Early fall scenes

The last of this year's marigolds in an Asian clay teapot 

And this morning, last day of September, I finally got a walk, after the tiredness faded, and caught fall flowers and plants 

At home, Billie the Pup did her best to trip me

And the peppermint I started from a cutting at the condo, a stand I started years ago from a cutting at the townhouse...

Current reading, bringing in October, is 

About which I know a lot without having read it. Time I did.

Happy day everyone, don't trip your friends!

Everyone's taller than me now

Marigolds have joined the ranks of taller than Boud! Here's this morning's first view 

On other important issues, the bursitis is so much improved from the icing. Why didn't I do that before! Ice is not in my vocabulary. I don't use it in drinks, doesn't occur to me to apply it. It takes a doctor with multiple credentials to tell me to do it. 

I was thinking about people's approach after yesterday's neighborly chat. The shouty neighbor is one I hear from when she wants something. Information, an egg, a cup of sugar, name of my powered milk, name of plumber etc.

My oldest, lifelong bully,  sister was the same, except she'd call, once in a while,  to tell me what she'd just acquired. Or to say she'd waxed the floor, had nothing better to do, so she called me.  Never asked about my family, not interested, seemingly. Same idea.

I didn't like this for many years, why not just visit or call to ask how I'm doing, anything, you don't need an excuse.

Finally it dawned on me that they want to be in touch and feel they need to provide a reason. Oh. More benign than I'd realized. Not able to be casual. Maybe it's a bit of shyness.  So now I'm not so ready to criticize.  I'm a bit slow at times.

Today is about knitting, I need to finish a second pair of socks, maybe gloves, to send off. 

Top, first spiral sock of the pair, bottom, the other style, with the patch toe, this pair complete. Same yarn, different looks. I always try on to make sure they're comfortable.

Small finishing job on the woven vest. More postcards to voters -- handwriting is tough on my neck, don't want to go back there -- and another Horowitz audiobook. 

I googled Horowitz to check on books and got a lot of references to the pianist. Forgot about Vladimir! Have you seen his keyboard style? It's weird, very flat hands, not what my teachers taught me, but clearly it worked dramatically well for him. Giant hands, too. 

Happy day everyone, play life your way, never mind the convention 

And here's yet more black eyed Susans 

And more fungus veil, decorated with fallen Russian sage flowers

And for the brave folks who tried it, here's the Haggard Hawks puzzle solution 

 Yesterday was a tense day because of close election races and mainstream media as usual confidently quoting fake polls -- five white guys in a diner in Iowa -- to foretell the defeat of democracy.

So I thought I'd improve the day with some leafy greens and made two spinach quiches, crustfree, one for now, one for the freezer. Fresh spinach, green bell pepper, cheddar cheese, milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg.

And I finished the fishy puzzle, which did, as I thought, have a piece missing, but it was still okay to work

And continued studying the genesis of fascism in the US, and knitting and fretting.

And watching Textiles and Tea, with a nice lady, beloved teacher interested in weave patterns who admits she could never do tapestry,  which involves image design. Honest lady who knows her limitations and does weaverly work and magazine editing within them.

Then the election results started to come in.

The noise you heard around 10pm Eastern time,  was the general exhaling and dancing and cheering as,  starting at home

 the NJ legislature held both houses blue

the Bucks County Pennsylvania fascist book-banning Moms for Liberty lost all five school board seats

 Virginia turned the legislature blue 

Beshear was returned as blue governor in red Kentucky

 and yay, thank you Ohio for securing women's reproductive rights in the constitutional amendment on the referendum.

So much for an uneventful off year!   It looks like reports of the death of democracy may have been greatly exaggerated, to quote Mark Twain, and there's enough egg to go around the faces of the mainstream media pundits and reporters who foretold it. 

We haven't done yet, but we're better off than before yesterday. Much more to do, but we're up for it. Today I'm messaging and thanking workers.

And here are the marigolds, still blooming in the house, and get all those new buds on the Christmas or maybe Thanksgiving cactus. They're clearly on the right track!

Happy day, everyone, let's build on yesterday. Not dead yet!

Footsteps on the Deck and other thoughts

Out early this morning to water a few plants before another torrid day. To reach the ficus, which is doing fine entwined in the butterfly bush, I have to go outside the fence, where the sprinkler has just finished. 

Cooled wet feet coming back indoors 

Out front, the marigolds are making up for lost time, late but welcome

And they're colors I like. There are some bitter yellow ones I'm not fond of, but these came up lovely dark reds and golds.

Waking up very early these mornings. It makes a long day, with room for reading and listening, though I can't yet get back to favorite knitting, oh well. Maybe my shoulder will permit a bit of stitching. That vest won't stitch itself.

Last evening I declined an invitation to eat pie across the street with Gary and a neighbor who I guess is a good person and I can't stand her bellowing voice. Later Gary delivered pie to me! 

Mixed berries and very good. 

Misfits is expected this afternoon, with reinforcements of fruit 

Leaving you today with this wisdom

Onward, happy day everyone. Keep cool. Our 100+ heat index is with us through Monday.

Fall sights and adventures

For the latest adventure with my stitching friends, go here.

Since it's harder for me to drive to Cape May the way I used to, to watch birds and walk and see the ocean, because of the distance and the wildness of the traffic nowadays, it occurs to me that this place might be my new getaway.Only and hour and a bit away.

You can arrange quite simply to go stay a couple of days, not expensive for full room and board, and complete with wonderful building, animals, labyrinth, friendly people, very safe and welcoming for a single woman, resident cat and dog, well, this might fill the bill.  And the chief nun in charge of hospitality already said, oh, just call me, we'll fix it up any time you want to come, always room for you.

I've been looking for a place of this kind, for a couple of days now and then, low stress to get to, affordable, and friendly. People to talk to when you want to, but they'll leave you alone when you need to, because so do they.  So this discovery might be yet another great thing my embroidery guild has done for me.

And for funny and nice sights nearer home, take a look:

Gary's Last Rose of Summer, next door on the truck waiting to be planted. Possibly waiting for me to get back from my adventures to help with the planting.  He assures me this is positively the last shrub he's buying.  Yeah. 

And marigolds in the front yard of neighbor and keen gardener Lakhshmi, with and without monarch butterfly, first monarch I've seen this year.  

Very few butterflies about this year, but many amphibians.  Go figure. Happy to see this one, though.