by Kat | Oct 2, 2023 | General, Welcome
October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!
― Rainbow Rowell, Attachments
Hello dear October… long have I loved you! The show you put on for all the world to see with chilly mornings, changing leaves, that first frost you wish for to kill the plethora of mosquitos… writing all these things down seems a bit silly with the return to summery 80’s we have forecast for this week, but a girl can dream… right?
I confess, I do like the return of a bit of pumpkin spice…although I prefer my own to the über sweet versions found at the drive-up coffee spots. All summer long I drink iced coffee… but I love the return to chilly mornings with a steaming mug of coffee with frothed milk and a dollop of pumpkin spice to sweeten it just the slightest. Oh, October… you delight me!
I also love the change of meals that happens this month! Give me chili, spaghetti, and yes… even a good pea soup with a crusty loaf of bread!
But I do have some things that need to be accomplished this month! And despite the shortness of the list…it is a LOT to complete this month!
- An anxiously awaited vacation to Erie! Woot!
- Plant! All! The! Bulbs!! This will be the most daunting task of the entire month… sigh. (The order has shipped… on an actual ship and has reached the “due in port” status this morning! I don’t expect them before we leave for Erie.)
- Sew… yes, this is a hold over from my September list. I have two tunics to sew.
A short, but very full list!
What about you, what are you most excited for October to bring?
See you all back here on Wednesday!
Image from Jessica Lewis.
by Kat | Sep 29, 2023 | General, In My Backyard
It must be September,
July sun has disappeared
― Charmaine J. Forde
This was certainly true this month… one of the most significant things I noted this month… darker morning and evening walks with Sherman. In the morning we are waiting for the sunrise and though it seems lighter at night, it is just because we are out as the sun is setting…and soon that will be dark as well!
I was fortunate to catch a few migrating travelers at my bird feeders this month. Yes, two different warblers stopped for a snack… a Bay-breasted Warbler and a Cape May Warbler. It was delightful to see them briefly on their long journey!
I took a bit of advice from Kym and went out into my garden with my journal and a pencil…and I wrote down lots of notes! I also did a bit of prep-work for the onslaught of spring bulbs that are on their way (The Slow Boat from Amsterdam!) Of course, they are slated to come when we will be in Erie, but Steve’s mom is our Mail Watcher when we are gone (I think she is the original Nebby Neighbor, but in this case it is useful, LOL!)
I am surprised that my tomatoes have continued to produce all month (despite the cold snap we had!) but this weekend I will harvest what is left (fried green tomatoes anyone?) and pull the plants next week. My pots are looking mighty sad these days… that cold snap did them no favors! I will clean the lot of them, which will be sad… but I won’t have to come home from Erie with that to do AND plant that plethora of bulbs heading my way!
There was less porch time this month… but what days I could, I was out on the porch! And that will be my plan next month as well!
I have just today and tomorrow to go in Squat-tember! And while I did not achieve a perfect completion (I missed a few days) over all, it was a success! I found Petra to be a great motivator! I am going to continue squatting (and doing more floor sitting!)
And there you have my month… it was good but went by way too fast!
Have a great weekend everyone and I will see you all back here on Monday!
**photo above is from the 22nd at 7:27PM
by Kat | Sep 26, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings dear Unravelers and Happy Last Wednesday of September!
I got my COVID/flu jab yesterday and this morning I am definitely feeling it this morning. I am happy to say that I have overcome last week’s pattern hurdle with sock one and finished it! Sock two was started yesterday afternoon!
I am also happy that there have been a handful of days that made a lapful of woolly knitting a delight so I have added several repeats to my Pressed Flowers Wrap… the end is getting closer!
I should have gotten some sewing done this month, but thanks to Sherman it did not happen… sigh. But I am happy to say that he is almost 100% again… his hearing has returned, he has had no more “spells” and so it seems likely that it was some sort of middle/inner ear infection. He still has a few days of steroids but he is pretty much back to his normal silly self! I will put sewing on my list again for late October and cross my fingers! Ha!
