Life and death struggles add spice to the mix.   Nothing unusual in a hospital setting?  How about outside the hospital?

Everyone in the Unit was plastered against the window, silent.  The hawk is a frequent flier in the courtyard, and doesn't usually merit this amount of attention.    One of the OR techs caught these pictures.

If you are squeamish, you probably shouldn't double-click.
The grey fluff in the first picture is revealed as breakfast and lunch in the second picture. 
The big guy is a red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis.  By the end of the morning, a flattened squirrel pelt lying on the ground was all that remained.

Knitting?  Yes.  The road trip to visit Julia on Wednesday was great good fun.  There was no drama, but there WAS a yarn purchase.  Breakfast and lunch were vastly more civilized, at the local tea emporium.  As promised per prior post, the sock's heel has been turned, and you can see how Trekking XXL color #71 is unfolding:
Other knitting has stalled, and it's my own damn fault.  I'm waiting on a 10.5 Addi Turbo needle for one project, and the Elsebeth Lavold book for the Viking sweater pattern.  I saved money by ordering from NYC, and lost customer service in the transaction.  That lesson may have made its way to the right spot in this thick Yankee head; time is SO worth more than money.

I'm felting the Elizabeth bag, and trying to recall why I thought a felted project would be FUN.  I'm seeing a misshapen, boggy, wrinkled mass exit the washing machine after each pass.  I don't let it spin, I reshape it, and it still looks dreadful.  It's probably one or two more cycles before all the stitch definition disappears.  I think I've stopping crossing my fingers on this one.   Pictures only when the bag lady has sung.

On a happier, more holiday note, go look at the Christmas display on this website.  You need high speed internet access, or a dollop of patience.  This is low budget lighting choices, high budget electronics, and thank the stars they don't live across the street from me.

Snopes has this to say about that:

"This display was the work of Carson Williams of Mason, Ohio, who spent about three hours sequencing the 88 Light-O-Rama channels that control the 16,000 Christmas lights in his 2004 holiday lighting spectacular. The musical accompaniment is broadcast over a low-power radio station so that it is only audible to visitors tuned in to the correct frquency and doesn't disturb the neighbors.

The rough quality of the video has led some viewers to believe it was put together in stop-action form from still photographs, but that is an artifact of the high compression used in the clip circulated via e-mail."

Wow.

 

 

Comments

[Rachel H]

Hm. I ordered that same Elsbeth Lavold book this morning (which is partly your fault, you know) from someone I know is out of this world in the customer service field. And operates out of Toronto, which conveniently, is where I am. I have a sneaking suspicion I may get mine first, but Promise not to tell you if I do.

[Carole]

I saw a hawk snatch an english sparrow out of my hedge today. Must be something going around!

[margene]

Wow for the cycle of life! What an incredible picture captured in the middle of 'civilization'. The Trekking sock looks marvelous.
One reason I gave up fulling projects was the unknown of what things can become. It pays to stick with what you know works (in all areas;-))

[minnie]

would you believe that is the THIRD website i've seen that video on? i first heard the song itself at a Transiberian Orchestra concert on 11-20. too cool!

[Cordelia]

Altho' I am squeaming, I think one of the most wonderful "nature" scenes to see in suburbia is a hawk finding a meal.
Makes me enormously happy.
Thank you.

[claudia]

Not squeamish. Very cool bird.

[sandy]

I love your socks. :)
Poor squirrel. The cirle of life rolls on! Just as long as it's not my cat!
:)

[Liz Cadorette]

What a gorgeous big boy of a raptor! My husband works for a company who happens to have the tallest building in the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD, and they play host to a pair of Peregrine Falcons. They found, somewhat to their dismay, however, that the good press generated by hosting these adaptive creatures is that clients get the heads of pigeons dropped on them from high above! ROFL!

Thank you for the photos of the beautiful bird...I LOVE falcons and hawks, and we see them rarely here.

[Liz Cadorette]

er...that the good press generated is somewhat diminished, I meant to type. :)

[julia fc]

Not nearly as bad as you represented it. Lovely pics. Nature red in tooth and claw, trekking blue in heel and turn.

[Judy]

I loved that display, and thank God they don't live across the street form me. I'd be in jail or the looney bin. Great pics of the hawk.

[Marcia]

Our resident RTH is the reason I had to give up bird-feeding. He would sit on the fence posts and just wait for "lunch"!
Don't give up on the felting. My first experience was miserable...and quite expensive. I tried again and have had far more success since. Sometimes it's the yarn. I love Cascade 220, but Rowan Big Yarn is my favorite for purses. Wait till you see the hat that just came off the block yesterday! (Do you put jeans in the tub with the project?)

[Debbie]

Wow, you're a regular Marlin Perkins! Nice shot!

When I worked downtown, I once saw a crowd gathered around a bench in Fanueil Hall. I immediately thought the worst (cold weather + homeless person), but to my surprise, a hawk was eating a pigeon on one of the benches. I like to think he was on vacation like the rest of the tourists gawking at him. My guess is that he was going to finish his Beantown snack and then head over to The Gap.

[Cassie]

The picture of the hawk with the squirrely legs sticking up is phenomenal. (Not squeamish like that.)

And the sock? Looking great. Very blue. Very Laurie.

[juno]

There's a kind of deranged artistry to that christmas display - the Transiberian Orchestra was an inspired choice, for sure.

But all of that effort, all of that precision engineering - it's a pleasant form of madness, though, indeed I am glad not across my street.

[Rose]

Oh boy - I'm not the only one with a hawk visiting. I wonder if it's the time of year.

[Beth S.]

There are a lovely pair of red-tails who frequently soar past my office windows here in Cambridge. I love to watch them (usually just one at a time) though I do have to wonder if I'd feel such admiration for them if I ever caught them having a "snack".

[Risa]

Definitely not squeamish, circle of life and all that. I do love to see wildlife thriving where it is really unexpected.

Thanks for the link to the video. I saw it as a coming attraction for the Today show this morning, but missed the story. While I'm relieved that I live nowhere near this guy (my landlords one strand of twinkling lights outside my living room window bugs me), the geek in me truly appreciates this guy! How cool is all i can say!

[Bookish Wendy]

Hmm, I wonder if your Hospital is near my Hospital?

I was talking on the phone in my office a few weeks ago and got up to look out my window. I saw a huge bird flying toward my window (I'm on the 8th floor) and I thought, "He better pull up or this is going to get ugly." At the last minute he did and, I'm assuming, landed on the roof above me. As it turns out it was a fairly large Red-tailed Hawk. When I realized this I screamed, "Holy Shit!" into the phone. Thank goodness it wasn't a work call!!

[Lucia]

Ah, nature red in tooth and claw. As I keep telling DD whenever we see one of our cats toying with some hapless rodent on the front lawn, you can't keep them from doing what they do. The hawk is beautiful even as it feasts.

Those socks are incredible. I finally broke down and bought some Trekking, but not that colorway. It's waiting for me to finish my 17 holiday knitting projects -- OK, more like 6, but it seems like more.

[Lynne S of Oz]

Yum! Squirrel! Squirrels are scary. They run at you expecting to be fed and chitter at you angrily as you run away.
Heh. You've found another sucker, no, no, umm victim, um no that doesn't work either... fanatic to take along to fibre festivals!

[JessaLu]

Gorgeous bird - and I absolutely love the colors of your Trekking. I've been on such a 'berry' kick lately...maybe it's time to throw some blue in there...hrmmm

You've probably already heard this a thousand and one times but (since I can never keep my mouth shut)...make sure you put a little bit of detergent in with your felting and if you are using a front-loader you're pretty much doomed (sorry).... :o\