double double toil and trouble...

 One minute I'm outside, enjoying the changing season...

...spending a lot of time in the pumpkin patch, picking the ripe ones and photographing insects... 

...and then...tragedy.  Within a day of my last pumpkin patch foray, I broke out in hundreds of bites.  They covered my feet and legs, and were also sprinkled liberally on my arms, stomach, and back.  They looked like mosquito bites...

...but the burning, intense itch was something that I'd never experienced before.  It didn't take much research to find the culprit:  chiggers.  Chiggers are microscopic mites that, in their larval stage, seek out human hosts for food.  They're found in grassy areas, like my pumpkin patch.  I had learned in childhood that chiggers burrow into your skin and must be smothered, somehow...but this isn't true.  Although some mites (like scabies) do burrow, chiggers do not.  They don't drink your blood, either.  They inject their saliva into your body and your immune response is to harden the cells around the saliva.  This makes a handy straw for the chiggers to slurp your liquified cells through.  They feed for a few days and then drop off.  By the time you notice the bites, they're probably gone.  

The experience of having over 500 chigger bites has been...something else.  I went to Reddit for some itch relief advice and found the following comments to be fairly accurate.

In my experience, not much to do but wait.  It's miserable.  --Watts300

I've only had them once, and it was the most miserable experience of my life --partialcremation

I almost needed handcuffs to keep from scratching. --saltporksuit

[You need a] medically-induced coma...or an amputation. --mutt1223

It was a week of absolute hell. --taelor

It's the worst...you feel like your body is on fire for days. --believemeiwould

The itch...unbearable. --bjeffords74

The itch was so bad that I wanted to cut off my feet.  --dupinderpaul

I had to get a steroid shot to make it through. --tater120

It's weeks of abject torture. --misterblister

So painful that I couldn't even have a sheet on.  --mamassauruscat

As a native Floridian used to mosquitoes and fire ants, chiggers are on a whole other level.  Excruciating itching and burning for days.  --cookiethump

Ditto.  I couldn't wear pants or shoes, or sleep for more than a few hours at a time, for 5 days.  The cats winding innocently around my ankles set off the intense itching, and so did a brush of clothing or even a strong breeze.  I'm coming out on the other end, thankfully, but this was a bit of a lost week.

I spent nearly all of it indoors, to the delight of the cats.  There's nothing a cat loves more than a warm bed and a snuggle.

Or maybe a disruptive wrestling match?

Since I couldn't get outside much (the whole no pants thing is a real deterrent), I baked some fall-themed cookies...

Maple Sugar Cookies from Sally's Baking Addiction

...and knitted furiously on my cardigan.  Front panels are done, now just knitting up the back and will then start of the sleeves.

I also worked on my most recent quilt, where I've made a big mistake.  I didn't know that when you are strip-cutting fabric (sewing strips of fabric together, which you then sub-cut into smaller pieces)...

...a seam allowance is NOT factored in.  Normally, when you have blocks of fabric, excess is figured in  as a safety margin and you can tidily cut them down to an identical size before sewing the blocks together.  But when I started cutting my squares down...

...I saw that the inner squares and the outer squares were basically the same size.  This means that when I sew these blocks together, the outer squares will be 1/4" smaller than the inner squares.  It also means that when I cut the blocks down, they are not going to line up perfectly, because there's no excess fabric to play with.  A real disappointment, because I like to be precise.  I sewed several blocks together and it looks very amateurish, with corners off-kilter everywhere.

I'm torn between my thrift nature ("Fabric is expensive, just finish it!!") and my perfectionism ("It's a mess, with different-sized squares that don't line up like they're supposed to.  Toss it!").  I'm not sure which will win out in the end!

At least I was able to get out for a while yesterday.  Still plenty of flowers around for some nice fall bouquets.

Meanwhile, the windows are open (and frequently occupied)...

...and everyone is excited about the cooler weather.  Three cheers for fall (and the coming frost, which will kill every pest in the garden)!

season's greetings

 I love this time of year.  Hello, old friends!

I picked the first batch of pumpkins this week, mostly minis.  

It's a great harvest from just a few vines.  I will wipe these down with a weak bleach solution (1 teaspoon per gallon of water) to help them last until December.  I can't wait until the larger pumpkins are ready.  One of my favorites is the Long Island Cheese...

photo courtesy of Johnny's Select Seeds

...and I've got a few planted.  A single planted seed of a miniature variety will yield many pumpkins, but seeds of larger varieties will only produce a few pumpkins per vine.  I would love to get five of these this year, but I'll have to wait and see what happens!

It's been uncomfortably hot for the past week (summer's last gasp?), but I still make it out to the garden sometimes.  Strawflowers are shouting the colors of the season...

Zinnias are coming into their own.

Beautiful colors...

...and good hiding places for clever hunters (spider averse, skip next three pictures!).

Every single time I pick flowers, I hunt for crab spiders.  Sometimes tiny, and other times, big and bold...so to speak.

In reality, crab spiders are tiny, and they need to be, to hide beneath petals.  They wait for pollinators... and pounce.

And look who we have here!  So much milkweed planted, and at last...the face I've been waiting to see.

It's a monarch butterfly caterpillar, which feeds exclusively on milkweed.  

Hello down there!

It's the first (and only) that I've seen this year, but since I've suddenly started seeing a lot more monarch butterflies, I'm hoping to see these plants covered in caterpillars soon.

Hot days are uncomfortable, but combined with the cooler nights make a dramatic daily fog that we both look forward to seeing.

To help celebrate the season, I've done something that I don't normally do...purchase a quilt kit.  I love scrappy quilts and prefer to put together my own color schemes, but I've had my eye on this particular kit for two years...and decided to finally take the plunge.  It's always a gamble.  Quilt kits are expensive, and if you wait, you can sometimes find a bargain.  But they (and fabric bundles in general) are usually one-time releases.  Wait too long, and there's the very real possibility that you won't be able to find them for any price.  

I like this kit because it's Halloween-esque, but not Halloween patterned.  It's great for October and November, and for December, I can switch to another seasonally-colored quilt kit that I purchased last year (but still sits in its bag, waiting to be sewn):  Camille Roskelley's Patchwork Sky kit.

It doesn't SCREAM Christmas, but I think it's really cheerful for both December and January.  A nice bit of cheer during those cold, dark winter months.  I can't wait!

Have a great week!  

the latest web series

One of the many things that I love about fall is the increased insect activity as they rush to feed, mate, and nest (or die) before cold weather hits.  Ladybugs will hibernate under tree bark, in rock piles, or in any tight place where they can avoid the frost and the wind (including your walls!).  

Most adult grasshoppers die after laying their eggs in the fall.  You see them in great numbers, hurrying to do what they need to do before a killing frost.

I didn't even notice this guy until I leaned in to admire a thistle plant!

All around, insects are mating as quickly as possible, as our nighttime temperatures dip into the low 50s. 

Both caterpillars and spiders spin webs inside of leaves.

Getting that nectar while they can!

I'm seeing more fall berries, too.

Increased deer foraging...

...and the first touches of color here.

Still, the flowers are going strong in the garden...

...with just a few starting to show signs of going to seed.

It's a great time to take a walk through the back fields...

...or just enjoy the view!

Next week looks miserably hot but at least the days are moving along and October will be here soon. 

Have a great week!