While weekend stitching has been slow… weeknight stitching… aka knitting time, is going exceedingly well.

I’ve got the first sock of a another pair for me off the needles. The yarn is Felici – colour is Aquarium – with some yellow Stroll for ribbing, heel and toe. I’m hoping to get the whole pair off the needles by the end of the month… Just nine days. I think I can, I think I can!

I’m starting to feel like a broken record with my “I didn’t have much time to stitch this weekend” week after week. But here we are again…

I didn’t even stitch enough to finish the whole first colour on the left side leaves. Sigh…

There’s always next weekend right? Actually, with the gardens more or less put to bed… there should be more time for stitching on the weekends. At least until Spring…

Vacation is over, and I’m back to work this week. I could definitely use another week off, but it’s not to be.

I was hoping to get in the sewing studio more than I did… but I did manage a couple days at the machine.

One day, I only had a couple of hours to work on it. I REALLY wanted to start something new, but I managed to resist and decided to get started on the top made from my Leader/Ender four patches.

Normally, I try to do top assembly all in one day. I lay everything out on my bed, then just work at it until it’s done (dinner be damned!).

I knew that wasn’t going to happen for this top for two reasons. First, lately I just can’t seem to devote a whole day to sewing, even though I want to. And second… I’ve got a lot of four patches… it’s going to be WAY bigger than the top of the bed.

So after at little thinking, I devised a way to do it in steps. I’m putting the four-patches on point, with a plain off-white square in between each, so I laid the first few rows of the first corner out on my machine-side pressing station.

And I got to sewing. It didn’t take long to get it all together. As soon as it was done, I made a second corner.

Now whenever I have a spare hour, I can pop in the studio, and bang out a pair of rows – one for each side. Eventually they will meet in the middle and the quilt top will be done. When exactly will that be? It depends on how often I can get in the studio

But this pair is determined to see that I finish it!

On Tuesday of last week, Dave and I managed to get out for a day of thrifting. We went down to Chatham, where there’s a whole bunch of thrift stores we don’t often get to visit. The drive there is a nice one – all country roads that go through a few small towns. And I noticed how gorgeous the fall colour was. Unfortunately, as I was driving.. there are no pictures to show you. I’ve tried to make up for it with pics from my walk to the post office instead.

There are a lot of old maples in town, and they really seem to give the best colour.

This house has a couple of very old maples (my guess is over 100 years old) and they turn the most gorgeous shade of bright red every year. They absolutely glow in the sunshine. The owners also tap these trees each spring.

This Maple is just down the street from us. Its not as old as the red one, but it’s much fuller and lusher. And you can see it’s leaves are more orange than red. I think it’s just as pretty.

Our only tree is a purple Norway Maple. It’s leaves are beautiful in the summer, with it’s red/green/purple tints… but they just turn brown and fall off in the autumn

They do give a satisfying crunch underfoot though! They also provide a nice bit of insulation for the plants and critters in my Woodland Garden.

The colour will probably only last another week or so. A couple good windstorms, or a really hard frost, and all the leaves will be stripped from the branches.

At least I can enjoy the view out my sewing room window until then!

The garden is definitely beginning to decline, and we are just one good hard frost from it being all over. But I’ve got a couple last minute wins to celebrate

This first is this little guy.

He’s a Checkered Skipper, and I’ve been chasing him (or a relative) all summer trying to get pictures. But I always seemed to see him when I didn’t have the camera, or was otherwise engaged with something. He’s very small (that’s a Cosmos bloom he’s sitting on), and fast.

But about a week and a half ago, I saw him, ran in, got the camera and managed to get a couple pictures.

It was a fairly warm afternoon and he must have been out taking advantage of the last days.

At the same time, in the same garden, I came across a NEW butterfly to add to my collection.

He’s a Common Buckeye. But they can’t be that common, because this is the first time I’ve seen one in the garden. He was easily three times the size of the Skipper.

Like the Skipper, he seemed to be taking advantage of the last few flowers.

Since then, the nights have been appreciably colder and the butterflies are all gone (even the Cabbage Whites). There’s still a bee or two around if the afternoon gets warm enough, but soon enough they will sleep for the winter.

And the last wonder is one I’ve been waiting a few years for.

This is a flower called Monkshood (also known and Aconite or Wolfsbane. I planted it last year (or maybe the year before) in Willow Grove, and while it grew well enough – it never bloomed. I was starting to think I needed to find a new spot for it.

I’m thrilled to finally see it in flower, and hope to see more next year!

