Stella and I went to the farm again this season, on the luckiest most beautiful day! The weather was outrageously perfect, colors clear and bright. The farm was crowded with children- it was sunny on a Sunday so was expected. We bought a few gourds and looked around.
I would have taken this dog if I could have gotten away with it. She was so darling I almost wept. "She likes the elderly," her humans stated as I scritched her tummy and got a load of dog kisses. What a sweetheart. She is a Scot's border terrier, with none of the mad terrier manic energy they tend to display. She was mellow. I love her.
Lots of white pumpkins this year. Rather novel I suppose, not my faves. Why waste a season of vibrant color devoting it to bland white?
This was the largest pumpkin on the farm. It genuinely looks like what I see when I recline in the bathtub.
It is Stella's Birthday. We went to lunch at a restaurant at the harbor in Anacortes thinking that it would be special. Started out promising with a basket of warm blueberry coffee cake with cinnamon butter and a menu not unlike the place we usually go to in town. We kept it simple - fish and chips and coffee.
Worst fish and chips we have ever tried to eat! Terrible but, I said- the tartar sauce was good- Stella said that the ketchup was also good. Just shy of one hundred bucks, that terrible meal.
Today I went to the pet shop to get a small bag of kitten kibble for the stray calico cat on the deck. $30.00 for a small bag! NO, just NO! Had to fill my very empty tank @ nearly $6.00 a gallon. I am going to have to make it last- drive less, walk more. This is good for me, I tell my lazy ass. Like in my youth when a car was not available. I will not get a bike- gravity is not my friend.
This morning was our first frost, Canadian mountains visible, just barely!That blue smudgy bit. When i was young and traveling with my parents I fell in love with Canada, We drove all over and dipped toes in every lake. I swore to my mom that I would live there when I grew up. This is as close as I could get. It will have to do.
Raccoon slumber party on the deck this morning.They must have had a busy night. They slept for a couple of hours at least. Totally relaxed.
including the blur, just so you can experience what I see in the morning. My eyes will die before I do and that is a crying shame, I tell you.
I looked up how many have my name- there are only 16 in the entire nation! Had I kept my other name, the one my Grandfather invented when he arrived at age eleven or twelve - picked at random from a phone book, I would be among the number 3,619 of Linda Sue Nelsons in this land. I did not ask AI to tell me who I was, though. I just firefoxed it.
Today I mended a fairy doll that I felted for Emily 20 years ago. Flora Jane played with her and lost quite a bit of her hair. She needed tightening up anyway. I may make her cheeks rosy if I can find the right wool.
While in the mood I also tightened up my crazy bird head. He holds hats , that is his job. He needed attention,so, I got in a bit more stabbing today and it felt just right.
I felted this a while ago - bring it out in the autumn sometimes. I did a fancy trick with the weaving bit. I wet felted and needle felted silk and Merino pods -felted over a wire for the branch that was tricky to do. I miss my place to felt and paint and create chaos. This house will not accommodate my passion or my stabby compulsions. I need to stab!- Anyway, I really love how the pods turned out. I do believe that it is one skill that AI can not take over entirely.
Speaking of- Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton was interviewed on Hook Global two days ago . It is long - demands your attention. If you have wondered what the hell is this threat, what the hell is AI - what the hell is in store for us...This is everything explained- clearly. I learned quite a lot from this interview re:AI. Listen to it when you have more than a moment to spare- you won't be sorry.
Yippe!!1 I understand!!! fingers crossed that our votes get through!
It is so pretty here right now! Mushroom dots in the green grass- bright leaves, crisp and hanging on for dear life. The next wind will see to it that they land on the floor. The thrill- gone!
Kim and I went to Emily's today to take care of Emmett. A splendid time to be sure. He is potty trained and talking, like a grown man. Delightful child. Beautiful boy.
We went for a walk to the coffee shop for juice and a bagel. On the way I couldn't stop taking photos and squealing, about the colors - so intense!
Tiny crab apples, the birds don't eat them, the bugs stay away, they are useless but are very cute. I guess that is some sort of purpose. They could be strung and dried for a natural Christmas tree decoration I suppose. Might try that.
Flora's pumpkin is huge now. Growing until it is the size of a carriage.
These are the legit colors, can your eyes even make sense out of them?
Not sure what this plant is- I google -lensed it but came up with too many false ideas. The berries are flat (?) the leaves are insane!
We walked, we talked, We compared first jobs stories and laughed so much - wished we had worn more substantial underpants. Kim's first job when she was maybe fourteen or so, was selling carnations at the side of the road. She remembers being picked up by some people , taken out to a desert road , left with a bucketful of carnations to sell . Stood for hours , no traffic , no people , just desert. . She abandoned the bucket ,called a friend to come and get her, got home before dark and her parents never knew.
