donuts, cakes, and pies, oh my!

 It's late October, and it's crazy how much is still growing in the garden.

Still, it's time for a tear-down.  I finally finished up the perennial garden by the house...

...but the "big boy" is still waiting:  the annual cutting garden, huge and wild.  Truthfully, I prefer to leave this job until spring.  There are still so many insects still out there:

chinese mantis

yellowjacket

speckled sharpshooter leafhopper

Yes, lots of bees are left.  By tearing out the garden, I'm removing a food and shelter source for insects, not to mention their egg cases.  I've found several.  A couple of mantis oothecas...

...and here's a potter wasp nest.

Wild rabbits, too, use the pathways for shelter and the greens for food.  I've found their scat everywhere:

So I really hate to do it, but I'm slowly making inroads...

Spring is going to be just too busy to hassle with this garden, so it's got to go...this fall.  Todd is busy burning all of the leftovers.

I'm alway covered in seeds when I finish.  It's dirty work and I'll be so glad to be done!

It's been busy around here in general.  Work, plus all the little things.  Todd just celebrated his half birthday with one half of a coconut cream pie!

We both really, really hated to miss our local No Kings protest (we will definitely be at the next one), but we had a birthday party to attend!  Two people told me that this was the best chocolate chip cookie they'd ever had.  Here is the recipe!  

Pepita is still tolerating her donut, but we are pretty tired of the restrictions.  It will be so nice to turn her loose!

The kittens are...just exactly the same as always.  Mostly lounging.  Almost always together!  

Troublemakers!

More beautiful sunrises coming our way.

Have a great week!  

a Michi-gander

October is the perfect time for a fall road trip!  So I headed a few hours north and met my friend Heather for a Lake Michigan adventure.

The dunes are steeper than I expected!  You can see tiny specks (people) making the climb in the second photo.  

So many gulls!

Lake Michigan is so pretty.

Lighthouses!!

We got some good weather and quite a bit of (nicely atmospheric) rain.

Even with the damp and the chill, we were able to orchard-hop...

...and totally dominate the area's largest corn maze!

The breaks in the storm...

...gave us time to leaf-peep...

...and check out some of the things that Michigan is famous for.

Well, I've never seen a black squirrel before, anyway!

We even got to sleep in a castle one night!

I had my own balcony in the Queen's Turret...

...that was perfect for a little late-night knitting!  

We came, we saw...and I got home juuuuust in time to celebrate Todd's half birthday with a burnt, sloppily-decorated cookie cake that pretty much accurately reflected my out-of-it state of mind after much driving and not quite enough sleep.

We still went for our walk this morning...

...and I love that it's sweater weather (this week), and that it's just enough cold for our leaves here to finally start changing.

Hooray for fall at last!

Have a great week!