More colour

It is football season! Joseph Brian was prepared, and wearing his colours. 

Out and about, I spotted two snakes. A ribbon snake hunting for ants on the driveway, and a dead eastern milksnake. Sadly, I found the ribbon snake dead yesterday. The driveway isn't a good place for snakes. I feel so badly. We had several deliveries. It was about 60 cm/ 24" long, and a fine specimen.

Always a sight to behold, the ivy usually shows amazing colour.

🍁Autumn Chores

I accomplished some Autumn Chores in the lovely weather. All the hops vine is cleaned up. The jute I run from the railing to soffat, I've taken down. The hops regrows each year and the leaves were done for the season. 

The moths and butterflies have all laid eggs and used the hops as habitat. One year I was removing the vine, and found an IO moth caterpillar. That was most exciting, as I'd photographed it as an adult.

I took the vinegar JB had used to clean the coffee pot, and cleaned the outside windows. I had to wait until the afternoon, when the sun streams in, to see how I did. I guess I should have cleaned the INSIDE of the windows before bringing in the plants. Sigh. 

I had an email message, and a parcel was left at the gate. I hustled down there, enjoying the leaves, and the sunshine. 

Outdoor chores!

 Cinnamon sure slows me down!

Autumn chores: washing windows before it is too cold, and water freezes on the window! With the sun lower on the horizon, it points out my work. OK, maybe today! There is to be a high of 24 C.!

Buckthorn berries, you'll find lots of these in raccoon poop!

I promised to explain my felting work. This package came from Amazon. I think, just like my other project, I'll do my own design. I can't quite form the petals.

Thank goodness for the translate function on my phone. The directions were less than spectacular.

Susie Homemaker, as my mom used to say. I managed to repair JB's jeans. I even had several jean patches in my sewing basket. All I can do is hint: 'liar, liar, pants on fire!'

The frogs are gathering in the goldfish pond. 

The colours are not as spectacular as some years. 

I spent the weekend working on outdoor projects. It's too early, but I figured out how to hang this bird feeder. Hopefully the bears stay away. They haven't appeared anywhere but in the forest all summer.

I did some of my spray painting for winter. It's a pretty harsh climate for metals!

🍁 Yay October 🍂

It's been dry in September. We shall see what October brings. I watered the garden yesterday. 

I took a nice walk in the forest, the shoulder seasons are the best, and found a few trees down. 

My first wood duck nesting box, wrecked by a bear, and three cubs, needs repair. This is my non-mental note to remind me.

Our colourful mushrooms are done, the fungus is still going.

I feel so badly for our large white pine trees. Shorn, as they were in 2023 storms. I've been stacking the wood.

After my break, I got back to work stacking. 

During and after. The rest of it is too big for our wood stove. I may just fire it down the hill! I could get them back, but I'd just have to stack it!

👀 Now, those of you with eye floaters know whereof I speak. I am still not used to them. 

Not only that, but we've these durned no-see-ums. They aren't biting, and for that I am grateful (some of the 5000 of this species do), but they hover in a cloud just to fool my eyeballs. When I sat down for a break in my orange shirt, they all landed on me! Then, I looked at the hops vine, and there they were. 

 

There was a ceremony on TV for Orange Shirt Day (←excellent information from the Canadian Encyclopedia). I taped and watched it. This is a day to honour the 4100 named missing Indigenous children at residential schools and missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW). It was a moving two-hour event. White people must bear witness, and listen to their stories if they are able.

This is another shameful saga of white colonial history. Children sent to horrid institutional schools, torn from their families. It is well represented by this famous painting.

The Scream
Kent Monkman ~ Cree
2017 pic.twitter.com/KP1Y4h3fXJ

— Canadian Paintings (@CanadaPaintings) September 30, 2023

Felting

This is a new craft for me. I watched several YouTube videos and I am getting the hang of it.

I am working on Christmas presents! SSsshhhhh – don't tell anyone in Vancouver! I have been revising it. I originally ordered a kit from Topsy Farms, one for each girl, but they only had the one style. That first one worked out well enough. 

This is Bernie, one of the kids' cats in Vancouver. Bernie lives near a busy street and he is a runner. He is often leashed. I was trying to figure out my second piece, having redesigned it myself. 😸 

I decided to improvise. My bird didn't work well. I pulled it out, felting is very forgiving, and created a dragonfly.

I tried to order more of the felting base, but even Topsy Farms has trouble finding it. I ordered kits from Amazon. More on that later!