His Lordship is ready for the Spooky Season…

Are you???

I actually bought this little Halloween house for Lemmy, as he absolutely loves (to destroy) cardboard. However.. Lemmy seems to think it actually IS haunted….

And now that Burton has taken it over, he won’t go near it. There’s just no predicting cats…

Though the weather and gardens aren’t even remotely Hallowe’en like, it was time to get the front yard in order for the best month of the year!

There are quite a few new additions this year.

Our cemetery has grown, not just in headstones, and skelly parts, but also with that cool fencing! It’s a true boneyard now.

And then there’s Doug… my pet demon head

I absolutely fell in love with him at the store and just had to bring him home. I found the perfect spot for him, “floating” behind the Burning Bush. He lights up with a dull red glow, and looks very cool at night.

Up and down the walkway are all my usual “unusual” skeletons…

On either side of the steps, I have some guardian cats

And now the countdown is on!

It’s going to be a rocking Halloween!

Since I finished off my Christmas knitting with that last pair of socks, I’m treating myself to a pair.

A while back, I wrote a post about how I like a certain type of sock to sleep in. Well since then… several of my favourite pairs have gone missing. Or at least one of each pair has.

I’m pretty sure Lemmy has something to do with, and the socks are somewhere around here. But until I find them, I need a few replacement pairs, because I CANNOT sleep with cold feet.

I went into the stash for another ball of Felici (I have a couple odd balls and they are good for shorty socks for me). but I got distracted by this crazy rainbow Opal.

I’d originally bought it to make socks for one of my nieces… but they’ve grown up so fast, and the crazy bright colours are no longer their style.

That said… I LOVE cheery socks, especially in the depths of winter, so it was just perfect for me. I’m doing my Undine pattern, just to mix it up a bit. I just did 2-2 rib for the man socks, so I needed something different.

As you can see, the first sock is flying – short sock, small feet – the first sock will probably be off the needles today or tomorrow at the latest. I wonder if I can even get TWO pairs done before the end of the month….

They are done! I’m pretty sure this is the fastest I’ve ever knit a pair of man socks – 25 days! And technically less than that because I don’t work on them on the weekends. So really – 19 days!

To recap – the yarn is Lion Brand Sock Ease and the colour is “English Toffee”. Or so they say.. you all know how I feel about the colour.

That said, I think they are just perfect for the recipient. And they are also the last Christmas present I needed to finish! So now I’m going to knit a little something for myself… the temps are dropping and my toes are cold!

I’ve said many times, that autumn is one of the best times of the year for roses. Of course, they have to be modern, hybrid roses that bloom more than once… but that’s the only kind I buy.

So as September breathes it’s last – let’s enjoy the roses that are abloom in my garden.

I fully expected to be writing a veg garden wrap-up post by now. Last weekend I pulled the squash, pumpkin and gourd plants out. But I’m still harvesting elsewhere. And it’s not just the raspberries – they will go until we get a good frost.

Even the cherry tomatoes aren’t a huger shocker

I’ve grown this variety before and they put out fruit until the cold weather stops them.

But I was sure I’d picked my last cucumber. I went out to pick some raspberries and spied a good-sized one hanging there.

And on closer inspection found three more, including one so big my old neighbour would have dubbed it a WHOMPER!.

I was sure the Cucamelons would start slowing down with the cooler nights…

But I’m actually getting more than I did at the height of summer!

And I’m even still getting beans!

Not a lot (thank goodness – I’m totally over beans!), but enough to give Dave a snack every other day. The bean plants are starting to look tired though – they’ve got to give up sometime soon!

And last…

I planted some more carrot seeds after I pulled the garlic. I’m leaving them for as long as possible. I don’t expect them to be huge – but like the beans, they should be enough to give Dave one last summer-like snack!

September has gone almost as fast at August did. Still, there’s been a little more time to enjoy the garden.

Most of my Tickseed are blooming strong, but I have a real soft spot for the pink ones.

My favorite mum is coming into her peak. She’s absolutely amazing when covered in blooms

The varying types of Black-Eyed Susans I have are always strong this time of year.

I cut back the Yarrow that had finished a couple weeks ago, and now I’m getting a second flush of blooms on some.

Same with the Widow’s Tears – I chopped off the seed heads from the faded blooms and now we are back in business. Deadheading can keep many flowers going, but I didn’t realize it worked with either of those. I was just trying to tidy up a bid.

Deadheading will keep these cosmos going until the first frost. Can you believe that’s just one plant? It takes my breath away every time I see it.

I planted some sunflowers late in the summer, and now they are finally blooming. They are just small ones but cheerful none-the-less.

I fell in love with this gorgeous dahlia at the start of the season. I put it in a pot with some petunias and it struggled all summer. But now it’s thriving! I’m definitely going to try to keep my Dahlia tubers over winter. I think the crawl space will be dry and cool enough for them.

There’s probably only a few more weeks of really good blooms left, but I’m going to try to enjoy every one!

You can always tell when the temps drop around here.

Rupert starts nesting in the bed blankets.

He’s also been coming down to sit in my lap in the evenings before bed. It’s not that he loves me – he just wants the extra body heat – so he’s willing to fake it.

The quilters who read this blog will probably recognize the name Tula Pink. For the non-quilters – she’s a fabric designer who creates wild designs in crazy electric colours. She’s one of my favorites.

I made a big quilt out of her Pinkerville line, and have two other collections (Sketchbook and Tiny Beasts) tucked away in the stash.

But there’s one of her lines I’ve always wanted to get my hands on – Tabby Road! Happily, Tula has been doing what she calls Deja Vu – limited runs of old lines – and in August, she brought back Tabby Road!

Isn’t it wild? And to make it even better – she took that pink cat print and put it out in MINKY!!!!!!!

Naturally I HAD To get some. It’s all sitting in a box in the sewing room – just waiting to be sewn into something AWESOME!!! Mom has some Tula in her stash she’s been dying to use as well, so we’ve decided that October will be Tula-ctober! We’ll each be working on a Tula top throughout the month!

Lemmy is SUPER excited about this one! And so am I!

The big project of the weekend was putting together the scrappy 16-patch/QST top.

On Saturday, I was up early, and in the sewing room by 10 am (usually it’s noon most weekends).

I had a rotating cast of characters helping throughout the day as I sewed all the blocks together.

It was not without a hiccup or two. Those QSTs have to be positioned a certain way, depending what row they are in, and I did get a few of them messed up. But it didn’t set me back too much and by 3 pm, I had the last row sewn on and the top was complete!

I really am thrilled with this one. It was a great scrap buster, with a fabulous result. It finished up at 70″ square, so it’s a nice sized quilt too!

I’ve got these fun polkadots for the back, and I’m thinking a plain black binding will wrap it all up nicely! Sadly, we have plans for next weekend, so I think this will be the only project I complete for WIPtember… but still – it’s one project less than I had, so that’s a success!