not quite sweater weather, but a sweater nonetheless

I have a new camera and it's so fancy!  I learned the basics this week, but it's too hot to go outside and play with it (mid- to upper 90s for days).  I do have a few things to report with the help of my lousy cell phone camera.

I finished a sweater!

I wanted to knit something basic, and I wanted to use up scrap yarn.  I had quite a bit of green, but not enough white, grey, gold, and blue to do much of anything.  It knitted up beautifully!  Yes, the sleeves are supposed to be short (they're 3/4 length).  I've got it blocked and hanging, waiting for winter!  Future note:  I don't think I'll ever knit a bottom-up sweater again (pattern is BLANK CANVAS by Ysolda).  I prefer top down, so the arms can grow naturally out of the yoke.  But at least it's done, and I've gotten rid of lots of tiny yarn skeins!

It's tomato season, and I have A LOT of tomatoes.  I planted around 16 seedlings, and they're bursting with fruit.  Todd brings in a few pounds every few days (our string trimmer is broken, lots of weeds around edge of tomato barrier, and I'm too afraid of chigger bites after that one disastrous episode two summers ago to wade through it).  At first I was just roasting the tomatoes, processing them into sauce, and freezing it.  But I read about another method that I think will be a winner.

Slice your tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Roast at 250 degrees for 2 hours, then turn up to 300 - 350 degrees for another half hour.  They dehydrate nicely.

These dehydrated slices can be frozen and thawed whole (unlike raw, which turn into sludge when thawed because of their high water content).  This means that they can be used in fresh salads all winter long!  

Last week was a long, slow week, because I had a constant headache and nausea due to a prescription lapse.  I dragged through work and mainly worked on puzzles (when I wasn't laying down).

Since I certainly wasn't out taking photos, I've been looking over photos that didn't make the cut over the past few weeks, although I certainly liked them.

Lots of flowers...

small sweet pea crop this year...

...but tons of zinnias!

love yellow zinnias in bouquets

amazing 5' dill crop this year!

insane hydrangea blossoms this year...photo doesn't do it justice!  

Cute kittens...

Frances on laundry pile

Frances again

...and some pretty things found on hikes.

incredibly vibrant slime mold!

ditto the blue on these butterfly wings

pickerel weed, beloved by deer, muskrats, ducks, and other aquatic animals!

trumpet vine flower just about to open

I've seen some gorgeous sunrises...

...and some less-attractive things.

horse fly...painful bites!!

All in all, it's been a pretty nice summer with a lot of nice views.

horses across the street

Excited for fall, though...and to get some good shots with my new camera.

Have a great week!  

snakes and chatter (ers)

 Time is marching on!

It's been a busy week.  A "Beatles" concert by the Fab Four:

For me, seeing a tribute band is the same basic experience as seeing the real band in concert...and this definitely feels like a positive thing.  In the same vein, seeing an animal at the zoo feels no different than watching that same animal in a nature documentary.  When we went to the Indianapolis Zoo earlier this week, it was nice to see animals (in the same way that a nature documentary is interesting), but I was mostly captivated by the shapes and textures that I saw.

The perfect curve of a warthog tusk.

The shifting and saturated colors of the flamingoes.

The arresting regularity of snakeskin patterning.

Spikes...

Triangles...

Stripes...

Hexagons.

The really pleasurable exhibit was the lorikeet enclosure.  They're friendly, as you can see a typical greeting here:

To more easily reach their favorite foods (fruit, nectar, and pollen), lorikeets have a long tongue that terminates in something like a miniature toothbrush head.  I got a good cleaning!

They're noisy ("The loudest rainbow you'll ever hear!") and social.  Super fun!

Back at home, late season flowers...

...blue skies...

...and lazy kittens.

Not too shabby for late August.

Have a great week!

Butterflies, Bees, and Lizards (near) Trees

When my sister-in-law was in town last week, we decided to go to Saluda, North Carolina.  Tucked into the mountainside, it's a tiny one-stoplight town that was at one time the steepest railway grade in the United States.

We shopped and visited the museum, which had some very dramatic trail-derailment dioramas.

A short drive away, we hiked over smooth stone paths...

...to see a beautiful 90-foot waterfall, Pearson's Falls.

Another day, we drove to Asheville, North Carolina to stand in author Thomas Wolfe's shoe prints...

...and see the interesting architecture.  Dog gargoyles!  :)

The Blue Hills are undeniably beautiful.

However, it's not too shabby around our house right now.  80s or not, FALL IS HERE.

We are having a bumper crop of acorns this year.  They crunch under your feet wherever you walk.

This is the front driveway, right before blowing.  A day after blowing, it looks exactly the same!

Our big camellias aren't quite ready to pop yet...

But some of our other ones feel differently!

This unseasonably warm weather has kept our marigolds and zinnias blooming, joined with fall asters and chrysanthemums.

And the vinca just doesn't stop!

I picked a nice bouquet to bring a little of that outside beauty indoors.

We still have butterflies, bees, and lizards in trees!  Well, on downspouts, anyway.

It's a great time to be outside.

Have a great week!