The cooler temperatures have been wonderful. Apartment windows: open.
Skies: blue.
Sunsets: awesome.
Still lots of signs of summer. The milkweed bugs are still incredibly active on the milkweeds. They're pretty good to have around. Milkweeds are invasive, and milkweed bugs feeding on them help end their life cycles. They're also awfully pretty, don't you think?
The adults are on the left and the young nymphs, with tiny wings, are on the right. They're easy to spot if you have a look in any field!
Skippers are still out and about.
Unlike the moths and butterflies in their family, different varieties of skippers can be really hard to distinguish. Some websites recommend dissection and close examination of their genitalia, which are unique to specific species of skippers. However, I decided to just let this one fly away. ;)
I'm still seeing lots of late-season flower activity. I love these beauties, despite their destructive nature. It's bindweed, a perennial that's incredibly invasive.
I've grown a variety of their gentle domesticated cousins, the morning glory. They are annuals, but reseed readily. They were so out of control after the first year that I decided to pull up the roots to get rid of them, but it took years to get rid of every last one. Bindweed, apparently, is even more tenacious. They're pretty, at least!
For every sign of summer, there's another sign of fall. Brilliant ripe red berries...
...and those that are not quite there yet.
The most exciting...seeing red-tipped leaves in the woods. Red!!
As the weather cools, I'm looking forward to more walks, more discoveries, and more beautiful sunsets.
Meanwhile, I've been stockpiling fabric and wishing for my sewing machine. I might have to wait a while. The bad news is that the house deal fell through. It's devastating. Not only did I have my heart set on this particular house, but not moving in the near future means that my yarn, books, puzzles, craft supplies, fabric, and tools remain packed. Doing a little online research, too, showed me that sewing in an apartment is frowned upon. Cheaper sewing machines (like mine) tend to be loud, and mine sounds like a machine gun when I'm sewing. Not to mention that I need a LOT of space and supplies to sew. I need a sewing table, another small table for excess fabric and the quilt body, and another small table for ironing. I need cutting boards, pins, rotary cutters, rulers...all of which are scattered in various boxes in various storage units. So I wait, and buy fabric for "someday."
I didn't realize how much I loved mint-colored fabric. My first quilt had a lot of mint...
I love this designer. Check out this link to see some of her other patterns and fabric lines. Swoon! The fabric is called Vintage Holiday. Reds, whites, and mint...what more could you want?
That is a true ice-blue mint, but I've also been drawn to a greener mint color and have noticed that my random fabric purchases lately have also dipped into this category...with red, of course.
I hate not being able to sew right now, but at least I can still knit. Yes, most of my knitting supplies (including yarn) are still buried in storage, but I unearthed a few fingering-weight skeins and bought some cheap bamboo needles and stitch markers.
Nice fall colors! I chose a really easy pattern since my cable needles and other tools are packed, a series of slipped stitches and stitches knit into the row below. It looks like plain ribbing on the needles, but you can see the somewhat unusual pattern when the sock is worn.
It's nice for variegated yarn because it breaks up color "pooling" and allows you to see the individual strands. It will look neater after the sock is blocked. On to sock #2!
Have a great week!
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