Bird news & mail in and out

We have been watching birds through the window and in our yard, listing the species from the beginning of the year. The list is 30 names long now. We also get to know some regular visitors, and occasionally give them names. There is this pheasant cock, arrived some weeks ago and now the proud husband of five hens. Naturally he must protect his ladies from other cocks.

They all seem to live in our cellar. We noticed some strange knocking from outside, and realized it was the pheasant's attack!

He is now called The Pheasant with a Sore Peak! There are three windows on ground level, and he sees his competitor in every window. Better let him feel my peak:

After the other guy was too tired to attack back, Sore Peak walked calmly away to have a rest.

Yesterday was this snowy morning, but I want you to see his handsomeness in this other picture taken on an sunny day.

 

Today I managed to take a picture of  the pied flycatcher, he arrived last Sunday. Clock the picture to enlarge, the bird is the black and white blur in the middle.

The bulb colony is showing signs of life, but it seems to take ages before I can even tell which flowers there are going to be.

This little beauty is called "blue lily of the east" is Finnish, but the Latin name Scilla is often used because it is shorter.

My dear friend Melanie sent me some lovely mail. I was expecting to have the postcard from her, announcing the new address of  Dot, the Unicef doll. Being Melanie, she just couldn't leave it to that, so here is what I had from her:

A book with knitting patterns for every  month of the year, a scent for the home, bubbly bunny chocolate (yam!), seed for my garden once it has thawed, and some designer hankies. Thank you Melanie! You are such a sweet friend.

My outgoing mail today was a second lot of chemo caps for the Helsinki University Hospital. Here are the newest ones:

This is the first lace pattern I managed to knit with a real pattern and not mixed up rows! I also made another star cap in purple, and added a flower fastened with a safety pin, so it can be worn as a brooch as well.

Finally a group photo of the five new caps together.

I just read that 580 caps have been delivered to the shops and persons in this area. On May 8th there will be a knitting and crocheting event at a mall in Helsinki. With that kind of publicity the number of caps will reach a thousand in no time.