Dark, Dreary, Snowy Sunday

It's been snowing all morning.  The temperature is right around freezing and the ground is warm, so there will be no accumulation.

It's the kind of dark, dreary day when I feel sleepy all day and nothing gets done. 

A Beautiful Fall Day

Looking East

After two and a quarter inches of rain yesterday, today was a bright, breezy, beautiful day.  Too bad I had to stay inside most of it working on getting health insurance to supplement Medicare.

Looking south

Overall, this year is not going to be one of the best for color.   The sourwoods and maples are showing a bit of red.  And the beeches near the well house are a bright yellow.  The poplars have already dropped most of their leaves.  Still a lot of green though.

Looking west

We may get the first frost this week.  It's a little late this year.  All the tender plants came inside last week and most of the garden has been put to bed, so we're ready.

Ball Jar

There's an old home place down by Heck Creek on our land.  Nothing is left of the house except a pile of rocks where the chimney used to be and some trash piles.  Ralph found this mason jar near the remains of the root cellar.  The rim is broken but it doesn't show if I screw on this old lid I had.  It's a beautiful color in the late afternoon sun.

Stash Bee

This year I have been participating in the Stash Bee.  The bee is run online with ten members of the hive making a quilt block from their stash as requested by the 11th member, the "queen".  Here are my blocks for January through October.  I'm the queen in November.

In January the hive "momma", Tracy, was the queen.  She asked the bee to make bear paw blocks.  

 February's queen, Paula, requested this heart block in a bright color.

In March we made our favorite star block in coral and aqua for queen Lee.  Of course, I made a paper pieced star plus two starlets.

For April's block, queen LisaJ designed a block based on the Carigan Saliere flag.  LisaJ wanted a red, white and blue or navy blocks.

May's block as requested by queen Susan was called Celtic family ties.

In June, queen Rose asked for the block scrap bin geese in aqua with gray.

July's queen Meredith asked for help making a quilt for her son and soon to be daughter-in-law.  She requested a strip and flip block in orange and blue, the couple's favorite colors.

In August Michelle asked for log cabins in blue and orange.  She was going to mix and match them into bento box blocks.

An original block designed by queen Pam was our task for September.  She left the color choices up to each  of us.

In October queen Lisa requested a great granny block in red, white and blue for a quilt she is making for a military couple.  I didn't notice until after I had sewn my block--I made a stars and stripes block. 

And November is my month to be queen!

From the Garden on Friday

According to the calendar, the first frost could be here any day, but for now warm temperatures continue.  We have two tomato plants still going strong producing as many tomatoes as we can cook and eat.

 

Early October

It's early October and the goldenrods are waning. 

The honey girls are everywhere, frantically gathering the last bits of pollen and nectar.  Winter is coming.

There are quite a few blossoms  left on the cut leaf coneflower.

 

 Though mostly just the seed heads.

It's aster season.  We have at least three species growing around the house above Heck Creek.  

The first is this tiny-flowered one.  The flowers are about 1/2 inch in diameter and the centers are pinkish when the flowers are mature.

Then there is this white one with yellow centers and larger flowers, 3/4 to an inch in diameter.

And finally we have this blue one. It's flowers are in the 3/4 to 1 1/4-inch range.

The honey girls don't seem to have a color preference.  They're buzzing around  them all doing the final gather before winter.

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