I especially like the second one because it is the first time I've seen something acknowledging the animals used and oft-times sacrificed as cogs in the machinery of mankind's wars. I can't wait for the day sung about in that old spiritual, when we will "study war no more."
In much happier news, I got an early birthday surprise in the wee hours of this morning. After saying he'd be late and to not wait up for him, my husband arrived home with my MOM in tow! He'd invited her, bought her a ticket, and picked her up at the airport without dropping a clue. She and I have spent one lovely day visiting and cooking my birthday dinner, and I have five more days to look forward to. She lucked into a stretch of beautiful fall weather here, although we got some rain this afternoon that I didn't think was in the forecast. I took the first photo below this morning before the change; the rest were taken in town yesterday as I walked to the post office for work.
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.
Showing my age here; does anyone else remember this era?
I have to admit, though, that my associations are more aligned with the following than with the Motown hit of that name:
Anyway, it feels good to be posting a little more regularly again. Yesterday morning I scanned through my posts, and saw that I only managed three posts per month May-July. Those were the last of the difficult months, with Dad's death and service and getting back into the swing of things here at home again.
Yesterday's (first two photos) and today's (third and fourth photos) air quality in layman's terms? Murky. This is the worst it's been all year, but the smoke/smog will be quickly banished with the weather moving in tomorrow. Rain! Soon everything will be rinsed clean and start greening up.
In the meantime, the deck color has been outstanding. I'll miss this:
I'm a homeschooling, horse training, animal loving, garden growing, part-time business running, spinning and knitting shepherd who loves the Great Shepherd.
