Hello Reader, Last week's winning poll option was all about the stick-tights. It turns out that stick-tights may have also been slightly symbolic for the week ahead. Flocking Let me share with you the wonderful weirdness I witnessed this week about the flocking instinct in the sheep here at Pemberley Farm. A group of sheep is called a flock, but "flocking" is also the word used to describe the behavior sheep and other animals use to move together as a group. Sheep are happiest as one of many....
7 days ago • 6 min read
Hello Reader, They start off simply when we're young. If Sally has 3 apples and Herman has 4 apples, how many apples do they have all together? As we progress, the scenarios get more complex. We add people and variables and operations, and before you know it, we've got multiple trains leaving stations at different times heading different directions at varying speeds and we are instructed to calculate arrival times, distances traveled, and engineers' first names. As we were working out how to...
14 days ago • 6 min read
Hello Reader, I'm not much of a video gamer. I think I hit my peak with Mario Kart when my kids were little, and I managed to win a race once every dozen or so tries. I was seriously hindered by my tendency to physically lean my body in the direction I wanted my little vehicle to go and distracted by the hysterical laughter that behavior inspired in my fellow racers. Because of my relative ignorance, I had to ask one of the aforementioned chucklers what the term is for when a gamer's skill...
21 days ago • 5 min read
Hello Reader, I could justly be accused of being a Helicopter Shepherd. I'm not sure that's an actual term. I'm morphing it from a title lovingly given to me by one of my siblings years ago. I was thoughtfully and generously flooding this sibling's phone with texts of daily photos of garden plants I was attempting to not kill. I was convinced they would be as fascinated with every millimeter of growth and possible evidence of health as I was. I don't think the patient reception of the photos...
28 days ago • 7 min read
Hello Reader, Things have gotten loud. I should say first that Greg did a wonderful job of holding down the fort while I was gone. I loved my time with family, and I loved coming home, and no mass casualty events occurred on any front. Hooray! Part of my trip involved some time in New York City. If my recollections are correct, we arrived a couple days after the Knicks' victory parade and we left the day of the first World Cup match being played in Rutherford, just on the other side of the...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Hello Reader, First, and of utmost importance, you must know that this week’s KierstenJ Knitting Journal is NOT from Kiersten. It’s from Greg. The husband with all the questions. So, please, please, please, I beg you. Do not unsubscribe this week. Please. I know Kiersten is fine with her readers unsubscribing at any time if they’re not getting value from her writing. But, if you would be so kind, just wait until next week. Please. Because Kiersten is out of town visiting family and she’s...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
Hello Reader, I was on the phone when I saw it. I'm not normally at the barn at that time, but we're haying, and I've never seen haying happen before. We were expecting the raking/swathing equipment and operator any moment, and so I was there. Waiting. On a call. Seated in the shade in the hay barn, firmly planted on a bale of straw, deeply involved in a serious conversation, I finally lifted my eyes from the floor to see the bizarre picture. Jane and Emma were attached to one another. And...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Hello Reader, "I learned to knit from my Grandmother." I don't know how many times I've read or heard that when I've spoken to knitters about how they got started on their knitting journey. Even in this Great Age of The You Tube, it seems like at least half of the knitters I encounter learned to knit from a beloved older relative. It's often Granny. And she's perfect and patient. She probably smells like gingerbread and lavender and her house sparkles because of the perfect combination of...
about 1 year ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader, As a teacher, there is nothing more exciting and rewarding to me than that moment when a student grasps a new skill or concept. With my kids and homeschooling, the most spectacular of those moments was when we'd both realize that they were truly reading fluently. But there were other similar moments, like when they suddenly consistently started associating me with the word "Mama" or when one realized they were fully able to prepare a complete meal from start to finish. When you...
about 1 year ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader, Greg and I have recently been enjoying a Netflix series called Chef's Table. If you're unfamiliar, each show is a deep dive into the story of someone who is either influential or interesting in the foodie world. Neither of us are especially knowledgeable about said foodie world. I've recognized exactly one name out of the maybe eight episodes we've watched. We're both passable cooks, and I'd say moderately adventurous eaters, but we're not really watching this show to learn...
about 1 year ago • 3 min read
