Here we are… finally onto to the sleeves on the Great Grey Sweater…

At first, it didn’t seem like it was going very fast. I mean… it was faster than that slog on the body, but it still wasn’t going as fast as I thought it would. But… it decreases every seventh round, so after a few rounds, it picked up pace and things started to move a little faster! And I’m about halfway done now – with more decreasing to go. So it can only get faster from here!

Yep. It’s one year to the day since we stumbled onto this wee nugget, wet and crying in a parking lot in Glencoe.

You can read all about how it happened here. Dave said we are not going out to lunch ANYWHERE today, but I think we should because I think five cats is just the perfect number of cats. Sigh….

For a retrospective of how he changed from kitten to cat, you can read his birthday post here.

I will say that he lives up to this comic to a tee….

As sweet and adorable as he can be… he is one baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad little kitty. From escaping the catio multiple times to stealing socks and underwear to murdering butterflies. He’s recently recently taken to jumping on the kitchen counter (about the only no-go zone for cats in this house). He’s so bold about it, he does it right in front of Dave!!! So now I have sheets of aluminum foil across my counters in an effort deter him. So far it seems to be working… but who know what he gets up to when we are in bed.

What I do know is that when you point your finger at him and tell him he’s a bad cat (for annoying his brothers, knocking all my knitting bits on the floor, stealing my prescription bottles from the bathroom and shooting them down the hall, or any other manner of tom foolery…) this is his response…

Absolutely zero respect!!!

Honestly, he’s one of the baddest cats I’ve ever had (the baddest being the appropriately named Kobiashi Thunderdaemon Satancat).

Of course, it’s hard to stay mad when five minutes later he’s like this…

So warts and all Lemmy, you will forever be the best Hallowe’en treat EVER!

Mother Nature has just loved messing with me this month. Saturday was supposed to be sunny and warm – likely the last warm day of the year. I still had a handful of things to get done in the yard, so it seemed like dear Mother was going to help me out for once.

But never believe the weather reports – especially here, where, as Dave has frequently noted, the weather changes every five minutes.

It was not warm, it was not sunny, it was barely even dry. Thankfully, the little rain that swept through kept mostly to a fine mist, and those things in the yard still had to be done so I got to it.

Naturally, I had some “help”.

Our first task was chopping down several of the dead perrenials – mostly in the catio yard. I tend to leave a lot of the seed heads at the end of the season for the birds – especially the coneflowers.

They are a favourite snack of the Finches. You can see on the right, they’ve already been munching away. But attracting them with such deliciousness INSIDE the catio yard is just cruel. We already had a couple Junco fatalities in our first winter, and I’d prefer no repeats. Especially with the addition of Mr. Ginger Murdermitts. He was hard enough on the butterflies – I don’t want him getting a taste for Finch.

Once all the chopping was done, I got the last of the garden ornaments away for the winter.

These could winter outside, but putting them away will just keep them nicer for longer. I did have to go digging for all those little mushrooms though – they were in the woodland garden under the maple. And it’s been busy dropping a nice amount of mulch in the area.

I wish the Norway maple turned a nicer colour in the fall – but those gorgeous purple leaves just turn mostly brown and dry and drop to the ground. I don’t bother cleaning them up until Spring – they don’t fall anywhere they will cause an issue, and they create a nice bit of winter habitat for moths, frogs, toads, fireflies and all manner of little creatures.

There are other creatures playing in the leaves too.

Fryburger is a daily (multiple times some days) visitor now. Though this is the first time I’ve seen him in the tree. He had no problem getting back down so I guess I don’t need to worry too much about it.

He had a good roll in the leaves, got a little pet, snacked on some catnip, then headed on his way.

I had a little snack break myself, and took a little tour around what was left of the garden. There are still some blooms left, but it won’t be long before they are no more.

The Clematis have been an absolute delight this year. After years of killing them at the townhouse, I finally have them growing here – and blooming so well – even after they shouldn’t be blooming any more.

Though there are quite a few buds out there still, these will likely be the last roses of the year. Caroline de Monaco on the left, and Good as Gold on the right. It was a tough year for the roses. I still got many blooms, though not as many as I would have liked.

It was a fabulous year for foxglove, and next year is already shaping up to be even better. All those little seedlings I transplanted around the Holly Bush have thrived. They should put on quite the show next summer.

And the Toad Lilies will continue to delight until we get as good, hard frost. That probably won’t be far off, but I will enjoy each bloom as long as I can.

At least I have my glorious burning bush to keep me warm when things get cold and frosty!!!

