Winter January 30, 2011
When we were kids, we played a game int he winter called Fox and Geese. Kids today wouldn’t recognize it as a game, it didn’t take batteries, electricity or any other equipment. All it took was snow, winter snowsuits and boots. We walked a big circle in the snow and then made cross paths and a small circle in the middle. One kid was the fox and the rest of us were geese. The geese started at the outer ring and had to make it to the center to be safe and the fox had to catch us. If we were caught, we became fox and eventually the fox out numbered the geese. This morning Bo looked out at our back yard and said that our resident fox had been through after last night’s snow. I was busy with a cashmere crochet scarf from Art Yarns and muttered a response. It wasn’t until later that I looked out and in the part of the back yard where the dogs don’t go was a big circle. The fox must be planning a game of Fox and Geese. His circle is exactly a perfect circle, he made one side a bit longer but not egg shaped either – more circular. I wonder what he is planning. but it looks like he made a loop that meets where the cabbage and Brussels sprout stems are, perhaps a late night snack.
This is a busy time in our world, our dog clubs and dog training school are having awards dinners. This year the Knife River Yorkie girls cashed in. Jossie got her Novice Rally title, Winnie got her TeaCup Agility Games 1 & Games 2 and her Standard Beginners titles. Lilly got her TeaCup Agility Games 3 and Standard Intermediate titles. And Emma got her TeaCup Agility Games 3 and Standard Intermediate titles, UK International Agility Beginning Agility title and The American Working Terrier’s Certificate of Gameness in Earth Dog. Of course next year may not bring many, if any, titles but this year was fun. Titles are nice to earn and give us a standard to judge our progress against. But in reality most dog sport titles are earned because you are out there performing more times. It is a time and money equation – more time and money spent = more titles. We simply don’t have the time nor the money to travel every weekend to trials. We mostly stay pretty close to home. But the girls are doing better and hopefully so am I.
There are knitters who like to earn titles too. And for some folks it is very important but for the vast majority the reward is accomplishing a finished product, learning a new technique in doing it AND if we are lucky a big thanks and a hug and a kiss from the person it was knit for.
Saying that I am looking at a personal reward award of a sort. The FreeStyle Crochet Yahoo Group that I am a member of has a yearly project where a theme is picked and people create a piece that illustrates the theme. Then there is a book published with all of the projects entered. This year I have decided that I will do a piece. The theme wouldn’t be announced until tomorrow but I have an idea and am waiting to get started. The piece can use a number of different techniques including knitting, weaving, tatting, bobbin lace etc in it. I am looking forward to getting started.
