Effervescence

Yesterday was breezy, a definite fall snap in the air. Leaves skittered across streets and sidewalks in town; the ones above more brown now, with bare branches showing. Sometimes fleeting beauty brings aching melancholy, but yesterday felt effervescent. As I drove around, I kept my camera ready in the seat beside me and snapped pictures at stop signs and red lights.

The sheep are prepared for the changing seasons, well-fleeced and well-fleshed.

Sarai, that's quite a belly you have!

October has put on quite the show this year. Sunrises have been spectacular the last two days; I'll save photos of those for the next post. I'm off to tackle a long to-do list, and want to squeeze in time to wash that skein of mohair yarn and finish spinning the last of that gray Jacob roving today.

That's it for now from . . .

Drinking deeply

(I had to correct the title. Once a proofreader, always a proofreader!)

I'm glad temperance doesn't apply to imbibing in beauty. Well, I guess it could, if it kept me from getting necessary things done. But I've done chores, quarterly tax reports for the vet clinic, and two loads of laundry; supervised violin practice; and drove Brian to a neighbor's to do a few hours' work. So on the way home I stopped here and there to snap some photos.

Once home, I took a few more.

I didn't expect this foggy, gray, misty day, but I don't mind it. Gray is beautiful, too!

That's it for now from . . .

Pretty as a postcard

This morning I took an alternate route to work. The day started out gray, but the vineyards and trees still provided golden light:

By afternoon the sun was shining along with the autumn leaves:

Signed with love from northwest Oregon and . . .

From waxing to waning

So Tuesday I got in that great leaf-peeping walk after work, and that morning Rick passed his stone (yay!). Then I went to the dentist and things went downhill in a big way....

But who wants to hear depressing news? I've been doing daily chores for neighbors this week, and it's been beautiful Indian summer weather for walking down the hill and back. I get to enjoy the native big-leaf maples,

the bright sliver moon,

the neighbor's beautiful yard and borage,

and their hilarious goats – all while getting plenty of exercise.

Monday night I picked 22 lbs. of Melrose and Jonagold apples at the bottom of the hill:

Happy girls on green, green grass (and yes, it really is that green) is a happy sight, right?

Sure would help if I could sell a few of them. That expensive root canal and crown repair I was expecting to endure on Tuesday? Well, there were bigger problems with the tooth than the dentist first detected, and it couldn't be saved. The trauma of unexpectedly losing a tooth is compounded by bracing for more visits and procedures, and quadruple the cost for a bridge or quintuple the cost for an implant. For now I'm on powerful antibiotics to deal with the infection while the bone graft takes and the wound heals.

I'm dreaming of a lean Christmas at . . .

Waxing poetic

This is the best month of the best season, and I've been woefully short on time to enjoy it. Yesterday I finished up at work 15 minutes before I needed to head to Salem, so I gave myself the gift of walking around the neighborhood and soaking up autumn beauty. Oh, exquisite delights!

A friend posted a lovely photo with this quote on Instagram – “There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood." Such a perfect sentiment that I had to ask her who wrote it, and she introduced me to one of her favorite poems:

Then I found this quote by John Donne: "No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face." Yes!

That's it for now from . . .

Happy hour

Today was supposed to be a wash-out, like yesterday, tomorrow, and Sunday. But this afternoon the sun broke out, and I pulled over at the bottom of our hill on my way home and captured this:

Just looking at that picture makes me happy. And I'm getting some time at home alone tonight, which also makes me happy. Rick has mostly laid around the house since we got home from the hospital Wednesday morning. But tonight he got an emergency call from a client over on the coast and took Brian with him because he wasn't sure he could drive that far (the stone hasn't passed).

It's been a disrupted, discombobulated week. Still, I've managed to get Lance out for frequent short rides, and have been playing with yarn. After months of spinning Jacob singles, I finally started plying it using my miniSpinner. I filled one bobbin to the brim,

then started on another; I was rather stunned to see just how much I had spun up on my Jenkins Turkish spindles since July! There's a bit more roving yet to spin and ply before I can measure yardage.

This morning I finally skeined the mohair yarn I spun and plied during the Tour de Fleece. Rick's first black walnut bowl was the perfect receptacle to hold the turtle while I used my noddy-noddy. The skein is only ~273 yards, so I may combine it with something else for a two-color project.

Earlier today I noticed a red-tailed hawk on the ground in our middle pasture. It flew to a tree before I could grab my camera, but I still managed to get a decent shot of it (at least if you click to biggify), with the added bonus of a touch of fall color.

That's it for today from . . .