Pot Pie, Anyone???

Thanks again, everyone, for keeping dad in your thoughts and prayers. He came home from the hospital Thursday night, and is already driving mom crazy, ummm, up and around. You can't keep a good man down! The next milestone is Monday the 28th when we go back to Fox Chase for the full biopsy report and removal of the catheter. Ouch.

In other medical news, the babes all had their annual checkup at the evil Vee-Eee-Tee, (a.k.a. the WonderVet) yesterday. As I was getting my little car ready for the onslaught of three big brits, look who decided to help.


Yes, that is one of the neighbor's chickens. In my car. A chicken in my car.


I opened all of the doors and ran from side to side, trying to shoo that bird out of my car. At one point I might have been heard to threaten her with the stew-pot if she left any chicken poo in my car. Eventually, I did get her out of my car without having to act on that threat, and was able to get the babes into the car. By myself. I took all three hooligans, by myself, in my little Prius. What was I thinking? I have no idea. Here are a couple of shots of the babes in the back seat of my car





They were a little squished, but not for long. Emma jumped right into the front seat and planted herself in front of the air vents. She loves the feel of the air conditioning blowing right in her face, so I turned it on full blast. Big mistake. It felt like a meat locker in my car, but every time I turned the fan down, Emma would whine. :sigh:

Luckily, I had an early appointment and it wasn't too crowded in the waiting room. As soon as I got the babes into the office, they took off in three directions with me in the center holding the leashes. I felt like the hub of a wagon wheel. After much tangling and untangling of leashes, I managed to get them signed in and seated.

Then the vet's three-legged cat wandered out from behind the counter. Now, my babes hate cats, but a three legged cat? They figured that was easy prey. There was much whining and woo-wooing on the dogs' part while the cat calmly sat just out of reach, yawning, while I was pulling on the leashes with all of my strength, saying "we love kitties...kitties are our friends."

At that point the vet techs saved my arms from being pulled out of their sockets by calling us back into the exam room. God Bless the Vet Techs!!! I tried to get a photo of the babes, but this was the best I could do. Notice the leashes wrapped around my legs...



It was all worth it, though, as the WonderVet pronounced all three babes to be beautiful, healthy, happy and frightfully undisciplined. Who could ask for anything more? :-)

Dogs on Thursday on Friday...again

Dogs on Thursday completely got by me this week. No excuses. No good excuses, anyway. I'll try and do better next week. ~sigh~

Anyway, remember the neighbor's chickens from this post? The ones that have been taunting the dogs? One of those not-too-terribly-bright chickens decided to make a nest and lay some eggs. Now, it's not the nest that I object to, it's the location of the nest. It is so close to the fence that the dogs can taste those eggs. Literally.


Not too smart of that silly chicken. Here is a video that I took yesterday of the dogs and chickens.



The real fun part is that Spartacus (the rooster) feels the need to hover around the nest and display his machismo whenever the dogs or I are out in the yard.



It wouldn't be so bad, except that he is not content to simply flap his wings and cock-a-doodle-doo. He feels need to chase you, which can be might inconvenient when you need to get to work in the morning. I've told him he's going to end up on a rotisserie, but I think he knows it's just an empty threat. Maybe I should play him this video clip from Cold Mountain. It's one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies:



Take that, you floggin' rooster!

Dogs (and Chickens) on Thursday

Cooper here!

I'll be your host for this week's Dogs on Thursday. For the second week in a row, we have been invaded by evil pests just in time for the DOT post. Last week it was evil cats, this week it is evil CHICKENS!

Momma calls them Spartacus (for the bad-boy rooster) and Hanna and her Sisters. She can't tell the hens apart, so they're all either Hanna or Sister.


These pesky strays are always hanging around. Momma isn't sure where they live, but the certainly like to visit us. They eat the birdseed out of the bird feeders, and the cat food right off of the cat's plates. Guess what their favorite flavor is... Chicken! Stupid cannibals...

But I digress. This morning, Spartacus came right up to the fence and started pecking at us through the gate! The nerve of that feathery beast! Doesn't he know that Brittanys are bird dogs?

