window clings and (half) birthday things

 If you were to Google half birthday, you'd mainly find baby onesies...to which I say, why should they have all the fun?

A small-batch recipe and a foil barrier with pie beads on the empty side that will keep the dough from spreading is all you'll need for the perfect half birthday cookie cake!  Half of a candle set...

...and, if your husband is especially obstinate about PIE being the proper sweet for a birthday - even a half birthday - sometimes you have to compromise.  Voila, half of an apple pie, made the same way.

This is a great time of year, because the third week in October is juuuuust when you slide into deep fall.  One minute your garden is still full of happy flowers...

...and the fall colors are bright and cheerful.

Then much-needed rain comes.  Colder temps, and frost - hard frost.

Colors deepen briefly, and then leaves...drop...fast.

The garden turns completely brown almost overnight.

Then it's time to turn your attention to decorating for the next holiday - Halloween!  Again I say:  why should kids have all the fun?

From garlands...

...to construction paper bats and skulls...

Even window clings for the microwave!

Those hugging skeletal hands, by the way, are on our bathroom mirror, front door, secretary, and even the fridge.  I...love...Halloween.  

It's also the time of year to deal with the remains of the garden - the seeds.  From trading...

...to "practice sprouting" on heat mats to confirm viability, especially in paler seeds.  Will seeds from flowers hit with frost still germinate?  What about flowers used in bouquets?  There's only one way to find out, and it's better to do it now, than to waste valuable space in spring growing flats and soil blocks.

It's been busy.  Bosewichte has been helping in the usual way.

Maybe seeds with bottom AND top heat will sprout faster?  :)  

I've also been working on little projects, like finishing my rainbow gloves...

...and tidying up loose ends, like frogging this old blanket that I knitted a decade ago and never used.  Eight oatmeal-colored skeins of Cascade 220 worsted yarn, current value near $100, will now be used in a sweater.

It feels good to get things done...with a little help from our friends!

Have a great week!

in the pink

When I was a little girl, there were always morning glories growing on our front fence.  They were very obedient, producing bright blue flowers in a tidy line, but I had a terrible experience with them in our first Indianapolis house.  I made a clumsy support out of nails, thick twine, and some flimsy stakes.  Once they really got going, the vines engulfed and then overwhelmed it, collapsing in a tangled mass.  Worse, they reseeded mercilessly, and for the next 8 years I yanked every nefarious and mocking spade-shaped leaf from that desecrated ground.

I never gave up hope on my rosy childhood vision, and over Todd's worried clucking, I planted some this summer.  And victory!  It's amazing!

It's made a beautiful blue mass on our side porch corner, and blooms every day until the heat of the mid-afternoon.  I love using them in bouquets.  They stay open for a couple of days, and then fold up into their smooth spiral spikes, which is also visually interesting.

A distant cousin, Jimson Weed, is growing in the barnyard.

It has been used medicinally for centuries, both as an anesthetic and a hallucinogen, but the risk of overdose is very high.  Haitian priests have used it in their zombie-making concoctions, and in Europe, it has been used in witchcraft to help broomsticks stay aloft on night flights.  It's beautiful...

...and I like having such a powerful weapon in my arsenal, should I tire of my sci-fi business and decide to turn my eye to the supernatural realm!  :)  

If I did, this fellow would be the first thing I'd direct my zombie army toward.

He's decimating my vegetable garden.

Not content with taking single bites out of cucumbers and pumpkins, he has positively annihilated my watermelons, eating a whole one (rind and all!) every night and leaving me with a few seeds scattered in the mulch:

Todd was appropriately deferential to the surviving melon...

...and gave it 2 thumbs up, even though it didn't last very long!

I probably won't need to turn to the dark arts, though, since I've got plenty of cheerful pinks in the garden right now that distract me from my veggie debacle.

The pinks are not so...pink...when balanced with white, yellow, purple, and green.  They're so lovely in a fall garden, when everything else is turning brown.  They are always front and center in my bouquets!

We are definitely turning toward fall now.  Birds are eating...

...pups are preening...

...and cats are sleeping.

Yes, definitely feels like September to me!  :)

Have a great week!