Life goes on...

Well, I didn't mean the "Last Hurrah" to be so literal! Wow, where did the time go? October got pretty full, with big, big sadness, I'm sorry to say. We said good-bye to one of the dearest people who ever walked the earth. Someone we spoke with almost every day. It was always wonderful to pick up the phone and hear his voice. Always upbeat and positive and excited about new possibilities, no matter what. He lived a long time with illness, but with incredible grace and optimism, always accentuating the positive. Who would take up flying an airplane at 80 years old with cancer? He would. We miss him beyond words.


But...he had a beloved faithful companion, the 4-legged kind, who moved in with us and brings me daily joy. The sweetest, gentlest dog that ever there was. And thus we go forward. The daily walks I always longed for but couldn't always get to...now they happen! Twice a day, even.

In fact, this dog is so sweet that he recently received his first piece of fan mail! From a dear 2-legged friend who has not been keen on 4-legged-s, to say the least.
A little hard to see in this picture, I know, but there is a 7-year-old boy feeding treats to a very gentle dog at our little house, with (I'm guessing) the sun going down between trees (very early in the afternoon) in our yard.
Love in so many forms...love for those who have gone on before us and without us...those who are wonderful companions while we are still here...those who make friends where they didn't know they could...
It's all good.

the last hoorah

"flying above the clouds"

"Flying above the clouds," says F.
Isn't it a beautiful sight?

high in the sky...so peaceful...looking down on the soft billows below...

Well, actually, it's the latest batch of homebrewing in our kitchen.

Apple wine this time...

with our feet on the ground, and our heads in the clouds.

one thing leads to another

well, there's nothing like this time of year...shorts on at mid-day, but a cozy fire at night

cozy wool socks...

cozy, cozy, cozy...

and out come the knitting needles.

Not that all my other projects are finished, mind you, but...

when someone gives you this:
you need to do something really great with it, yes?

And since I'm hoping to develop a new knitting habit with less "tink"-ing

(a la Iris), I decided to try my idea out on another skein of yarn,

since I do happen to have a bit of a stash.

I'm committed to no tinking on this trial scarf/shawl-let.

Maybe stockinette would have looked nicer?
Showed off the yarn more?

That question will have to remain a question.

A little lace along the edge, and hopefully enough yarn...
and then I'll try it in the shades of blue loveliness!

It feels wonderful to have those needles in hand once more!
And the wool socks feel nice as well. And the fire.
What can I say? I do love cozy.

green is gold

Dill pickles!
one...

two...

three!

Another done deal

The last project that the homeschoolers handwork group

finished before summer vacation

was to make these lovely ladies

(here is one dancing on the table)
The glitch was that I had made one,

from a pattern by Karsten Kastanje,

and it had a baby in a backpack...pretty irresistable to this group.

Since their dolls all "needed" babies in backpacks, and I thought it might be a bit too challenging for their skill level,
I promised to make some babies and mail them over the summer.
Well, September isn't really summer, but

into the mail they have gone.

Phew!

orange

I don't usually gravitate towards the color orange, and my clean laundry pile tends to be a lovely representation of the rose to violet part of the rainbow.
But a friend recently mentioned that perhaps we Americans are
a bit afraid of orange.
There's nothing like that sort of comment to make me start seeing orange everywhere!
Plus it is that time of year.

I do remember well the first piece of new clothing which I chose as a child...
it was a jumpsuit in a very bright green with very bright orange polka-dots.
I wore it until it was a rag.

When a friend asked if I would custom dye 12 yards of silk for curtains,
in a nice golden yellow, I said yes.
But really it needed to be orange. Yikes!
I experimented with color from my natural dyes,
but got either yellows or pinks and the two would not
meet in the middle!
(though I was just told that onion skins plus a handful of rusty nails will do the trick.
I can't wait to try!)
But for this time, I resorted to Country Classics dye
and loved the ease plus the even coverage.

Voila!!