What you ,as a parent, do not know is probably a blessing.What you do know is worrying enough!
One of Emily's neighbors has a front garden absolutely brimming with Japanese lanterns.
They are wonderful are they not? Every stage of their lives is surreal. I have tried to grow them with zero success. It takes three years for them to actually become lantern pods. I am jealous of this woman's successful garden.
Their color is vibrant- more vermilion than orange. She also grew Honesty plants, and crimson love-lies bleeding. Most of which had been harvested and hung to dry.
Autumn was my mother's favorite season. Wyoming did not offer much as there were no trees or bright gardens. My parents decided that they wanted to drive to Maine to see REAL autumn. I was just starting my last year in high school, my brother was away at college. My mother had some elderly woman come in and check up on me , I was on my own. Always independent I didn't mind the empty house. I could eat as many hot dogs that I could find in the freezer. Cake and coffee before school. Pretty great!
Then something came up at school and I had to have a formal gown. I went to the dress shop in town -got a really great dress. My mother had credit with the shop so it was her dime. Dress,- check ,shoes, check- gloves check - all ready for the school assembly - "Outlaw Day", the crowing of the Outlaw queen. ( dear lord!)
My parents, bless them, high tailed back across country , got home in time to be in the audience at the assembly to see their homely, bratty child get a splendid, if iffy, tin crown and title of Queen of The Outlaws. Hilarious now , of course- back then it seemed special. Anyway , I got a pretty nice dress out of the deal . And every autumn I think of my mother and the drive across country to see color and busting their buns to get back to see that fabulous dress. It served me well through the rest of High school and three years of university. Then either it fell apart or I ate too many hot dogs , to much cake.
I just received photos from Keeka- climbimg into a massive cave in Borneo, she is loving that part of the world . The monkeys are naughty! They steal everything not tied down, aggressive and quick and bitey.
She wants to be "Crazy rich Asian".
Have a lovely autumn day, I hope you have a tree to look at!
Soft Sunday morning, waking in mist. Fog is such a gentle ease into the day. Wrapped in Icelandic wool, cup of Joe, I personally love foggy mornings. matching reality with my actual shite vision. do not attempt to adjust your screen- fog is real.
On the fuzzy deck, Raccoons sleep , away from traffic and dogs and anything else that might disturb their slumber. Humans, the worst, deck is quiet and safe.
I have put my old flower press to task . It takes about two weeks for some of the plants to dry and flatten completely and if the plants are fat, like French lavender , it takes about one month. I vacated what has been pressed from spring, Dusty Miller leaves , in the spring they are tiny and cute. I did so with the intention of making more fairy chairs, out of Russian sage and Dusty Miller. Possibly will use moss for cushions next time. Not sure I will even hold to this plan, it is fiddly and I am blind.
I think that I can do better especially if I go to the store and buy patience , and quick setting glue.
I thought I might put a few leaves in an envelope and send them to Annie for her gel plate printing art- though Annie has acres of botanicals at her doorstep, dusty miller is probably the last thing she needs.
What would you do with them?
This is my old flower press given to me at least 40 years ago , Smith and Hawken when they actually offered handmade quality gardening supplies. Before China/Target .
It is large. It does a good job. It will last at least another 40 years.
I won't. In case I face a botched execution- I now know what to expect when I am hauled off in a wagon-There is a list of procedures after Christa Pike's failed execution, that the hospital follows to (maybe) bring her back , brain damaged, only to be "executed" again. Jesus- humans are cruel and Tennessee is a shite state among many. 27 more compassionate states have abolished the death penalty. Bulgy Diaper Butt, Kankles loves executions , attempted executions a fave- defiant fist -owie on ear. Great publicity adding to his seemingly immortal water- off -a - ducks -back divinity. Will kill but not be killed sort of contract.
We think about death - ways to die. We hope to go to sleep and not wake up, comfortable and cosy under comforters , silk sheets a gentle breeze brushing our cheek , lifting the Burano lace window curtain. A soft foggy morning...Ideal. Lyrical.
I was talking with Jan F. about writing our own Obituaries. Serendipitously, just then on NPR, they were talking about this very thing . Write your obit focusing on "being best"- the better attributes that you would like to have achieved- an exercise in creative writing. An opportunity , perhaps, to be an outstanding human of incredible moral character- a no fear adventurer- not too late, they claim, at least in writing.
