Deep fall

The house is comfortably above 70° even though it's cool and foggy outside because Rick built a fire last night (and I'm keeping it going!).

We have had a bunch of rain and a lot more leaf fall (the photo above doesn't show the half of it), so I haven't gotten any more done on the arena. Besides that, I was horsin' around on Sunday instead of staying home working on projects – and I may be doing more horsin' around this Sunday and beyond. In addition, my parents are flying in Wednesday morning for a rare 'birthday visit' (need to do some cleaning for that!), so that will take precedence over most everything else. The day they leave, Brian takes his driving exam which I expect he'll pass, then Katie bar the door! He doesn't have his own vehicle and has to pay for our increased insurance (with a teenaged boy added; OY), but I'm sure he'll still be hammering us for the keys every chance he gets. We're all in for new adventures....

Awhile back I showed glimpses of a 'scarf vest' I got, and blogpal Jeanne asked for more photos. Since I wore it again to church last week, I got a friend to help so here it is, Jeanne! (Me and my bowed legs; oh well, all the better to ride with.)

The Chuckie Channel is featuring fall right now. The star of our show is growing noticeably more sleek and shiny, which is gratifying:

Daylight here at the 45th parallel is diminishing daily; so you have to catch it when you can. Sunset two nights ago was stunning, and yesterday huge clouds dwarfed our house:

Right now I've got to figure out what's making intermittent clicking noises somewhere in the great room (sounds like the kitchen area). It's got Jackson completely freaked out; he's hiding behind my chair, shaking and panting. Sure hope it's not a 'killer mouse' because it looks like I'll be on my own in dealing with it!

That's it for now from . . .

Friday freedom / flyers

This morning Chuckie got his freedom. I opened the tack room door while we did chores, and he explored the barn. He started by exploring the 'great outdoors,' but beat a hasty retreat when one of the ewes 'baa-ed' – ha! He can retreat all the way back into the tack room if he chooses; we left the door open and his food, water, and bed available as a familiar comfort zone. I hope he's still around when I can go down to the barn to check on him; I haven't seen him from any of the windows while cleaning house.

One flyer is from yesterday morning. A female Anna's hummingbird visited the feeder. The light was right, so I moved into position to take some photos. She flew off, but came back just as I hoped. The photos I got on my iPhone of her flying in, feeding, and flying away were far better than I hoped for, though!

The final flyer is in these photos our pastor took of me last night. (Our son is gone and my DH asked if I wanted to go to church board meeting last night. Don't we have exciting date nights? At least we followed it up with a trip to Dairy Queen! 😋) P.S. The tank top is one of the samples I got from the LYS 'garage sale.' Love it!

That's it for freedom / flyers today for now from . . .

Threads on Thursday

Wednesday I received a group email from Laura Nelkin, who helped organize "Knitting for Munich." A call was sent out for hand knit hats, scarves, cowls and other small items to help keep refugees from war-torn Syria warm in cold, wintery Germany. I decided to send the two "California Poppies" (#1 and #2) in my gift stash, hoping a parent and child pair would not only be a little warmer, but also be cheered by the matching hats. I got a little thrill three months ago when one of my hats showed up front and center in a Knitting for Munich Ravelry post:

What's really thrilling is that over 1000 items were donated through this one initiative – enough to gift every refugee in the county of Miesbach! There are a couple heartwarming videos here and here (in German, but no matter; I hope those links work for you).

My threads today consisted of some handknits, so I tried a couple of selfies to show you "What I'm Wearing" before giving up and handing my camera to a co-worker. My accessory is Romi's Zephyr Cove, and is my most wearable small shawl to date.

That's it for the knits today from . . .

What I'm wearing

The Dormouse recently posted about occasionally sharing a "What I'm wearing" photo. I didn't think much more about it (past the thought that she is braver than I) until I got cleaned up to take Brian to his violin lesson yesterday. I was rather pleased with pulling together an outfit that featured a handknit, so I handed my camera to Brian (so you can blame him for the "headless horsewoman" – ha!). That's my homespun, handknit Mr. Brownjeans cardigan, along with the first turtleneck I've worn in years, skinny jeans, some Carhartt socks I got in a Christmas gift exchange, and my Keen boots.

I'm going to try to be more intentional about utilizing my handknits, and document their use with occasional "What I'm wearing" posts. Obviously, this will be a three-season theme. ;-)

That's it for now from . . .