Can someone tell me how it’s already the last day of September??? Where the heck did the month go – I feel like it was just labour day last week.

I’m hoping to get out in the garden this weekend and get a start on several things I need to do before the frost hits. Right now, I’m mostly getting out there to pick raspberries. And when I do, I always take a little stroll around the garden to check on things and check in with my little friends.

Like Gary Grasshopper! These guys fascinate me – I love lookin at all the different parts of their body and how they fit together. Almost like little garden robots.

The Praying Mantises have also been very active

I came out the other day to find this giant lady climbing the glass on the catio door. She eventually climbed up my robin bell that hangs on the door and hung out there for a day or two.

She’s since moved on – I imagine to a better place to catch dinner.

The lady mantises are especially active right now because they looking for good places to make these:

That is a mantis egg case – also known as an ootheca. It has the same texture as spray-foam insulation, and inside are hundreds of baby mantises. It will hang out there all through winter, and when temps hit about 20C in the spring… they will spring forth and descend on my garden! This one is in the purple lilac by the shed. I will most likely find one or two more before spring.

I was checking on the remaining watermelons when I discovered this friend.

The humble grass spider! Tucked away in her funnel web, built at the top of the melon ladder, just waiting for prey to stumble by.

And while most of the butterflies are gone, with mainly just White Cabbages hanging about, I did stumble across this beauty

The Painted Lady. I really only see them late summer into fall here.

But they are definitley a favourite.

And just incase you’re wondering about our Monarch friend…

Still green. So we are still waiting. Tick Tock little Monarch, tick tock…

The secret project I’ve been working on the last couple weekends was a little birthday gift for Mom

I found this little kit at the thrift store for $3 about a month ago and instantly knew I had to make it for Mom. It looks like her dear departed Tibbi.. and while I don’t recall him ever hanging out in plants – he did love to sleep in the Christmas tree branches.

The kit had everything needed – printed fabric (which was lovely – way nicer than the little bee and moth kits I did a while back.) Needles (three sizes), floss (more than enough) and hoop. I felt the hoop was actually too big to frame the final pic, so I swapped it out with a smaller one I had on hand (pro-tip – you can get packs pretty cheap on Amazon – perfect to have on hand for framing pieces you are going to gift.)

This one gave me a great opportunity to practice my satin stitch. It’s come a long way from when I did Relic’s Wildflowers. It’s not perfect, but I’m definitely getting better!

As I mentioned yesterday – Mom was here for the weekend. It was her birthday on Saturday. She came Friday afternoon and headed home Sunday morning.

I still had to work when she got here, but we set up a sewing machine in the dining room for her so she could keep herself occupied until I was done. (My studio is still full of stuff – the cove we got was the wrong size, so I had to order some bigger stuff)

Saturday, after breakfast, we took her to our favourite three-story antique place in Woodstock.

While she didn’t get anything, and Dave only got a couple small oceanliner models, you know I came home with a pile!

First, up – a rectangular version of my favourite casserole collection. I’ve never seen this one before.

Then the creamer that matched! There were quite a few creamer/sugar sets throughout the place, but they were quite expensive. This one was half the price of the others.

On the way out, I found this beautiful pink carnival glass swan. The picture does not do it justice! It absolutely sparkles with all the colors of the rainbow! It’s stunning. I have to find a very special plant to put in it.

And last… I love a good crossbody purse, and I switch my purses out often.

This one had such beautiful autumn colours! And cats. I had to have it!

After our antique adventure, we took Mom out to dinner to celebrate her birthday. All in all, a great weekend! Though I’m definitely looking forward to having some slower weekends for a bit…

As I mentioned early in the week, I’ve been in the veg beds cleaning things out. Things are definitely coming to and end. Tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and zuchini are all harvested and done.

But it seems I missed a potato…

I went out and found this wee one sitting on top of the bed the other day. It had a little nibble out of it. I think someone was burying nuts, dug it up, gave it a taste and changed its mind.

I did not get many strawberries this year, but this one popped up the other day!

I got some new plants in late summer so I’m hoping for a better harvest next year.

The raspberries, however, never dissapoint.

As I mentioned before, those yellow ones are going right in the freezer for a batch of jam. I’ve almost got enough!

And remember that passionfruit I showed you….

There’s more! that one in the middle is the one I already showed you. I found two more and one was quite large! As I said, these won’t have time to ripen – but I’m still so thrilled I got fruit! I can’t wait to see what it does next year!

And last… Mom has been visiting this weekend so I finally cracked open one of the Mini Mike melons

It was so red, ripe and fragrant! I was thrilled. I don’t eat watermelon ,but Mom said it was delicious! I’m definitely going to grow these ones again!

September has just flown by and the garden is definitely showing the signs of decline. Of course, I’ve got so much pack in there, that decline moves pretty slowly

The roses are enjoying the cooler weather and the decline of the Japanese Beetle.

