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)!

knitted ladders and insect adders

As we get closer to fall and cooler weather, there's an uptick in my cold-weather craft projects.  I'm knitting a Kate Davies cardigan called Deco...

It's a stockinette cardigan without a steek, meaning that it's knitted back and forth instead of in the round (as a tube that is later cut).  Long purl rows are boring, but at least there's an interesting row of slipped stitches that form the front of the cardigan.

I've had a burst of energy with my postage stamp quilt, too.

Outside, the season is progressing nicely.  A volunteer pumpkin vine in a front bed...

...gives it a dash of fall.  My pumpkins in the back bed are going crazy, too.  The pumpkin flowers are open for business!

Once they're pollinated, they will begin setting fruit.  During my last inspection, I was surprised to see what I initially thought was a small group of spiders on one of the leaves.

These aren't spiders, though.  They're squash bugs, and once I knew what to look for, I found much more evidence of their presence:

Squash bugs are terrible for the garden.  They inject liquifying toxins into pumpkin vines, and even attack mature pumpkins.  I made short work of these invaders with a bit of soapy water.

Deer are everywhere...

...and we're seeing more and more geese, common in the fall.

I noticed a head sticking out of an overgrown garden section this week:

Turkeys are out and about, another frequent autumn occurrence.

I see a pair of singles quite a bit, and also this parent pair with their 11 - 12 poults.

  

Of course, Warren is out every day...

...and he's quite territorial, chasing away a younger rabbit who dared to approach our side garden this week.

As usual when the weather starts to cool, praying mantises are (gulp) hanging around in unlikely places, like this window screen:

Goldfinches, and although I've yet to get a picture, indigo buntings.

Hummingbirds, too, are out in force.  I'd say that a pair feeds pretty continually in the front and side gardens.

I've been watching them and I think that they're nesting in our apple tree.  I frequently see their silhouettes there.

I will definitely be nest-hunting this November!

Inside, we've got kitten mischief...

...but still, a whole lotta napping.

They're loving our open windows this week.  Atypical for August:  low humidity and cool breezes.  A nice transition into September. 

Have a great week!  

ranuculus plus

Although we had a wintry mix this weekend, the season is progressing.  Birds are flooding back...

The herons are out almost daily.

A wood duck pair visited our front pond.  I hope they're nesting nearby!

I picked the first bouquets of the year...

Claudia is loving the warmth of the sun.

I haven't felt like working outside, and it's been awfully cold, but the ranuculus had to get into the ground.  From just 20ish corms 2 years ago, I planted 60 thriving plants this week!

My Icelandic poppies are bursting out of their containers, too. If I don't want to lose them, I'll need to get them planted this week.  It's a nice, rainy forecast, with spring asserting itself all around us.

Inside, Calliope is positively loving her status as the only cat.

Todd and I are both missing Tabitha a lot this week, though.

One of her last photos, snuggling on my lap

But we have to keep moving forward. 

I've been working away on my Tilda postage stamp quilt.  The long paired rows...

...were sewn together to make units of four, and then sub-cut into 1 3/4" sections.

These will be sewn into groups of four (sixteen squares per block).  I'm excited to start putting it together!  I've been knitting a bit, too.  A new yarn for me this time is Lopi, spun from Icelandic sheep.  It's very hairy and rough, but the colors are so beautiful!  

Hopefully I'll have more time to work on this soon.  

Otherwise, work work work and enjoying the changing season!  We love our spring hikes, even if there's not a lot of color in the woods yet.  Soon!  

Have a great week!