We had no choice but to teach that bird brain a lesson! That's me there, on the left, with Tara and Emma. I figured I should hang back and let the girls take the lead.

Eventually Tara got bored, but Emma was nose to nose with that evil bird. Again, I was a strong back-up.


Yeah, that's right... Get on outta' here, you flea bitten bag of feathers.


Run away, just like the chickens you are!

My work here is done!

How do you like your eggs?

You can probably just make out the goose in this picture, but apparently this silly girl likes her eggs high...really, really high.
She was spotted yesterday on the roof of the museum where I work, and she was there again this morning. Of course, I didn't have my camera, and the photos with my cell phone came out like crap. Fortunately, today was one of my days to go home at lunchtime to let the dogs out, so I grabbed my camera and brought it back to work, hoping that Goosey Girl would still be on the roof this afternoon.
I was in luck! So, in the interest of sharing this with all of my bloggy friends, my co-workers and I trudged up onto the roof of the museum to get some better photos.

Here she is on her nest. Fortunately the Daddy goose was nowhere to be found. (I had visions of him chasing us off the roof, and it wasn't pretty!)
Silly girl. Sixty-some acres here, and she has to choose what has got to be the most inhospitable spot to build her nest. What is she going to do when those babies hatch? That's like a 20 foot drop. Sheesh! Watch that first step - it's a doozey!

Speaking of eggs, remember these eggs that the neighbor's chickens have thoughtfully deposited in the wagon in the garage?

Guess who is helping to incubate them...Joseph!

What a weird cat.

I can see him showing some interest in the eggs after they are hatched, or more accurately the fluffy, feathery, cheeping, contents of the eggs, but before? Just when you think you've seen it all...

Easter Bunny?

I had a visit from the Easter Bunny this weekend! He left me a present in the garage!

The practical side of me says it might have been the neighbor's chickens who left me these little presents....
...but I don't think so. Easter weekend...Easter Bunny!

It was a beautiful long weekend here in southern NJ. The Star Magnolia was in full bloom...

...just in time for the anniversary of sweet Scarlett's crossing the rainbow bridge on Sunday.

Scarlett c.1994
my first Brittany

May 13, 1991 - April 4, 2003

The weather was so very nice that we went to Fortescue every day. Look at who greets visitors on the road into Fortescue:
Can't quite make him out? Here's a closeup:

Spiderman...Spiderman...Friendly neighborhood Spiderman! He is wearing bunny ears, no less! Love it!

Yesterday, I even took my bicycle down to Fortescue and rode all around. My first stop, of course, was "my" house. Still vacant...still for sale... :sigh:
I should have realized that the recent nasty weather (high winds and record flooding) that brought lots of treasures up onto the beach......also brought lots of sand up onto the road. It was pretty deep in some spots. Here's a tip: Sandy roads and bicycle tires are not a good match. Can you see where this is going? Down. Yup...I completely wiped out. I'm all scraped up, bruised and sore... Ugh. Bikes are for kids.

Knitting Report

Since the name of this blog is Brit Knitter, and there have been way more Brits than Knits lately, I figured I should share some recent projects. First is a project I started a while back for my new niece Sophia. The fact that she came three weeks early, and then had to be re-admitted to the hospital on Thanksgiving Day and spend 2 nights in the NICU had everyone in a tizzy, but thankfully all is well with Sophie and her mommy. Sophie's daddy and two brothers and one sister (yep, that's four kids, FOUR! Plus three Brittanys. Yikes!) are all happy to have Sophie home and everyone is being a big help with the new baby.

Anyway, what does every new baby need? A baby blanket! A while ago I found the Woolly Thoughts' Basketweave pattern on Ravelry, and knew I had to make it. Here is it in all it's finished glory:
It turned out to be a skooch larger than I had planned. Truth be told, I didn't really plan all that much. I just bought the yarn, cast on, and kept knitting and knitting and knitting. And knitting. Before it knew it, the "baby" blanket was big enough to cover Rhode Island. Well, maybe not quite that big, but here is a picture of it with a recent copy of Spin Off magazine for perspective.

