Leaf It Alone

Couldn't help myself. Bad pun.

Sorry, not sorry.

The Burning Bush

This plant has a piece of my heart. Until I moved to Coeur d'Alene in 1983, I'd never encountered this plant up close. One day it is green and unassuming. Whole hedges are formed from lines of them.

Then overnight, they change. A frost descends and shocks the leaves into revealing their vibrant color. They glow all over town.

I caught the bush in our front yard the day after the frost crawled up its branches. Some of the interior leaves were caught with their pants down, in the midst of change.

The outer leaves were already showing off.




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Burning bushes always remind me of my friend Tim. He came to visit me that first difficult autumn. I sent him a single red leaf and a one phrase question. (The contents of that note remain a secret between us). The kindness he showered on me during that visit remains one of my fondest memories.

The Final Rose

Our rose bush has two more flowers growing. They've been trying to bloom for days, but the weather has been just cold enough that it's as likely that they'll freeze on the stem as it is that they'll bloom.

One of them started opening yesterday.

Thank you, Beautiful Rose, for gracing our front yard this October day.

:: sigh ::
Summer's really over.

On Fire

Autumn in Post Falls, Idaho

'Sup?

Morty the 6 foot giraffe is giving me the side eye.

No idea why.

Well, Hello!

You're looking fresh and snappy.

On your way in

and on your way out

Another of my 19 in 2019 goals has been met! The front door has a fresh coat of paint, inside and out. As does the sidelight.

Score!

The Sky is Falling!

Well, the pine needles are falling, anyway. We had a big wind storm last week. Time for the annual raking of the pine needles. So far, we've got four huge 60 gallon contractor's bags full. But this is only the first wave we'll need to rake. Much more wind is sure to come before the end of autumn, and many, many more pine needles will blow onto the grass.

While gathering the pine needles into piles, I saw this unusual clump.



On closer inspection, I realized it was a bird's nest. But it was quite flattened, either by the fall, or by one of our cars running over it.

Rather than built from twigs, this nest is primarily made of grasses, with a few pine needles woven in for good measure. But there were some odd white bits, too.



The big surprise was turning the nest over to see that the entire interior was lined in soft white fibers.



Feathers? No.

Dryer lint? No.

On closer inspection, it appears to be some type of polyester fiberfill! Dale and I surmised that it may have come from our next door neighbor's yard. He has a number of autos in his yard in various stages of repair -- some with windows open and the car seats exposed.

It's very possible that our clever bird friends helped themselves to some seat stuffing to pad their nest.

Six Months

Annalee will be six months old by the end of the week. She's pushing up well; has good core strength. She can scoot backwards and around in circles. Now and again, she makes it into crawling position and has even been known to scoot forward.

This is what was on the other side of the Skype screen when I was grinning so broadly yesterday. Annie was cooing and smiling and singing for the entire 45 minutes we were online. I even heard a "Mama."

I can't wait to hold her again.

Reaction Shot

How do I feel about my granddaughters?

It's written all over my face.

snapshot captured with the Skype program

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I had the chance to Skype with them today. I'm completely charmed.

Throwback Thursday: King Coke Coeur d'Alene

The one and only time I went scuba diving in "open water" was in about 1985. My first husband wanted me to learn to dive so we could have that activity to do together. I took the classes. To get the certificate, I needed to do an open water dive.

Our class did the dive near the marina at Hayden Lake, Idaho. My favorite part then -- much like it is when geocaching -- is finding the swag! Among a few other things, I collected these two coke bottles.

I've kept them all these years because of what the bottom reveals

It's labeled locally: Coeur d'Alene, Idaho!

Well, Now

This is totally unnecessary.

It's not even mid-October. Our porch furniture is still set up. The trees are just beginning to change color.

Snow that's sticking. Really?

Ah, Honey, Ahhhhm So Tiiiiiirrrrrrrrrred

I had trouble falling asleep last night. Today ... Kermit is my hero.

But then, there is this ...

So ... go me?

Playing with Texture - Part 7

I found this texture by our front porch. What is it?

Here it is in context

Who guessed it was the seed pod of a grape hyacinth?

These are some of my favorite flowers to photograph. The very first macro photos of flowers I took were of this plant. Seeing all the flecks of pollen through my lens enraptured me.

They glow in the twilight

And sometimes whisper secrets to one another

My Kind of Competition

Competing with myself

So sayith Mary Lou Retton

Ta Da!

And then there were none.

As of this morning, I've completed all 19 of my goals for 2019!

Our giant treadmill found a new home with a woman who needs it for rehab. It couldn't have gone to nicer people. Dale and I are so happy to be able to help them. They helped us at the same time.

