I don’t need the calendar to tell me that autumn is on its way. Nor do I need the earlier sunsets, or the crispness in the night air. I have a garden.

The pretty purple blooms of the physostegia are always a good sign This late bloomer is a favourite of the hummingbirds, which the cats absolutely love. The neat thing is the roots are on the inside of the catio, but many of the blooms have grown through the fence and are on the outside, so the little hummers are in no danger from stalking felines as they stop by for a treat.

The daily abundance of cherry tomatoes is another good indicator the end of summer is nigh.

The grand chop of the Holly bush did it no harm, and the berries are starting to turn red. It will be filled with sparrows come the cold weather, which absolutely delights the cats.

And then of course, there are chrysanthemums. One of the prettiest parts of fall, if you ask me. So far it’s just this purple one, and the rusty red one I bought in July.

But I have two more by the catio gate that should start opening any day now.

And though fall is just around the corner, there’s still so much to enjoy.

The new False Sunflower is really showing off. And it looks so nice beside the red zinnias. I’m definitely going to have to remember to plant more zinnia seeds next spring. They are an annual and won’t come back on their own.

And I keep forgetting to show you my Cardinal flower.

It needed to be staked because it kept flopping over, but it’s just covered in this vivid red flowers. I really hope this one makes it through the winter.

Every corner you turn in this garden, there’s still beauty to behold… and will be until the first frost.

Despite always getting along with each other, it’s unusual to see Burton and Relic snuggled up and sleeping. But on the rare occasion they do…. it’s hella cute!

August is just zooming by, but I did find some time to make this month’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge block before it was over. This month was orange:

Orange has historically always been a challenge for me in rainbow quilts – it’s just not a colour I tend to have much of. But I didn’t have too much trouble for this one. Admittedly, some are a little more peach or coral, but once in the whole block, it still has an overall feel of ORANGE.

And when placed with the other seven blocks, it looks just right.

I am still leaning towards an on-point layout for this, but I didn’t want to disturb the two comfy kitties who’d taken over the design bed.

Now there are just four more months and blocks to go. Where has the year gone???

Unlike the last few walkabout posts, this one doesn’t really have a theme. It’s just random things I’ve seen lately.

The other day, this plane was flying really low over the town. It did about 20-30 loops over our house. Despite it’s low altitude, I still had a hard time getting a picture of it. This is one of the best, and I kind of like the way the sun shines in it. I still haven’t found out why it flying low, or doing loops. Possible theories are dusting crops (though I didn’t see any apparatus attached to the plane that would indicate that), dropping rabies vaccine baits (though the Ministry of Natural Resource planes are usually yellow/orange) or (and this is Dave’s theory), the pilot is the aviation version of those seadoo jerks who just do donuts around the boat launch.

It was kind of cool for the first few loops, but by about the 10th, it was just kind of loud and annoying. Whatever the reason, by early afternoon it was no more and we just got to listen to lawnmowers for the rest of the day.

Speaking of lawnmowers, I’m guessing this homeowner sold theirs…

Now, it’s not something I personally would do. But it’s definitely a creative “alternate” no-maintenance lawn.

I’ve you’ve been enjoying my posts, and think you might want to move to my little town – this house is for sale. That said, the housing market has really changed… prices are still too high, but no one seems to be buying them. This one has been on the market for about a month, and there’s one down the street and around the corner that has been up for almost three. When Dave and I were looking, we found most houses were selling within a week. But early summer, as in other countries, interest rates went up here. The buyers appear to mostly be waiting for prices to drop, but it seems the sellers don’t want to give up the idea they can still get sky high prices.

It’s fascinating to watch how quickly things changed.

This house isn’t for sale, but when I took the picture, it was in the process of getting a new roof. But that’s not why I snapped a photo. If you’ll notice, it’s another of those houses like mine, but I really love the way they added to this one. The little porch at the front door is charming, and I love the side addition, complete with enclosed sun porch and second-level balcony. The fact that is has two front doors makes me wonder if it’s split into two units. One of our neighbours has a similar style addition (without the balcony) and the addition is a second unit.