Remember that pineapple plant I bought back in spring?

Well with the weather cooling off, I had to bring it in the house. It’s been inside for a couple weeks now, in the front window so it gets as much light as possible.

And I walked by it the other day and something about it caught my eye! It was looking suspiciously yellow…

It’s ripening!!!! How exciting is that????

The other thing I was doing outside last Sunday was cleaning the last of Edible Alley.

The last two acorn squash were harvested and I will probably be baking one of them tomorrow with a nice roast.

Overall, I’m thrilled with my first attempt at growing squash (and growing them vertically). I got them started late, and like the carrots, the hot, dry early start to summer was really hard on the seedlings. I only got two vines to grow, but they gave me four squash which I think was a pretty good harvest for a first timer.

Knowing when to pick them was a little tricky – everything I read said to pick them when the yellow spot turned orange. But mine are solid green – I think that’s because of growing them up the ladder – they didn’t get light spot like the would had they sat on the ground. I had to resort to trying to determine if the skin was thick enough by pressing my nail against it. The first two I picked probably could have stayed on the vine a little longer (they were still tasty), but I’m hoping I timed it right with these two.

With them harvested, I cleaned out all the vines and dead leaves from the box, leaving no place for the dreaded squash beetle to overwinter.

The last thing to do was trim down the wild, fluffy, ferny asparagus.

While I didn’t get to harvest any (and won’t be able to until at least 2025), I’m blown away by how well the asparagus did. Everything I’ve read says it’s a very fussy one to get started. I think the raised beds helped, as there wasn’t much competition for nutrients from weeds.

I did put the tomatoes in the same box and I don’t think I’ll do that next year – they got so big and crazy, they grew over the asparagus in a lot of spots. I’m not sure what I’ll put in there next year, because apparently they are are fussy about companions – maybe I should just get more asparagus!

You may think of raspberries as a summer fruit, but many varieties give berries in fall. The colder weather has not bothered the raspberries at all. I get a bowl like this every other day. The red ones fruit in both summer and fall, and the yellow ones seem to be just fall. Either way, the only thing that’s going to stop them is a very hard frost – you can see – we’ve got new flowers coming!

And looking back at everything else, it’s been a wonderful first year growing fruit and veg.

• Sugar snap peas – these did amazingly well for the start of the season. It even had me eating fresh peas, which is something I’ve never really had a taste for. I will definitely plant more next year.
• Cucumbers – These did really well to start, but the dreaded cucumber beetle did take its toll eventually. The season probably could have been longer but the plants started dying off. Still, we got more than enough cucumbers for a couple months. I don’t remember the exact variety, but next year I’m going to try an English cucumber instead
• Beans – I planted two types: A tender bush bean, and a Chinese long bean. Next year, I will stick with just the bush bean. The Chinese beans grew REALLY well (read: They took over!), but they aren’t as good as the bush beans. At least, I didn’t like them at all. Dave said he didn’t mind them, though he definitely preferred the bush bean. He likes to eat the beans raw, while I prefer them lightly steam with butter.
• Garlic – My garlic was an absolute flop. I have since learned why. Most garlic needs a cold period to split the bulb into cloves. So a) you need to get it in the ground as soon as you can if its to get any cold in spring, and b) you need to get softneck garlic, which doesn’t need as much cold. I don’t know if the garlic I bought was softneck, but it certainly didn’t get ANY cold as I planted it at the end of May. But – I’m on track now – I planted some hardneck garlic last week and it will have all winter to be nice and chilly!
• Carrots – As you saw the other week, the carrots really exceeded my expectations. (Dave has since eaten them all and is complaining about store bought carrots again.) I did plant too late and too thick, but I still got a nice little harvest. Now that I know what I’m doing, next year will be MUCH better. (And I think the real success is because of the raised beds – the carrots don’t have to fight hard ground to grow)
• Strawberries – The bare root strawberries I bought didn’t grow, so I got a big bucket of grown plants at Home Depot and they’ve been amazing. Not enough to make jam – but enough to snack on whenever I’m out in the garden (all summer long because they are ever-bearing). I noticed a few runners, so It looks like they are happy too!

I look forward to making some tweaks and changes and reaping the harvest rewards next year!

While I was putting in bulbs on Sunday, I stopped for a minute on the front porch to take a break, and figure out where the heck I was going to put all the irises I bought – when all of a sudden Grey Boy appeared!!!

He came right up on the porch and started messing with the bags of bulbs I hadn’t gotten in the ground yet.