Now I get to go into full-on overachiever mode. Because ... let's say it all together, class ...

"Why achieve when you can over-achieve?"

I Sewed a Thing

Actually, two things.

A while back I found this tutorial online on Gabriel's Good Tidings blog. It's called Men's Dress Shirt Repurposed to Apron. That looked like fun. And it just so happened that Dale had a couple shirts he'd put in the charity box. I pulled them out ... and there they sat in my Studio for months. It appears that I often need "incubation time" before an idea becomes reality. It's my process.

Front of first apron

So this week I pulled the shirts out, and refashioned them into aprons I can wear while working in my Studio. After all, I wouldn't want to mess up that ratty t-shirt and my grey sweatpants!

Back of first apron

I followed the instructions fairly closely. It was an easy pattern. I did do some extra reinforcing of the seam around the neck.

Side of first apron

When I tried the apron on, there was quite a bit of gapiosis around the bustline. So I added in darts that allowed the apron to fit better around my chest.

The model forgot to brush her hair

The first apron was so easy last night, that I decided to go ahead and make a second apron this morning.

She's pretty proud of herself, don't you think?

After my sewing project, I tidied up my Studio in hope that I can do a painting project next. That will be an ideal excuse to use my new cover-ups.

Annie's First Pickle

The last time Annalee visited Mimi and Papa, Mimi gave her a pickle to taste.

She wasn't sure she liked it, but went in for more again and again. Papa caught her expression.

Playing with Texture - Part 6

I found this texture on my dinner plate. What is it?



This makes it obvious, right?



An orange, of course.



Or is that an "origin"?

Bubba is Back!

After months and months (and months and months and months and oh face it years), I cleaned out my bubbler and cleaned all the rocks and put it back together. Bubba the bubbler works!

He'll make a nice addition to my meditation practice.

September Goal Update

Oh, September! You brought me so close to my annual goal! 18+ of my 19 goals are complete!

Finished goal #17:  Do the finishing work on six of the needlework pieces that are stitched but not ready for display

I turned a stitch sampler from 2001 into a journal cover.

Finished (Alternate) Goal #18:  Take my little guitar to Kiwanis Park and play it by the river

I had a professional re-string my guitar. Then daughter Jeanne and I went down to the river and I played and sang for about a half hour.

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Goals in progress:

Over-achiever Goal: Blog at least 25 weeks of #throwbackthursday posts of my 1997 - 2007 projects.

Though I already completed this goal of 25 in July, I wrote two more in September, bringing my total to 32 #throwbackthursday blog posts.

Over-achiever (Alternate) Goal: 50 movies/series from my Netflix and Amazon Prime queues

Though I finished this goal last month, I watched another from my list. I also watched about 40 YouTube videos that were sitting on my "Watch Later" list.

Alternate Goal (in progress): Fix / paint front door

Half done! The outside of the door is painted. We're waiting for the temperatures to get back above 60 degrees before we take it off its hinges so we can paint the inside. 

Alternate Goal (in progress): Purge and organize storage shelves in exercise room

I made some good progress on this goal. I culled more of the holiday decorations. Three boxes worth of Spring, Summer, and St. Patrick's Day decorations all fit into one box now. Plus I found new homes for quite a number of Christmas decorations.

Alternate Goal (in progress): Treadmill … fix it or sell it or give it away

We're so close! We found someone who wants it. We're just waiting for him to pick it up.

Alternate Goal (in progress): Convert audio cassettes into digital format and/or get rid of them.

I culled the tapes, so I know which I want to convert. I bought the tool to complete the process. Stick the tape in the player. Plug the player into the computer. Copy the music into a digital format. Toss the cassettes (finally).

Whittle a Little:

I've been whittling a lot. In my Studio, I've given away:

• most of my yarn stash 
• half of my fabric stash
• two quilts
• six fabric swatch books
• two pillow forms
• many zippers and fasteners
• most of my trims and lace stash (but not the ribbon. Never the ribbon. So, so much ribbon!)
• some floral supplies
• several projects I know I'll never finish
• and more

Elsewhere we've whittled:

• about 75 hangers (we have pretty matching hangers in every room now!)
• a table and chairs set
• a decorative mirror
• elliptical trainer
• the exercise bike
• my Peugeot bike (that was better for a 30 year old than a 60 year old. Dale and I intend to buy new bikes so we can geocache in style)
• plush chairs
• not-so-plush chairs
• couch we no longer need
• some kitchen appliances and utensils we rarely use
• some journals/notes I no longer need (very rare occurrence)

And finally...

Alternate Goal (in progress): Move to Oregon

We bought a vacation home! Now we can see our daughter Jodie more often. More about this later.