And from houses we go to a completely random scarecrow on a post by the sidewalk. I think I remember reading something about a scarecrow contest, with winners announced at the fall fair. I’m going to have to do some digging and see if I can find some more info on it. I may have to go on a scarecrow hunt for a walkabout post!

And last…

This is the newest beauty on the lot up the street. I spied it when walking to drop off parts at the mechanic for Dave’s Charger. Dave thinks this Charger is a ’76. It is the same colour as his though, so I told him if I win the lottery, I’m buying it so we have matchy-matchy cars. He just rolled his eyes, but I think it’s a GREAT idea.

It is going to have to be a big lottery win though… because it seems I plan on buying a lot of classic cars!

After driving long distances, and moving far too much furniture on Saturday, I was really looking forward to devoting Sunday to sewing. And sew I did. (With some help from Burton, of course)

We were several blocks behind on the Moda Blockheads quilt and I was determined to catch up.

First was a block called Bauble.

It was a very neat block, but in all honesty, a total pain in the butt! The designer used paper piecing to make those top and bottom triangles. Paper piecing still confuses me so I tried to figure out another way. Eventually, I got it, but it took some trial and error (and several swear words).

After that we moved on to something more more enjoyable. One of the bonus blocks was a basket block. But we noticed that the basket block is really just a bear paw block with a base added on. So we decide just to make a bear paw block… or in this case… a cats claw.

And we liked it so much we decide to make two!

Then we did the most recent block in the quilt along.

Just another variation on a star block, but Burton did point out that it gave us more practice at quarter-square triangles. And we are getting much better at making them!

And before we laid it all out to see how it would all look, Burton reminded me that when we made the dizzy daisy quilt, we’d thrown together a pair for this quilt too (they were the right size, so why not?!?)

Aren’t they sweet?

Now we have 26 blocks total. I’m aiming for 30, so that’s just four more to go. Another block will be released tomorrow, so we are definitely nearing the end on this one!!!

Life continues at a furious pace.

On Saturday we were back at Grandma’s liberating more furniture. We came home with another display cabinet, THREE more dressers, two wooden desks (one of which was VERY heavy) a butcher block island, a coffee table, a wooden rocking chair, a tea cart, and a pile more boxes of who knows what…. I don’t know where we are going to put it all, but Dave was insistent.

Sunday I was sore from all that lifting, so I told him to leave me alone and let me sew all day. You’ll see more of that later this week, but in between all of this, I have been knitting.

Because there’s only one girl in the wave of impending babies, I really wanted to make something pink and frilly.

The pattern is Wee Leisl. The yarn is a ball of Regia I got not too long ago. The picture doesn’t do it justice. It’s a soft, powdery shade of mauvey-pink with a little bit of heathering. Its so pretty in person.

The pattern is one I’ve knit twice before and it’s defnitely a favourite. I’m just past the split for the body, though in truth, I should be further along. This is actually my second go at it. On my first try, it seems I completely forgot how to read a chart. I got to the split for arms and body, and came up short about 20 or stitches. It took me far too long to figure out where I went wrong. And when I finally did, there was no solution but to frog the whole thing and start again.

But… I’m on track now. As I’m making the smallest size, it really shouldn’t take too long to finish up. I just need to devote my after dinner hours to knitting and nothing else. If I do so, I can probably have it off the needles by this time next week!

As you know, one of the main objectives of my garden, in addition to just being beautiful, is to attract pollinators

And that means all pollinators – bees, wasps, flies, ants, beetles, moths and of course, butterflies.

The butterflies are kind of the crown heads of the pollinator world – the showy ones everyone wants to see.

Though the moths are quite interesting too.

We have tonnes of moths here, though they tend to be hard to photograph. Many are quite small, they move fast, and they mostly come around at night when it’s harder to get decent pictures.