I was thinking more to write several self obits each one more ridiculous than the previous. Mundane or extraordinary . " She liked jam. She liked toast. She excelled in preparation of sumptuous dinners of Jammy Toast . She will be missed not a lot, by many" . You're fine being dead, especially having written your own glowing obit, but your beloveds are left bereft . So - don't die, is my logic or, if that is inescapable, make it joyful, leave "post- its" around the house , curious messages, leave crumbs in the bed, plant bulbs, hundreds of them , that will bloom in spring after you have exited. Stick googly eyes on documents , kept in the file, that will only be fished out after you are dead-(the will, birth certificate- your marriage license)... the left behinders will appreciate your "adios" , may even even feel a sense of relief after having endured to much of your shenanigans. That is what I reckon , but no one is allowed to die before me, OK. Deal?Pinkie swear!
Put your house in order, make surfaces, clear drawers and closets get rid of things. Great advice for the coming months when cabin fever can undo the best of us. Advice not taken here, however, and off I go to the thrift store bringing back a couple of things but mostly leaving stuff on the shelves. Not because it is not great, mind you, but because I must change my habit. Some things are useful- some are just too good to leave in the shop. I don't knit but had to have this exquisite merino hand dyed yarn, the colors, the softness, the fine,even spin. Pretty sure i will find a use for this yarn even though it may be unconventional. I may just hug it, it feels delicious.
Generally I avoid the clear glass section. But there sat a cut crystal celery dish gathering prisms, shooting them all around. Hit my eye and landed in my basket. Jumped right in along with a tea strainer, silver plated at one time in its life , now worn thin.
The new fence has not detoured the animals, the deer are still in the yard , the raccoons using it for their playground. The issue is -by a tree nearby the raccoons have started a latrine. Easy enough to clean up but the neighbor is fraught about it and was quoted by the city a $3,000.00 clean up. The two mothers with their children came this morning harmoniously- no mature males...The neighbor, out on her deck ,taking photographic "evidence" of raccoons on our deck. So...I am expecting to get reported, fined, sent out to clean up after the raccoons and making the neighbor a happier person.
She is the twin sister of our state senator so I am sure that her photographic "evidence" will land squarely on my bank account- another reason to NOT live in a neighborhood of humans. Still a small price to pay for the joy I get from my little family, and not nearly close to the price of having a dog or a cat or a bag full of hamsters.
We received a text from grandson in the morning asking us to meet him and his grandma at a cafe in Fairhaven at 5:30. We were on time but they were a no show.
-turns out that the text was from September 6th, and somehow got sent this morning, Grandson in Seattle getting set up for Uni, Grandma ensconced in her house by the lake...Weird. We didn't take time to have a bite to eat , not our favorite cafe though it looks charming. I was one of the original staff, with my friends, when it first launched nearly 41 years ago- of course it has changed , not for the better.
It was a pleasant little wander through Autumnal colors at dusk, the changes in the area are startling, especially when one has not wandered there for a while. It is geared more for tourism now than for folks who live here, exorbitant rents, shops struggling. No hardware store, no post office, nothing that sustains a community, just fluff. All of the reasons that we initially moved from the Beach to town are no longer applicable. We sold our cabin on the beach , there is no going back, not that we would anyway.
That is that- I won't even bother mentioning national news, what is the point, we all are sorely aware...
I will ,however, address a more local , pressing problem, hearing loss , and the problems surfacing as a consequence. Problematic for those suffering loss also problematic for those not quite there yet. Relationship with the world limits capacity to understand, somewhat isolates the sufferer and contributes too much to misunderstanding, mishearing, or hearing not at all- nodding as though engaged . Dennis got his "aids" at cost co. They only work well when he is plugged into blue tooth on his phone , so If I phone him he can hear me. I encourage him to go to a specialist audiologist but considering his devotion to Cost Co that suggestion seems to be an affront. Anyway, when people suffer loss of hearing the tendency to blame the world around them - "not speaking loud enough" - "mumbling" - results in getting mad at the world of people talking in a normal manner because THEY can't hear them. Frustrating for everyone. Fix your problem- I say, reckon with loss and limitation, there is help available. It is always something, mobility issues, hearing loss , vision difficulty, on goes the list. The difference being that if one is going blind, or has compromised mobility , there is no blaming the world and demanding that it step up to brighten lights and offer clear paths - Help and gadgets are there to aid. That is my rant of the day. And Yes, it costs a BIG dollar but that is the way of the USA. This is where we live.
Would rather be with Roy riding under western skies on my cayuse.
A fence , nicely made but totally unsuited for purpose.
Sassy walker, from a bin. Raccoons will soon slack off in winter months going into semi hibernation, the deck will no longer provide.
See ya! Wishing you well, unplug from ALL national/world news for a few days, gather your wits. Go for a wander, find a red leaf!