Yes, indeed, that is one big baby blanket!

While the sun was shining, I also took some pictures of Sophie's big sister's Christmas present. I bought the book "Itty Bitty Toys" by Susan B. Anderson for an adorable puppy pattern, but when I saw this little Baby Doll, I knew I had to make one right away.

She was so much fun to make! Braids attached to her hat, ruffled panties, even a belly button! You know you want to see her in her birthday suit, so here she is in all her nekkid glory:

Fortunately, I had some helpers for this photo shoot. Daughter of Ducky was wandering around...
...while Joseph supervised from the back of my car.
Yes, the hatch was up so he helped himself to a comfy spot. No sense in walking on those driveway stones, plus being higher up, he had a better vantage point.

Dogs on Thursday Mystery

This post has it all... mystery, scandal, intrigue, but no dogs, so I guess this isn't technically a Dogs on Thursday post, but frankly I don't have anything dog related for today, so chickens it is!

Longtime readers will surely remember Ducky, my Ducky McDuck, my sweet innocent Duck-a-Doo who was shamelessly seduced in the twilight of her life (she was just 2 weeks shy of her 12th birthday!) by that rogue neighbor chicken Napoleon. I'm thinking there was Ecstasy involved. This is one of the last pictures I have of sweet Duck-duck-duck. Look how close that nasty little black chicken is sticking to her.

He filled her head with sweet talk and lies, and led her astray, never to be seen by her loving momma ever again. Oh, the heartache...

But the story doesn't end there. Last week, a bunch of chickens started showing up, wandering in to the yard through a patch of woods that separates us from the neighbors. They're shy chickens, though, so I've had a hard time getting pictures. This picture of them hanging around the driveway was taken from inside the back door.

I went out and followed them to get some better shots, and got this picture of one rooster (the black & white one) and 5 hens. You can just see the top of the head of hen #5 in the bottom right hand corner of the photo.Just for the fun of it, I started cooing to #5 and calling her Ducky Junior. The rest of the chicks ran off, but she came right up to me, and let me snap a bunch of pictures!

Could it be that this is Ducky Junior? Daughter of Ducky? I think it is!

To some people, perhaps all Rhode Island Red chickens look alike, but I just know there is a family resemblance here... Look at the coloring, the eyes, the nose, the comb!


Yes, indeed! Ducky sent her daughter back to me to tell me that she is happy in that great chicken coop in the sky. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

Dogs on Thursday

For this week's Dogs on Thursday, I thought I would share some of the shots I took of the babes while I was trying to get some good photos for Sue's Blue Bandanna Day. (Click on over there and see all of the participants in Blue Bandanna Day - it was such fun!) I must have taken at least 20 shots, but most of them are just orange and white blurs and a splash of a blue bandanna. This one, however, is just hilarious. To me, anyway.
That's Emma catching Tara in mid-yawn. Emma likes to swoop in and lick the inside of Tara's mouth when she yawns. I know....eeeewwwww, but just look at the wild look in Tara's eyes!

In an effort to get all three dogs in one picture, I even enlisted the help of one of the chickies.

Yes, the brits are behind a firmly closed gate. If not for that gate, I'm afraid that little chickie would have gone to the great chicken coop in the sky.

And here is a close-up of the chickie:
She felt left out because she didn't have a teeny tiny blue bandanna, so I tied a bit of blue ribbon around her neck. She thinks she looks very pretty!

A Chick's Tour

Every morning at work I have to go around the museum and clean off the fingerprints (and other questionable smears that I prefer not to think about) that the little rug rats precious school children have left on the glass from the day before. Yesterday, I decided to take the chickies along with me.

They had a wonderful time, and wanted to share their favorite pieces with you.

Chicklet says "Awwww, a baby chick!"
"Chess, anyone?"

"Ooooh, a little tiny chair that is just my size!"


"Hey, are you my mother?"


"Are you my mother?"

"Are you my mother?"

"Mommy, I found you!!!"

We hope you enjoyed the Chick's Tour!