The Hydrangeas are turning pink and the autumn sedum is in full bloom.

There’s a great fall of asters in the catio and they frame Lemmy’s throne nicely.

But the real stars of the season are the annuals

The Dahlias are looking stunning. I really do have to take the time to dig them up this year so I can save the tubers for another season.

The Cosmos always put on a good show until the frost.

Same with the Zinnias. I’m going to try planting some seeds direct next year and see how they get on.

Other annual show stoppers…

Portulaca, marigolds and sunpations.

The first frost is probably only a few weeks off, but we are going to enjoy every last bloom.

The Boss Cat is IN!

With the push to finish my room and get it back in order, you can imagine I don’t have much crafting to show you yet. While I have worked a little on the secret stitching project, I have barely knit a stitch. And of course, Dave still has to go on regular Tuesday evening thrift runs after work.

He rarely ever buy anything, but I sure do. This week’s big score…

It’s not the “Official” Spice of Life Crock pot – but one of the many other “veggie” style ones that came out at that time. As you know, I love my Spice of Life corning ware I have several other pieces from different collections that are of the same same style. This one will fit right in – and it was only$10!

I also picked up some more leftover Kroy.

Here you can see how they are packaged. The first two bags had four balls each – the last has six. And there’s a fair bit left in those part balls. Now sure why there would be so many or what they were left over from – but at $3 a bag, I’ll take them.

That’s three more pairs of socks for me (eventually) in Rainbow Colours, Copper Colours and Casual Colours.

We are almost a week deep into Miss Freya’s visit and as you saw in the last post about her – she’s made herself right at home.

She does like to wake us up at 5:00 am every morning – chasing Lemmy across our bed.

The two of them are as thick as thieves. And are never very far from each other.

Even at nap time. Freya’s regular nap spot is on the dining room chairs, and Lemmy has started to join her. They make a pretty cute pair, that’s for sure.

I think they will miss each other when her visit is over.

No Tiny Needle Tuesday today. I did start a new (small) project, but it’s a secret for the moment so you’ll have to wait.

Instead, I have something just as exciting.

Sunday, while Dave was putting up all the trim in my office, I was puttering about in the garden. It feels like it’s been ages since I’d been able to get out there. I did a lot of tidying and was out there for most of the day.

As I was cleaning up the veg beds, something caught my eye on one of the pea towers.

Can you see it?

Look closer…

Yup. Another Monarch Chrysalis! And unlike the one I found the other week, this one looks viable! I will be keeping a very close eye on it, so I can (hopefully be there when it opens).

The clock is ticking though… this little one is cutting it close to begin it’s journey back to Mexico.

Not long after discovering that chrysalis, I also found this…

This one was hanging from the netting on the squash tunnel, and clearly, it’s occupant is long gone. No telling how old it is – could be days, or weeks.

But it still thrills me to know that some monarchs start their amazing journey in my garden. That’s a tiny treasure indeed.

Or at least, it was supposed to be. After I got my office painted, Dave and I went back and forth on what to do with the closet. We went back and forth on whether to re-wallpaper it or paint it. In the end, the budget decided – it was way cheaper to paint it.

Dave got to that right away at the start of the week

He took the doors off, gave them a nice coat of white, and then tackled the inside. It’s so bright and clean now.

Then on Thursday, he got started on the floor. It’s something we were supposed to be doing together. We’ve got a good system where I stay down and lay the floor, and he stays up and does all the cutting – that way we don’t get too sore going up and down. But… while I was working at the day job… he just did it all.

It’s not a huge room, so he was done by early afternoon.

Friday, we picked up our ordered trim, and Dave spent a rainy Saturday painting it all while I suffered with a migraine on the livingroom couch.

And then Sunday morning, he was right back up there putting it all up. By noon…

… he was done! And oh my what a difference it makes to the room!

When they redid this house in the ’60s, they stripped out all of the turn of the century character this house would have had. We tried to put some back in…. as much as our budget would allow.

We got colonial style baseboards and casings. I found these fantastic handles at a thrift store – they were originally brass so Dave sprayed them with a hammered silver paint for me.

We spent a little extra to add the rosettes to the corners around the windows and doors. I’m so glad we did – they look amazing.

We had a little troubleshooting to do where we took out the hallway wall. We can no longer get the ceiling tiles used… and we didn’t want to replace the whole ceiling. So Dave ran some plain pine up the walls and across the ceiling… much like a beam would run

We painted it white, and Dave trimmed it out with this pretty little embossed vine trim on each side. When I have some time (hahahahaha) I plan to paint some pretty green vines up the centre.

The only thing we have left to do (and when I say we, I mean Dave) is the cove trim between the ceiling and the wall. We ordered it at the same time as the rest of the trim but it’s taking a little longer to arrive. I’m hoping it comes in today… and as you’re reading this, I might even be moving things back into my office!!!!