But I went out the other week and noticed it was budding up. I wasn’t sure if it would manage to bloom completely before the cold weather hit – but there it is! Most Monkshood is a solid blue-purple, but this one is a hybrid, giving it a lovley bi-colour.

The gardens aren’t quite done yet – though there’s frost damage all around the garden, there are still flowers hanging on to the bitter end. But it won’t be long now… fall is well and truly here and winter won’t be far behind. And now we wait for the wonders of another summer.

When the cold winds rise – sometimes you need double the dose of Ginger Spice to keep you warm!

Another year has passed with this big guy at my side.

And as time goes on, I realize how much we compliment each other. You may or may not know… I am fiercely independent (sometimes stupidly so). If you talk to my Mom, she’ll tell you I was born that way. I don’t like to be told what or how to do anything. Even if it’s well-meant. I want to do everything myself, my way.

And that can be hard in a relationship. But it’s never really been an issue for us. Dave’s always been content to be my wing man – providing support when I ask for it, but letting my fly on my own otherwise.

Now… that’s not to say he keeps his opinions to himself – because he has no problem speaking up when he feels he needs to – but he rarely says “I told you so” when I disregard his advice and it turns out just like he said it would.

I really couldn’t ask for a better partner in life. And today marks a total of 22 years since we first met and said “You’re cute, I think I’ll keep you”

I look forward to another year of adventures in love.

It didn’t take long after my last post to wrap up the the last sock. They went on the blockers for a picture then we’re right on my feet. And they were perfect!

The pattern is Undine – one of my own and a fairly frequent one in my repertoire because it fits me so well.

The sock yarn is Opal – its one of the their Rainforest collection, but I don’t remember which because I tossed the label. It is nice and warm, and was very nice to knit with. I bought a bunch of Opal in a sale at Yarn Canada a couple years ago. I’ve got a couple other balls in the stash – but nothing as colourful as this.

Now there’s still half of the month left, so I’m going to see if I can whip up another pair of shortie socks for me. Then I’ll turn my attention to something else for November.

Another weekend gone with not much time for stitching. And where there was, it was severely hampered…

I don’t know what was going on with him, but every time I got a moment to sit in my chair, he was in my lap, demanding attention. And it’s not like I can say no.

So I managed to finish the leaves on the right side, and get a very small start on the leaves on the left side. Hopefully, this coming weekend will be a little more productive.

Today is Thanksgiving Day, so naturally good day to reflect on all the wonderful blessings in my life. Naturally, thats’ my husband, my kitties, my family, my home, my garden, my health, etc., etc, etc.,

But another thing I’m grateful for is WHERE we live. Long-time readers may recall, that I grew up in the country (from age 4 to 12) Though I lived in cities and large towns for the majority of my life, those eight years made a huge impact on me, and I’ve longed to get back to those country roots.

We aren’t quite there yet. We now live in a VERY small town… one in which a five minute walk in any direction takes me to endless open countryside/forest.

And on Thursday night, I got a HUGE reminder of why I love it so much.

Now “see” might be a bit of a misnomer. Because I couldn’t see what shows in the picture. I could see the pillars on the sky, and movement, but I could barely see the colours. I was in an area that wasn’t quite as dark as I would have liked…. but it sufficed.

You see Monday night, Dave and I went out hunting the lights (I follow a group on Facebook that distills the scientific data and lets people know when/where to look). We found a great spot in the middle of nowhere, though we didn’t get an lights action.

On Thursday, it became very clear that it was going to be an almost 100% chance. But Dave was working and I didn’t want to miss it. He was not comfortable with me going out to our previous place alone (understandable). So I promised to stick closer to home.

I found a place to park just outside the local conservation area (which has an RV Park, and lots of people there until the end of October).

I got there just before sunset, set up my camera, texted Dave my location including pics (it’s a five minute drive from the house) and set into wait. And I didn’t have to wait long.

I spent about 2 hours out there, snapping away, experimenting with different lenses and settings on my camera and just generally having a great time all by myself.

And I learned several things, including that I need to invest in a wide-angled lens. And also that digital camera photography has advanced immensely since my camera came out (2008). I was a little limited because my ISO only went up to 1600, which limits how much light I can let into my camera (and get the bright colours), while trying to keep the pictures sharp.

For instance, my niece was able to get this picture with her iphone, in the middle of her city (with a good amount of light pollution

(My iphone is too old and doesn’t have night mode)

The lights had died out by about nine o’clock, so I headed home. Apparently they put on a better show after 10, and then again after 1 am. But I was already in bed by then.

And apparently the sun is going through a very active cycle right now, so there will be many more chances to capture this amazing natural phenomenon! Now that’s something to be grateful for!