Autumn colors

I wish I'd taken my phone with me when I went to exercise class one morning over a week ago. On that morning the sky was clear blue, the sun was shining, and these trees looked spectacular.

I had to settle for taking my phone along on the next exercise day, when the sky was overcast and it had rained during the night.

The colors of the leaves were still quite bold and beautiful, though.

Now the leaves have fallen. I checked out this tree two days ago, and it's as naked as a jaybird.

Wild Turkeys

I take a walk pretty much every day. By "walk," I mean at least a couple of miles, usually more.

Frequently on my walk (with Sage) I spot wild turkeys, the Meleagris gallopavo silvestris. (That term I just found by googling "wild turkey." I didn't want you to think I'm a connoisseur of wild turkeys.) This area has several flocks of them.

For awhile recently, a flock of twenty was residing in the trees behind/beside our house. In the mornings we'd see them swoop down to earth after spending the night in the trees, away from predators. Once back on the ground, they began their daily ritual of roaming the neighborhood. This fall them seemed to enjoy eating seeds from the wild grasses beside the roads.

One time I wasn't aware a flock of wild turkeys was sauntering across our front lawn. I was standing at the kitchen sink, looking out, when a turkey, visible only from the neck up, went past the window. That sight gave me a start for a moment. Turkeys will never be accused of being beautiful.

This summer I got into the habit of picking up any turkey feathers I'd find while walking along the roadside.

When I got back home, I'd stick the latest feather in with the others in the flower pot of Swedish ivy and geraniums beside our kitchen door.

The Swedish ivy and geraniums will soon be history. This morning's temperature was in the mid-30's.

And the turkeys, I suppose, are about to seek their winter habitat deep in the woods. Turkey hunting season in Maine is in May and early June, so they have plenty of time to fatten up. I don't know a soul who hunts wild turkeys, though.

Sisters

Yesterday was a beautiful autumn day with a clear blue sky and warm temperatures.

I left my house at 8:15, drove up to Topsham to pick up sister #1, then drove on to Boothbay to pick up sister #2.

I don't know when was the last time the three of us sisters spent time together, just the three of us.

We wanted lobster rolls for lunch, so first we looked around Boothbay Harbor for a likely place. We didn't find what we were looking for, so we then drove out to East Boothbay.

Bingo! We stopped at the East Boothbay General Store and, as you can see from their menu above, found lobster rolls.

Here's mine: 1/3 pound of delicious, fresh lobster meat nestled in the tasty roll.

After lunch, we then headed onward to Ocean Point.

I parked my car, and we walked along the pebbly beach for quite awhile.

After our pockets were weighted with sea glass and a few interesting rocks, we called it a day.

My two sisters and my thumb pose for a photo. 

I'm the "baby" of the family of six. Two of my brothers have died, so that leaves my two sisters, one brother, and me.

Here I am with my older sister. A kinder person you'd never find.

So it was a good day. I'm glad we were able to spend some time together.

"Cake" hats

It seems that everyone on Knitting Paradise is talking about the new Caron Cakes yarn. I decided I'd better join the fray.

I went to Michael's a couple of weeks ago, my 40% off coupon on my iPhone, and selected this cake.

It's 80% acrylic, 20% wool, with 383 yards of worsted weight yarn.

The regular price is $7.99, but with my 50% off coupon that day, I paid roughly $4.

Then I had to decide what to knit with my Caron Cakes yarn.

I settled on more hats to donate to various organizations which collect winter hats for those who need them.

I wasn't sure how attractive the hats would be, due to the long color changes. But I soldiered on.

After a couple of weeks of knitting, the Cake was almost gone, and I had five hats off the needles.


Here, my new knitting partner, Sage, helped me knit one of the hats. "Help" might be a strong word here. "Got in the way of" might be better.

My favorite pattern for knitting these hats was the Barley Hat. It's a free, well-written, and easy pattern.

I like the quality of this yarn. It reminds me a great deal of Plymouth's Encore yarn, which is my go-to yarn for knitting washable children's items.

Here are the five finished hats. Also here lies the little bit of leftover yarn. Five winter hats for a little over $4. Not bad.

A thief among us

I hate to admit it, but we're living with a thief.

Yesterday I decided to fix myself a broiled cheese/tomato open sandwich.

I assembled the sandwich and left it on the kitchen counter.

Then, as the oven broiler was heating, I decided to step into the bathroom for a quick second to see if there might be some Tylenol in the medicine cabinet. (Sinus infection. Fun.)



I was gone 30 seconds at most. I grabbed the Tylenol (hallelujah!) and returned to the kitchen.

And I found this (below). I stared at it for a second or two, wondering if this was how I'd left the sandwich, or if something had happened to it during my quick trip into the bathroom.

Then I noticed Sage, our nine-month-old puppy, lying on a kitchen scatter rug and licking her chops.

(See header photo for mug shot.)

How she managed to grab two slices of tomato and the cheese slices UNDER the tomato slices, without disturbing the bread or the other two tomato slices is beyond me.

We live in perilous times, for sure.