An Osprey in flight is easy to recognize. Its belly is white and the underside of its wings are distinctively marked with brown feathers that look a lot like eyes. The front edges of its wings have four long feathers that curl a bit at the ends, with one similarly-shaped shorter fifth feather. Although you can’t see it this photo, that only shows a white head, an Osprey has an eye mask of brown feathers. And these birds are big. On Long Lake, only the Bald Eagles are bigger. Osprey can be two feet long, with a wing span of about six feet.

We have one very prominent Osprey nest on Long Lake. Check out  the top of the utility pole on the small island at the south end of the lake.  That straggly pile of sticks and stuff  isn’t something left behind  by the Presque Isle rural electical co-op crew. If we could  peek inside the nest at just the right time, we’d see 2-4 big whitish eggs, with splashes of cinnamon coloring. The chicks hatch over the span of 4-5 days. The early-born have a much better chance to survive. Younger siblings typically don’t get pushed out of the nest or cannibalized, but those first few days without competition for food just gives the oldest a leg up. Here’s what an Osprey and its young sound like. Kind of sweeter than what you would think when you see that determined flight from a perch, that menacing hover, and that fierce fast dive for prey.

Osprey populations were endangered by egg collectors and over-hunting in the 19th century and again by DDT in the 20th century. They are doing better now that we work to leave them alone. We are so lucky to be able to live among these Long Lake raptors.

The keen-eyed among you, and actually you don’t need that keen eye, will see that I goofed on the last color round of decreases at the crown. I saw it happening but couldn’t quite bring myself to try to remedy it. By then handling the double points was getting quite fiddly.  I convinced myself it wasn’t going to be all that noticeable. Obviously, it is though. But how often does the very top of someone’s head get inspected anyway? Oh. I should mention that when I make a goof in a pattern and don’t rip it out I often keep the item for myself rather than gift it away. Maybe that’s why I let the non-prideful Amish knitter in me take over.  (Mere mortals shouldn’t make perfect stuff.) Because I really do like this cheerful hat. And it is sized large enough to fit my pumpkin head.

The designer says it’s named the “Freedom” cap because the center panel motif resembles a butterfly. Butterflies are  no more  free than moths, black flies and garden slugs, but we get the reference. Sweet hat. Fun knit.

This is Ruffled Scarf, designed by Cathy Carron. It’s knit in hurdle stitch, something I haven’t seen used in many patterns.This oldie but goodie is a 4 row repeat, on an even number of stitches. The first two rows are knitted and the next two rows are knit 1, purl 1 across the entire row. Obviously, the ruffles are knit in garter stitch. Best of all? You end up with a totally reversible scarf that looks different (but nice) on both sides. Worst of all? It gets boring after awhile. I knit mine in Paton’s Classic Wool. The pattern calls for a 48 inch scarf. With about 470 yards of wool, mine ended up at 56 inches, which I think is a better length for a scarf. The ruffle  is a sweet, retro touch.  I think Mary Tyler Moore would like it.  Or at least Laura Petrie.

This one is the sensibly-named Eyelet Scarf, designed by Lisa Bucellato. It’s knit in Cascade 220 wool. I usually knit little pigs out of this yarn, but a little scarf is OK for a change. The scarf is about 5 inches wide and 40 inches long. A one skein project. Looks nice on both sides.  Meant for an adult, but my sense is it’s not quite long enough and it would be great for a kid. As the book title says, definitely a quick knit.

This is the Wave Scarf. It took about 430 yards of Kramer Naturally Nazareth. (That’s Nazareth, Pennsylvania). It was not a particularly quick knit.  Knit 1, purl 1 rib never is.  The design is Debbie O’Neill’s. It was a bit troublesome to knit. At the beginning, the increases and decreases held my interest. Then I got cocky and made mistakes. Then I got bored and made even more mistakes. Then I got miffed with the ripping back. But, persistence paid off and the finished scarf is worth the effort. This is a very long wave. The designer suggests 68 inches. For me, that was mid-wave, so mine ended up about 72 inches long. There is one error in the chart: the stitch count is not going to come out correct unless you skip rows 83 and 84. With that correction, it worked well.

And, in case you are wondering why I decided to knit three wool scarves during a summer of mostly hot sticky weather, it is a mystery to me too.

Off of Boneyard Highway (don’t ask), grows a fairly large stand of low bush blueberries. Low bush blueberries grow on bushes that are about a foot and a half tall. The berries ripen in late July and August. They grow in clusters of several berries, at the end of the branches.

This weekend, we picked wild low bush blueberries. Actually the me part of we took a nap instead and was not, technically, in attendance at the Boneyard Highway blueberry pick. My job came later. Steve, Dan, Mel and Roxie the Chocolate Lab set out armed with info to be sure they didn’t end up picking something deadly like nightshade berries. Mindful to watch for poison ivy and  bear (neither were spotted), they picked about three pints of low bush blueberries.

The fruit of low bush berries are smaller, with a somewhat deeper blue skin color than the high bush berries typically sold in supermarkets. The inside of the low bush berry is more like the Crayola color “red violet” than blue. The two kinds of blueberries don’t taste the same. High bush blueberries taste sort of like lima beans without the pretty green color. It must be all those antioxidants. To my mouth they are a waste of chewing. But these wild blueberries are nothing like lima beans. They have a definite good taste. Tart. Interesting. You know they’re in your mouth, but not because you want to spit them out.

