worthwhile textile

The sky has been so beautiful this week, as the weather shifts decidedly into autumn territory and the rains increase.

In the very early hours, the clouds take on a rosy cast.

Then, touched by the sun, they turn golden.

Every morning brings a heavy dew and lovely fog.

While it's still warm enough, we're both out doing yard work.

Borga loves to assist...

...and be rewarded for her "hard work."

In defiance of our chilly nights, many flowers are still blossoming in the garden...

...but I see much more of this.

I have to admit that I love seeing little bits of vibrant life out there.

The goldfinches are even more frantically and systematically stripping seeds.  Can you see all three in this photo?

I am lamentably late with my Halloween decorations, but at least I got the porch decked out with loads of pumpkins from the garden.

The windows are always cracked to let in a delightful bit of chill, and I'm frequently curled up under a quilt with a textile project.  I'm making nice progress on my red snake tapestry (design by Japanese artist Yumiko Higuchi)...

...despite Tabitha's "help."

I'm really excited about my current knitting project, a pair of cozy gloves by Scottish designer Ysolda Teague.  The circumference of my palm is usually a full two inches smaller than patterns for a "normal" adult woman's hand, so most of the gloves that I've tried to knit are floppy oven mitts on my hands.  It's not as simple as going down a few needle sizes, as smaller needles are flimsy and hard to work with, and end up painfully cramping my fingers.  I'm loathe to change a pattern, because I don't have an intuitive sense about how stitches that I make will translate in the work.  I took a chance on these gloves, though.  Instead of casting on 65 stitches with a size 2 needle, I cast on 48 stitches with a size 1 needle.  I knitted about a third of the mitten...

...but realized that it was too small.  It fit my wrist, but the design got distorted out of shape when I pulled it over my thumb.  I'm so easily discouraged that it would be normal for me to toss the project aside at this point, but I doggedly cast on again, this time on a size 2 needle.  I'm just past the thumb now and it's a perfect fit!  I can't wait to finish them up.

In summary, we are absolutely loving these chilly, rainy fall days and are making the most of them, both inside and outside.  Each of us in our own way.  :)

Have a great week!

corgi cuddles and pumpkin huddles

 It's pumpkin time!

The second haul from the garden is a lot more impressive than the first.  Because I got my vines in the ground so late, this is only a fraction of what we'll be seeing in a few weeks!  With the forgiving weather, there are still plenty of pollinators for the floppy yellow flowers that will soon become pumpkins of all shapes, sizes, and colors.  A cursory check of a random blossom showed plenty of competition for the pollen:  one bumblebee and seven spotted cucumber beetles!

There are still plenty of butterflies, too!

The weather has been amazing.  Warm days and cool nights make a beautiful morning haze over the water.

Around here, the trees are starting to take on a bit more color.

Fall is the best time for mushrooms!

Both the yellow and red mushrooms are some sort of Amanita variety, common here and very toxic.  The blue Lacatarius Indigo is edible, but I would never trust my identification enough to consume any mushroom!  Fall rains and cooling temperatures awaken the underground fungal threads, which start sending up mushrooms.  They reproduce via the spores stored beneath their caps.  Some have "gills," like you can see in this photo from 2018:

Many of the ones I've been finding around here have pores instead, which are a series of narrow tubes through which the spores fall.  Both are so pretty!

It's warm and pleasant, but the muskrats are still hard at work, getting ready for winter.  They've built a second, even larger home behind the first one!

Claudia is, ahem, storing up energy for the long winter ahead.

Tabitha seems to be following her example...

...and Borga is staying extra close to her source of warmth!  ;)

They must know something that I don't know, because I'm still throwing open the windows and letting in the wonderful fresh air.

Have a great week!  

praying (mantis) for fall...

 Green leaves, bright sun, A/C at full blast - is this October?

Flowers are still going strong...

 ...and even my temperamental ferns are putting up new fronds.

I'm determined to move forward with fall, even if the weather isn't cooperating.  Another autumn wreath completed, this one with flowers from my Little Lime hydrangea.

Todd was out of town for a couple of days, so I surprised him with his favorite (a fall staple around here):  homemade apple pie, made with 4 1/2 pounds of apples from our tree!  I tried a braiding technique for the crust, which I'm fairly pleased with for a first try!

I used a mandolin to slice the apples uniformly, and a new technique for softening them: maceration. Since you're using so many apples, it's hard for them all to be fully cooked in the allotted time.  So, slicing your apples thinly and letting them sit at room temperature for 4 hours does a bit of pre-softening. They're delightfully droopy by the time you load them into your pie. No lemon, no butter, light sugar, and it's the best apple pie I've ever had!  Oh, for some ice cream!

Because the weather has been so forgiving, there are still plenty of insects around.  Our front porch lights draw plenty of moths and small insects, and so hunters like katydids...

...and praying mantises...

...are always hanging around.  Unfortunately, it's the time of year for GIANT BLACK SPIDERS with impossibly large leg spans.  Thick, hairy man-eaters who cling to our screen door and make it extraordinarily difficult to go outside in the dark to feed Claudia.  They have made their way into our barn, and I work cautiously in order not to have a traumatizing connection with one.

Little web spinners, however, are welcomed neighbors.  They're busy in the garden...

...and our extreme humidity/heavy dews make wonderful early-morning works of art.

It's crazy to look back at this day in 2019...

heavy frost on my verbena

...and 2020...

trees deep into their color change, Eagle Creek Park

...and consider that it's going to be 85 degrees this October 11th!  No frost, no real color change, no autumn crispness in the air.  Strange...but it's going to be coming soon.

Have a great week!

red snake keepsake

It seems like we've got a lot of creatures here who are "making hay while the sun shines."  Grasshoppers are still whirring in the undergrowth or crouching motionless, torpid in the hot sun.

It's a great comfort when I consider the tangled mess that I've cultivated out back, knowing that at least I've created a massive food source for so many little creatures.

My little jungle is still producing pumpkins...

...and amazingly, dahlias...although I didn't prune, stake, or feed them.

The dinnerplate dahlias have collapsed under the weight of their massive heads, but they can still be salvaged.

The smaller dahlias have such a tight, tidy petal formation.  It's very appealing!

So lovely!

In the dark of the early morning, I hear barred owls calling, "Who cooks for you?  Who cooks for yooouuu?"  A few hours into daylight, the turkeys add their chorus.  Our back field is a popular hang-out spot, and we've also noticed them on a side slope.  We counted close to 40 turkeys - in one day! - last week.

After a summer of silence, we've started hearing coyotes yowling at night. Yes, the season is marching on!  Sunrises are suddenly more saturated with color...

...and the deepening reds of our apples is a reminder that we should pick, pick, pick before it's too late.

I'm bringing the season inside, with little touches like tiny felt pumpkins...

...and wreaths made from my garden flowers, dried.

We are starting to see a bit more color in the leaves, although the weather isn't really cooperating (still in the 80s this week).  It is really starting to feel like fall, and I'm contemplating several cold-weather projects, like this brilliant embroidery piece by artist Yumiko Higuchi.

photo courtesy of Yumiko Higuchi

Todd and I are both looking forward to a peaceful and productive October.

Have a great week!