Life is de bubbles...

Under de sea!!  We could very well have floated all the way to New Orleans on Tuesday, propelled only by Little Charlie's bubbling excitement for our trip to the Aquarium of the Americas.  

Just a few steps inside, and we were all under the sea, surrounded by rays and eels and sharks and fish of all shapes and sizes and colors.  Such tranquility, such fluid grace, such effortless motion through the blue-gold water.  Everyone under the sea - sea creatures and human creatures alike - seemed delighted to be there, and those of us without fins felt something of the freedom of those with fins and gentle gills and sparkling scales.  

We went to the aquarium because of Little Charlie's love of ocean life, a love instilled by his second grade teacher whose classroom has been decorated all year with whales and jellyfish and dolphins and octopuses.  But Big Charlie and I were equally as entranced as we moved from tank to tank, soaking in the sights of world's seas.  

Under de sea, under de sea,

darling it's better down where it's wetter,

take it from me!

Up on the shore dey work all day,

out in the sun dey slave away,

while we devoting full time to floating

under de sea!

Hidden in a corner was a marvelous piece of art, entitled "Sharks Bite" (I'm afraid I didn't write down the artist's name).  The cat's name is Charlie, according to the marker on the wall beside the painting.  That alone made it special, but added to the sentiment was the memory of several pieces of artwork depicting cats that we purchased in New Orleans years ago - Big Charlie had just chosen "Happy Cat" as the name of his informal recording studio.

I knew that sharks were notorious biters, but had never seen the razor sharp teeth of eels up close.  Little Charlie made friends with a pair of moray eels who looked for all the world like they had been pulled straight out of Ursula's employ.  We saw other more colorful eels and biting things as well...

Sharks bite.  Moray eels bite.  Lots of critters and creatures we saw either bite or sting or strangle as part of the circle of life under the sea.  Such tranquility, such fluid grace, such effortless motion...and so much of it, in the wild open sea, devoted to eating or being eaten!  Perhaps if they would take up knitting...

I worked on this scarf all the way down to New Orleans and back.  The yarn is Rowan Damask, a lovely linen blend (not on the Rowan Yarns website for some reason, but Knit Studio does carry it), and the pattern is a simple feather and fan to make a scarf light as a bubble and blue as the sea.  Unfortunately, it has already been frogged because I ran out of yarn before the scarf was long enough.  A larger needle, fewer stitches, and the addition of some Rowan Kidsilk Haze (in the shark's mouth) should fix that, and as I knit I'll imagine myself back under the sea...

Under de sea, under de sea,

since life is sweet here,

we got to knit here, naturally...