Once home, Mel and I picked through the berries and got rid of the rest of the stems and checked for any tag-along little critters. Then came my job. Half the blueberries in a saucepan with about two tablespoons of water and half a cup of sugar. Bring to a boil, and then let the mixture simmer for about ten minutes–longer than you would with their high bush cousins. Add the  2 tablespoons of cornstarch and two tablespoons of water you whisked together before you put the blueberries on the burner. Add one tablespoon of lemon juice. Stir constantly, for about a minute while the mixture thickens. Fold in the rest of the blueberries. Pour the filling into whatever crust you’re using. Let it sit for about an hour before you put it in the fridge.

We served our most natural dessert slathered up with that most unnatural topping, Cool Whip, the invention of  Kraft chemist William A. Mitchell. Truly better eating through chemistry.

For those reading my blog for a slice of Pure Michigan instead of pie, Michigan is the #1 state for production of highbush blueberries. We have more than 18,000 acres in blueberry production. If you click here, you can get a bushel and a peck of Michigan blueberry facts and even meet the MSU Small Fruit Team. If you are really into blueberries, you can attend The National Blueberry Exposition in October in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  And, at this very minute, the 47th Annual National Blueberry Festival is happening in South Haven, Michigan.

Here is my pie.  They don’t happen often in my kitchen.

Traditional medicine finds uses for these plants. The stalks are edible, but are sometimes very bitter. The seeds are edible and can be ground into a flour. I recommend taking a pass on Spatterdock muffins, though, unless you’re really really hungry. Beavers and muskrats dive down to eat the rhizomes. Beavers, and all kind of waterfowl, will also eat the seeds. As you would notice paddling around the lake in the summer, one common use of the leaves is as an incubator for frog and bug eggs. Long Lake’s dragonflies and damsel flies often use the leaves as resting places. They helicopter down and don’t even make a dent in the leaf when they land.

This was a scrap yarn blanket, at least at the start. After a bit, I ran out of scraps and actually bought a few skeins. Money was hard to come by. I had to save up to buy a skein of cheap acrylic. I see “Dazzle” in here, and lots of Red Heart is my guess. In my first family, only my grandmother knew how to crochet. Eventually, I taught her to knit.  Gram crocheted the edge on this afghan.

I knitted about twelve inches of this on July 20, 1969, watching on a small black and white TV as the lunar lander approached Tranquility Bay. We were “up north” staying at what was, then, my favorite place in the world. Elk Lake, on the northwest side of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Every summer for all the Julys of my childhood and teen years, we rented Mrs. Zink’s  small cottage for two weeks. If you know the lake, it was at  what is now known as Zink’s Point. We never took a television to the cottage. Why would we? But that year, we made an exception.

July 20, 1969. I knitted and daydreamed while Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. I was 16 years old that summer. I’m 57 now. This is the oldest surviving piece of my knitting. It’s pretty dopey looking, but I treasure it. Elk Lake. Family. Mom, Dad, Gram, Pa, Lee, my brothers. For two long weeks. And during the summer of 1969, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. For a kid, it just couldn’t get any better than that.

I watched all the Jacques Costeau episodes as a kid. Obviously I learned nothing from his crew’s underwater photography techniques. What I did was reach out of the kayak, stick the waterproof camera in the water, and snap photos while fish swam by. I snapped a lot of nothing, and then this little fish happened by at the right moment. A not-so-large large mouthed bass.

Failing at my Calypso crew audition, now I seem afflicted with Joyce Kilmer aspirations:

Long Lake, little fish

Long Lake,  little wish

Wants to see the internet

Not  a cute pet

Has to stay wet

Has to stay put

Has to stay free

Bet she’ll  greet a fishing net

Before she meets that internet

Poor little fish

Poor little she

Starfish Hat, by Anne Farnham, worked up quite nicely. I moved the needle size up one beyond gauge, to get a bit more slouch in the main section. The bit of lace and bobble mix is easy peasy and adds a nice touch. And at the crown, the decreases form a starfish shape. This electric green will brighten up a wintry day. Cascade 220 wool has such a wonderful selection of colors.

This one, knit in Cascade Quatro, is “Tasseled Topper” by Linda Medina. That must make mine: No-Tasseled Topper” and I think it works nicely.  Not a fan of tassels, but I like this hat.

Cascade’s new book is great for knitters looking for small projects in worsted weight yarns. In the last few weeks, I’ve knit these three hats and have already started my second scarf from the book.

Durenda Pake’s “Yarns To Go” shop  is located at 127 Second Street, in the heart of downtown Alpena. She has a wonderful selection of natural fiber yarns, as well as acrylics. I’ve never knit with Plymouth Yarn‘s Galway and so I selected these two shades for a pair of fair isle mittens. It’s a yarn that looks quite comparable to Cascade 220–maybe a  bit more “refined” and a bit tighter twist. On US size 8′s it should knit up at 5 stitches to the inch. So says the ball band. The yarn is spun for Plymouth Yarns in Peru.

Naturally Nazareth is a “100 percent domestic wool” that I am not familiar with. Yarns To Go has a small selection of what the ball band describes as Aran weight (4.5 stitches to the inch on US size 8 needles). The yarn is produced by Kraemer Yarns. I puzzled over the “Naturally Nazareth” yarn name–until I saw that the yarn is spun in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. I plan a scarf for the variegated yarn and a pair of mittens for the black and natural.

Locally, Cascade 220 is getting to be hard to find. Maybe the shops have mostly abandoned the yarn to the internet sellers.  The shops nearer to home have started stocking Ella Rae, instead. Good yarn, but not Cascade 220. I like the somewhat more rough look of Cascade 220 better. Plus Ella Rae is more expensive.

So, if you are in Northeast Michigan looking for yarn shops, be sure to check out Yarns To Go. Nice people. Helpful. Lots of yarn. And a surprisingly complete and up-to-date selection of books.