It has been week of reading highs and lows. I finished what will absolutely be one of the best books I have read all year (My Friends by Hisham Matar) as well as a very good book (The Bee Sting by Paul Murray which was not as good as Matar’s book but ymmv). I also bailed on a book… (Small Mercies… I think this was just the wrong time for this book for me.)
Since finishing those books I have had trouble settling in with another book. I started listening to Mrs. Dalloway and have no thoughts yet about it. At night I started The Garden of Evening Mists… no thoughts on that one either. Good Book Hangover is real, folks. Yesterday, Amazon had a “deal” on a couple of Claire Keegan short stories collections, so I picked them up and hope that a short story or two will cure my hangover! Fingers crossed!
There you have my week… what about you? What are you making and reading this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Sep 25, 2023 | General, Words
Nine months in with my word and some days I feel really ready to move on… others… well, the many more other days I feel like the struggle is real.
Thank you, Ann Voskamp for that quote to remind me that practicing is indeed the hardest part of learning… but it is necessary to changing/learning/growing/being.
So this month, I have been practicing… and it has not been easy at all.
I went back and pulled out my Authenticity Manifesto and looked at it to see if I could find my struggles… and almost instantly I did.
Less-Controlling Kat, where are you?
Defining one’s struggles this easily should mean it would be easy to move past them, to let go of them, to release them… but no, I am living proof it is not.
So this month… I stumbled… and I struggled more… and I reacquainted myself with my word and my goals…but it was a challenging month and I will absolutely keep practicing!
As always, I want to thank Carolyn for providing us all a space to share our progress!
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Sep 21, 2023 | General, Poetry
I recently finished reading Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Pérez and I have not stopped thinking about it since.
So why am I thinking about this today you might wonder. Well, with all this thinking about being “an invisible woman,” a poem by my beloved Ada Limón has been on my mind as well… I like how she reimagines what might be a familiar story for many of us. And yet, even in this reframing, (which I think is brilliant, by the way) there is a degree of invisibility that leaves an unsettled feeling I in me as I read it… but a good unsettled feeling… one that makes me think about reimagining all the things!
A Name
by Ada Limón
When Eve walked among
the animals and named them—
nightingale, red-shouldered hawk,
fiddler crab, fallow deer—
I wonder if she ever wanted
them to speak back, looked into
their wide wonderful eyes and
whispered, Name me, name me.
A Name by Ada Limón © The Carrying: Poems. Published 2018 by Milkweed Editions.
Bonny is gathering us all together today… stop by and see what poems are shared!
Have a great remainder of the week and I will see you all back here on Monday with an update on my word!
by Kat | Sep 19, 2023 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Greetings Unravelers and Happy Wednesday!
I have a trio of wee gnomes in my gnome choir! I will get the alto started soon, rounding out my quartet! Ha!
But my bass is finished.. meet Gnolan! He is Gnola’s twin and they have been singing in harmony for eons! Or at least since their cast on! Ha! (if you are wondering which pattern I used, it is this one!)
But for all the joy of Gnome Finishes… I did have a bit of unraveling this week. Sigh. I discovered an error that once I noticed it, I could not stop seeing it. Tinking back 6-ish inches was not happening so I ripped it back to the end of the ribbing and began again. A word of warning… that first chart is not one that is easy to memorize, lol. (or my feeble brain just can’t get it!) But I am now on to the second *memorized* chart and the knitting moves so much quicker. I should be back to my rip back point soon!
Mistake-free knitting… thus far!
I also have my painting place *all ready to go*… now I just need to … well… pick up a paintbrush and begin!
It has been another slow reading week. I have just one finish… Invisible Women which Bonny put on my radar recently. I would challenge men listen to this…really. Listen and learn.
I have also been reading poems from Naomi Shihab Nye and Lucille Clifton… so so good! These ladies have been perking up my afternoon time considerably!
I am roughly halfway through The Bee Sting and almost finished with my nighttime read, My Friends. I have been savoring My Friends… the writing is so beautiful. The story is moving. And I am learning something about Libya and the Libyan people and while the story is based on characters that lived in Benghazi, I have much been thinking about Derna. A timely read, to be sure!
Whew… for not much making or reading, this was a rather wordy post! What about you? What are you focused on this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
