I had a little treat arrive in the mail….

As you know, I haven’t been buying yarn (except thrifted… which is rare) because I have a closet full that I will probably not be able to knit up before I die…

But… a facebook ad caught my eye.

It was for Mary Maxim… Fruit Stripes…

And for some reason… I just had to have it!

Naturally… some others had to come along so I could get free shipping. The right is all solid Kroy singles – which I got for heels and toes for all that thrifted Kroy I’ve gathered.

But the left side is all different stripey sock yarn for socks just for me!!! Including some sparkly Festive yarn to make myself a pair of Christmas socks!

But first, I have to finish this pair for my mother-in-law.

First one is done – I just have to cast on the second. Thankfully, they are DK and my MIL has even smaller feet that I do!

I’m afraid our Monarch watch for 2026 has ended, and not the way we’d hoped.

Day after day, I checked out our little chrysalis in the garden waiting for it to go clear…

Instead, the bottom turned black. Sadly this means the caterpillar is dead. It could be a virus, or, possibly, parasitic wasps got it like they did on the other chrysalis I found on another garden ornament.

You can see the hole where the wasps emerged after eating the caterpillar up. The wasps are actually quite beneficial to the garden as they keep other pest in check, but the price is also a Monarch or two.

Happily, even though I didn’t get to see them emerge…

I found evidence of at least two Monarch that did make it to butterfly stage.

And, on Monday, when I was working away in the garden…

This beauty came to fill up on the Pink Princess. It’s late for a Monarch, so it probably emerged the day before. It’s going to need all the energy it can find to make its long journey to Mexico.

I’m finally starting the the project I planned after the Woodland fair was completed.

The “Garden Friends” embroidered quilt from Missouri Star quilts.

I’m doing this layout, but with the four colours of Essex Linen (linen/cotton blend) in my picture above. The kit only comes with 10 colours, so…

I bought a few more so I’d have lots of options.

There’s over 80 blocks to embroider – some simple, some complex. But as with any project… you start at the start…

This is the centre block. It was a pretty busy weekend so I didn’t get super far. But I’m no rush. This quilt is for me so it gets done when it gets done!

It’s Thanksgiving here – we’ve already had our turkey with friends on Saturday,

We had a lovely dinner and it gave me a chance to use the seasonal placemats mom made me, as well as show off some flowers from the garden.

Today I’m probably in the garden, or if it’s raining, the studio.

To our Canadian friends, we wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and October to be thankful for.

To our American friends… wait your turn!

Just kidding!

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing today – take a minute to count your blessings! And have a wonderful day!

The possible frost didn’t just have me worrying about the flowers. I figured I’d better do some harvesting in the veg beds too

I cut down four lovely birdhouse gourds. These will be hung on the porch to dry all winter, and come spring we will hopefully be able to turn them into bird houses.

I harvested some VERY tiny cabbages. That cutting mat grid below them is in centimeters. They are laughably small! I’m sure they will taste just fine. Though I will probably need to use all four for a meal.

I picked five equally small green peppers. These are likely going to chopped up and put in past for Dave, so size really doesn’t matter.

And last – two fine watermelon! The one on the right is another Mini Mike, and it’s about the size of a grapefruit. It’s already been eaten. I came down from my office at lunch the other day and Dave said, “One of the watermelons rolled off the counter and broke open… so I ate it….. it was really good. Grow those again.”

The second one is a yellow-fleshed watermelon. I’m waiting to cut it up until we have friends over. I’m so excited.

Other than that, all that’s left is raspberries.

And I’ll probably be pickin them until at least November!

Earlier in the week, we had a frost warning.

It is a touch early – but not entirely unheard of – to have one before Thanksgiving. I wasn’t sure how hard of a frost it would be, so I went around the garden and took as many pictures as I could.

In the end, I don’t think the temps dropped quite enough for frost. The garden looked pretty untouched the next morning. But it was a good reminder that, despite all the blooms, any day now could be the last.

“Can my little Freya friend come back for a weekly playdate?”

Miss Freya went home on Sunday, and Lemmy and I are definitely missing her. I’m not sure if she’s missing us. She was very excited to see Bronson when he came to pick her up.

I definitely hope she comes again soon!

Once all the bins were emptied and the contents back in my office, it was time to tackle this mess.

It honestly didn’t take too long – just a couple hours. And I had it looking like this…

It’s still overstuffed, but at least I can get in there and work. I still have one quilt to make before Christmas. With everything cleaned up, I was able to pick out some fabric. I had planned to use a layer cake, but since talking to a family member of the recipient, I’ve learned the young lady really likes leopard print and bright colours. So I pulled these three.

I’ll pair them with a solid black for a simple, but bold pattern.

I was also able to dig out the materials for my next tiny needle project.

I can’t wait to get started on both projects!

I’m not doing a lot of gift knitting this year, but I always make something small for Dave’s Mom.

I picked up this fun yarn at the thrift store. Dark green, Burgundy, and fun sparkles. It’s a DK weight acrylic. I thought it would be fun for some Christmas-themed bed socks. As you can see, I’m making good progress on the first one. My MIL has even smaller feet than me, so these will go very fast!

No Tiny Needle Tuesday…. getting the office (and then the studio) back in order took up my whole weekend.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to post….

For weeks there have been some VERY noisy birds in the yard. It sounded something like the goldfinches, but was much louder.

Last week, I finally caught sight of what it was…

Juvenile goldfinches! There were two of them – they were old enough to fly, but they were still following Mom and Dad around absolutely screaming for food.

Between my neighbour and I, we have quite the sunflower buffet for them. I spent a good hour watching them, shooting away with my camera

They prefer the more delicate, multi-stemmed sunflowers, and it always amazes me that these little guys can balance on the small stems.

They are absolute little acrobats!

So much fun to watch!

But the goldfinches aren’t the only tiny birds I captured.

This little lady was still fluttering about. And you may be thinking… Hummingbirds still around in October???

In Southern Ontario, Ruby-throated Hummingbird migration begins surprisingly early. Adult males are usually the first to leave, with some departing in late July or early August and most moving south through mid-to-late August. By the end of August, many of the familiar red-throated males have disappeared.

Adult females generally follow from late August into early September. Juveniles remain a little longer, feeding heavily and preparing for their first migration. By mid-to-late September, most local hummingbirds have left Ontario, although juveniles and northern migrants continue passing through. Numbers usually fall quickly during the final week of September.

By early October, it’s the the tail end of the migration. So this little one is probably the last one for the 2026 season. I’m so glad my garden was a stop on the journey