Then he started to roll around like a fool.

And then….

He let me pet him!!! He was a little unsure at first, but eventually settled in for a good ear scratch.

He hung out for about another 10 minutes, but then suddenly got up and sauntered off to do whatever it is he does all day. But I think we are going to be good friends!

(I have since found out from another neighbour that his name is Fryburger… don’t ask… I have no idea.)

While I hid in the studio on Saturday, Sunday was an outdoor day. It was mostly cloudy, but it was dry (at least the sky was – everything else is still soggy), and the sun did peek out here and there throughout the day.

Most of the day was spent planting bulbs – one of my two mail orders came late, and it was now or never to get them in. And just in time too – we woke up to a good frost on the ground Monday morning. It wasn’t enough to kill everything off, but it was a sign that the hard frost isn’t very far away.**

The cool air has a very interesting effect on the flowers and I took these pictures when there was a real chill in the air.

For many of them, the colder temps seem to intensify their colours. This Good as Gold rose is always orangey in bud, and it fades to a golden yellow as it blooms, but in October, it gets amazing, bold coral tinges.

These Susans normally have dark orangey-gold petal that deepen to red at the centre – but the cold weather has made them much more intense and red-orange.

And these mums are normally a pale pinky-mauve, but icy winds have made them a much more intense pink.

And of course, the weather is affecting my Burning Bush

It’s not yet the glowing red that mature ones get, but it’s got much more colour than it had last year and it makes me so happy. It’s more or a smoldering bush than a burning one, but it’s still young. It needs a couple years to really develop that fall fire.

The Toad Lilies have been absolutely spectacular this year

Normally, I get a handful of flowers and then it’s done. I don’t know if it’s the wet summer, or what… but the buds just keep coming on these guys. I’m definitely going to have to split some of these up next year, because they’ve taken over the steps in the catio yard.

While we had a brief uptick in the temps mid-week, there’s no denying these blooms won’t be around for much longer. I have to enjoy them while I can.

After alll

My Holly Bush is reminding me that Christmas is just around the corner!

** of course, Mother Nature then decided it should be WARM all week – the last three days in the high teens/low 20s (celcius). Where was this weather when I was on vacation two weeks ago???

That, my friends…

…is a completed sweater body!!! I finished the ribbing and bound it off the other morning and it felt soooooooooooooo good. Those slogging rounds are done!!!! And Davie Shark is just as excited as I am!

I have since started the first sleeve, but no pictures because I haven’t gotten very far and it’s just not that thrilling. But it’s definitely going much faster than the rounds on the body. I won’t get too cocky yet though. Let’s see how much I can actually accomplish before next check in.

Twenty five years ago today, I was 18 years old – standing in a church, dressed identically to two other pretty young ladies, witnessing one of the most important moments in the life of one of the most important people in my life… the wedding of my bestest friend in the world – Samantha!

(We absolutely did not plan on having anniversaries in the same month… it’s just a good month for a wedding, I think!)

Samantha, and her husband Michael, had actually been together for several years before getting married (yep – high school sweethearts). Right now, the pair are off, enjoying a little anniversary trip to Jamaica.

But before they left, I made sure my anniversary present made it to them.

This is the big secret project I was working on back in August and September. I collected the fabrics a few months before (to match their newly re-painted bedroom).

It’s a mix of florals and bee-theme fabrics. And the background fabrics look black here, but they are really dark grey.

The block is very simple, and when you put a bunch of them together…

It makes a bunch of wonderful secondary patterns.

This is the biggest quilt I’ve made, finishing up at about 94″ square…. and it was definitely a slog to quilt and move around… even with Mom’s long arm.

So there won’t be many quilts of this size… but I think this pair are deserving of at least one!

Saturday it was once again grey and rainy (off and on all day), and though there are still things to be done outside, I decided to spend it indoors instead of trying to work between showers. I did a few things around the house in the morning, and told Dave to leave me alone for the afternoon, I was going to the studio.

And though it was grey and rainy, I had a lovely colourful view from my sewing machine out my pretty new window!!! Our colours are just a few days past peak, and still so pretty. They almost glow against the grey clouds.

When I wasn’t staring out the window and marveling at Mother Nature, I was working on the latest Blockhead sew-along block.

Now we have five blocks total.

After we finished that up, the boys helped me do some much needed organizing in the studio.

And once it was all tidy, Burton and I worked on a secret Christmas project. Sorry – we can’t share. But it’s going to be an awesome one!

It was so nice to have some uninterrupted time in the studio again. I hope we get to do it again soon!