They are also harder to identify, because so many are beige/off white and look similar.

The butterflies are also a challenge.

This yellow Swallowtail would NOT sit still.

I finally got shots of a different one eventually.

Though his wings were pretty ragged.

He hung out on the Black Knight butterfly bush for quite a while.

The white cabbage butterflies (like the one Relic was watching on Friday) are the most abundant in the yard. It’s not unusual to have several flitting about at one time.

The red-spotted purple butterfly was very nervous, but eventually settled in for a long sip on the Black Knight butterfly bush

And I caught it from a different angle a day or two later.

Beautiful from both sides!!!

And for this little Northern Crescent, I have to thank Kathy B.

It’s because of her that I planted Cosmos… and this little guy loved them so much it was easy to get a picture of him.

And then I got another one from a different angle a few days later.

This little European Skipper hung around the catio garden for quite a while one afternoon and I was able to get several shots.

This Silver Spotted Skipper is a somewhat regular sight around here, though he’s usually hard to capture.

But the dark purple Delphinium helped me out and held his attention for a while.

I caught this little Common Branded Skipper on the siding by chance.

I see these little Meadow Fritillaries quite often, but are rarely able to capture them.

This one had some damage, and I think it made him a little slower.

It’s to the point now that I don’t walk out of my house without camera (ie phone) in hand because I just never know who will flutter by.

If you start getting into gardening, and start watching garden shows, you hear them talk a lot about “architecture” and “structural elements”… and they aren’t talking about ornaments or actual structures (okay… sometimes they are but not usually).

They are talking about the structure of the plants themselves. You’re probably familiar with the term “deadheading” – cutting off spent flowers to make the plant look nicer, and encourage more blooms. There are certain flowers this is really good for – roses, dahlias, petunias, etc.

But for some plants, you can get a whole other effect by leaving the flowers, because they look interesting at every stage of the process.

The blanket flower is one of them.

It’s starts off as a tidy little green bud that’s almost a flower itself, and then blooms in a riot of colour, and slowly fades to and adorable little pom pom. The pom poms (which are seed heads) last quite a while before they fall apart, creating quite a bit of interest right through into fall.

The pincushion plant is similar, but on a much smaller scale.

And then of course, the iconic coneflowers.

The cone flower is probably one of my favourites, because that seed head turns brown and lasts for ages into winter. It’s also a favourite treat for the finches, who will come to eat the seeds as long as the are available. It’s not uncommon to come out and see a wee goldfinch perched on top of one. (They do it while still in bloom too).

Are there any plants in your garden that still look neat at the end of their life?

Sometimes, you are just in the right place, at the right time…

… to catch the perfect moment.

And half a second later, Burton pounced from nowhere and chased poor butterfly away.

For the last of the three baby quilts, I finally got to make something for a girl!!!! There’s nothing wrong with making things for boys, but secretly, I almost always find the girly stuff more fun.

For this one I dove into the stash and came out with a few fat quarters from a line called Sweet Pea, and turned out some dizzy daisies.

You’ve seen it many times before, as it’s one of my favourite blocks. The most time consuming part is the cutting (and even that doesn’t take very long). The blocks just whizz together.

And before you know it, you have a completed top.

With previous dizzy daisy quilts, I’ve always just sewn the blocks right together, but this time I decided to add a thin sashing.

And dressed it up a touch with some wee cornerstone flowers.

Then I gave the whole thing another border with the same star fabric I used for the cornerstone petals.

It’s not from the same line, but the colours worked pretty well and I had just enough of it. I call that meant to be. And speaking of meant to be…

You may recall this pretty flannel from the back of the Spring Kittens quilt. I had just enough of it to piece it together for the back of this one. And it couldn’t be more perfect!

Burton obviously agrees!!!!

So now, with all three tops done, I’ve made a date with Mom and her long arm. Next weekend I’ll be headed there to get these quilted and ready to send to be snuggled by new little lives.