Sunday, November 06, 2022

Season Segue

We have transitioned fully to fall, ya'll; summer is now just a sweaty memory! And with fall comes a bounty of beautiful photo opps, so prepare yourself for a deluge. 😁

We did indeed get rain the day after my last post; just a quarter of an inch but enough to rinse some dust off things – including Stella!

The sunrise before the rain:




Maybe the horses actually brought that first rain, as they were doing a 'rain dance' as the first drops fell:

Another 2.25" fell a few days later, with fine blades of new grass sprouting up in the pastures virtually overnight. But between the rains, Rick and I tried to make the most of the dry weather in different ways. I trimmed toes on Boop and Broadway, giving them both much needed halter-training:
 Broadway still isn't cleaned up and coated!

Rick's woodworking friend came over with his portable saw mill and helped him cut slabs from the silver maple trunk:

I reveled in the fog and spiderwebs, my preferred "decorations" for the end of October:





Rick gleaned from the nearest vineyard and filled our evenings with steaming and canning assorted fancy varieties of grape juice – more Muskat (we canned a batch from our own vines earlier), Riesling (not pictured), Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier:


I picked some of the last good apples from an old tree in our pasture using the picker I bought earlier this year. It's not long enough to reach the top-most apples, but I was able to pick from higher than ever before. A couple of them were HUGE; see one of those with quarts of grape juice, above. I used some in them in these scrumptious Apple Cinnamon Rolls, which I will definitely make again!

I also did some outside clean-up, sweeping off the stairs on the south side of the house and cutting back the candytuft and lavender to reclaim the sidewalk leading to the front door. I need to prune two of the three Japanese maples in front of the house, too, but will do that when they aren't dripping wet – maybe when their leaves have dropped. That may be awhile, as they really haven't started showing their fall colors yet. (The potted ones on the deck are blazing with final fire!) The tender deck pots (geraniums and stevia) are now ensconced in the daylight basement, but still need their 'winter haircuts.' I'm going to pot up cuttings from my Apple Blossom geranium; it needs to be cut way back anyway, and who wouldn't want more of those gorgeous clusters of color?
Chuckie trying to impede my progress for pets

Mushrooms are starting to appear again, too, including tasty shaggy manes. I haven't seen any sign of them in the wooded lot where they came in so thick last season, but a few have popped up in the arena (above). The photo below was taken during a walk at a women's retreat I attended with a friend the last weekend of October. There may be a post on that event later with a few more pictures.

And of course there has been fiber play. My most recent finish is this big, beautiful skein of 2ply:
It's made up of The Woodland Pixie batts I purchased at Black Sheep Gathering plied with the Black Diamond tussah/alpaca I got as a TdF prize on the Jenkins forum of Ravelry, spun and plied on Jenkins spindles. Haven't measured it yet, as it is drying after a bath; I'm thinking it might become a generous scarf/shawl/wrap or maybe a vest.

With cooler weather, lean Poppy appreciates the wood-burner and fleece blankets when she's not running all out at home or in agility class:



Another pretty sunrise through the lifting fog:



Both Friday and today have been soakers. This was our range gauge earlier today; I'm sure it has more in it now.

That's it for now from . .

7 comments:

Donna Schoonover said...

Lovely photos! I especially liked the skein and the Poppy photos. We went from summer to winter so you may not be far behind. Enjoy your autumn while you can.

Wanda said...

Wow, gorgeous photos! I’ve bookmarked the apple cinnamonroll recipe, mmm.

You’ve been productive! Did you get any snow?

Michelle said...

Nice to know what catches people's eye, Donna! We're supposed to drop below freezing several nights this week, so it will be definitely colder here, too.I

No snow here, Wanda; did you get any at your house? I know it came within a few miles of you. I hope you enjoy the rolls as much as we did. FYI, the dough looked too dry, so I added a couple 'dollops' of my rye sourdough starter, used half whole wheat pastry flour, and didn't frost them. The sweetened apple syrup made them decadent enough for us.

Mama Pea said...

Good post to cover all that's going on in your lovely place on earth. It had a feel of autumn to it; all the pictures and goings-on, animals and food! I vote for you to make a vest with that beautiful 2-ply. And any of those yummy looking rolls left to share?! ;o) Also, glad you got the rain. We could still use a bunch although we have cold snow-type temps coming later this week. Oh well, it's still moisture even if it falls in white flakes.

A :-) said...

Your yarn is so even - really beautiful! It was in the 40s this morning here when I headed out for my walk. That maple looks really nice - what's Rick going to make with it? So cool that the vineyard lets you snag the leftover grapes!! And I just love Broadway's harlequin legs!

Retired Knitter said...

That Poppy is such a photogenic creature. I loved the pictures of the horses running back and forth. You can actually SEE Stella’s youth as she moves.

Michelle said...

It definitely feels like fall, Mama Pea – and I love it! Still need to measure that yarn to know what I have enough for....

A, not so even since it has a lot of silk slubs and noils in it, but I really like it. Harlequin legs – that's a great description!

Elaine, yes, both Poppy and Stella are supermodels. 😁