It Turned Into a Great Day - It Was a Busy One, Though

Yesterday actually went pretty well. I'm one of those people who despises the concept of "late". I'm early. for everything. I've always joked that I was probably born before the full nine months of growth in the womb, because when pressed, I'll always try to arrive early. Yesterday's appointments were no exception to that. 

It was a stunning Fall day yesterday, so in addition to 
the blue skies and the charmed schedule, I had a 
chance to drive through and look at a lot of the gorgeous 
autumn leaves. They'll start falling pretty quickly now. 
The temperatures will demand it. 

I arrived and checked in for my mammogram more than 15 minutes early, and she called my name, did the 3-D procedure, and I was out of there walking in the parking lot before my actual scheduled appointment time had arrived. I headed up to my Orthodontist from there, and again, arrived early. Still, they have a very comfortable waiting room, and I always have a book I'm reading on my phone. My name was called, and the technician pulled my wires. Sure enough, the cap came off when the wire was removed. She cleaned it and put it into a small envelope for me. 

I now had some time, and it was 2nd Tuesday - a day when I try to get to my co-op for a great deal on my collagen powder. So, I drove down to the co-op, picked up my "ice cream" bars and collagen (they have a great deal on "wellness" products on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, and there was also a $3 manufacturer's coupon - bringing my usual $44 price down into the mid-$30 range). Putting them into the chiller in my trunk, I headed off again towards home. 

But there was still time and DH was possibly still home. I decided to do a quick grocery shop since I had the time, so I got the last red pears and four Red Lady apples to bake, as well as the chicken I needed for dinner and veggies, then headed home, got everything put away and the fruit cut up. I decided to head over to the dentist before baking the pear/apple combo, so put everything into the fridge to marinade and headed out. 

I arrived about 45 minutes early for that appointment, but was called in almost immediately, and I was out of there, crown cleaned and re-attached, within a half hour. Charge? $38! Sweet! I dropped off a package I'd been intending to return to Amazon, and then headed back to the Orthodontist. I was almost an hour early for my 1:00 pm appointment, but they got me in quickly, reattached my wires and the elastic braid I've had, and voila - I was through with the back and forth. Time to cook. 

The rest of the day was spent cooking - my baked pears and apples combo, and a butternut squash in maple syrup - chatting with Aearwen, and generally enjoying a lovely afternoon. I can't complain at all. It was one of our last beautiful Autumn days, and I had the opportunity to spend a lot of it outdoors, all around the Cities, looking at lovely and colorful trees and a perfect, blue sky. SCORE! Now, if my teams had only won their games yesterday. Oh well, I can't have everything. LOL Have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים לישראל .

Peppers, Rocks and the Beginning of Fall - Things are Wrapping Up

Hello everyone. It's time for the Fall Equinox, so I'm looking back at Summer, and ahead to Fall and Winter. I'm actually fairly happy with how things have gone, although there certainly are aspect in my life that could stand serious improvement. Still, we had a pretty good Summer, not too horribly hot until those last days of the State Fair, and our Autumn is looking to be wonderfully colorful. I'll be driving around on Wednesday taking photos if the day is clear. If not, than hopefully Friday will be a clear one. 

My pepper harvest from Sept 22nd (there are a few 
cherry tomatoes in there too. Look at the size of those 
Jalapenos! LOL

I harvested the three largest jalapeno peppers yesterday, and all of the red, orange and true yellow Tabasco peppers. I still have quite a lot of peppers on that plant, and I'll let them ripen until frost, when I'll pull them and dry them. I sliced the jalapeno peppers into rings, and pulled the stems from the tabascos, put them into the dehydrator for a 12 hour cook at 125, which ended around 3:00 this morning. I checked on them about 4:30 am, pulled the dried jalapenos out of there, and reset the dehydrator for another 12 hours on 125 to (hopefully) finish out the tabascos. I guess it's time for me to find a good food grinder if I can't use my mini food processor, because I want these to be powdered. 

The Jalapenos cut up and ready for my dehydrator. They 
don't look as large now, to be sure, but they usually dry 
up beautifully and I'm really looking forward to grinding 
them up and using them in my chili and stews over the 
winter. 

Of course, me being a klutz (and somewhat stupid sometimes), I forgot to wash my hands after cutting up the peppers, and I rubbed my nose. OUCH! It took more than an hour for the irritation to calm down. Time and Vaseline did the trick, and hopefully I won't be that stupid again. *sigh* I know better, my brain was six steps ahead and not paying attention to what I was doing. 

My Tabasco peppers don't look quite as 
impressive, but they pack a punch. They're 
super spicy and wonderful. When I checked 
after 12 hours, these guys were only half 
done, so there's still in the dehydrator for 
another 12 hours. I'll check them when I 
get home from work tonight, and maybe 
they'll need more dehydration before they're 
ready to be put into my jar. It's hard to say. 
It would be faster if I cut them open, but I 
really didn't want to be bothered, truth be told. 

I also made my sheet pan fajitas yesterday, and that recipe is definitely a winner for me. It's so damned easy and tastes fantastic. I'm finally starting to use up some of the more unusual spices in my cabinet, and that also makes me quite pleased. So I'm set for meals for a while. I have the fajitas, and I still have two portions of tomato and pepper soup from Wednesday. I think DH might grill steaks tomorrow (if it's not raining). If it is raining, I'll use the broiler in the oven. Either way, we're having steak for dinner tomorrow night. 

I'm NOT buying any slabs tomorrow, I quite literally have no 
more room for any rough stone. I really need to get working 
on making pretty things with the stones that I have, and I 
have some scrumptious stone in my drawer. 

And tomorrow is also the day we'll go to the Gem and Mineral Show, which is always a treat. We'll skip Renaissance Fest this weekend (that will make two days that we skipped this year, but we're still fine on actual price per day for our season tickets). We'll relax, we'll look at pretty rocks, and we'll enjoy a lazy Sunday. Next weekend is the final weekend of Fest, and we'll definitely be there for that. We never miss an opening or a closing weekend. That's important - LOL. 

MN Renaissance Festival is a bit magical itself - and I 
do love going there. But I'm just as happy to not spend 
all day there too, especially when it gets colder. Over 
the years, we've stopped going from opening to closing, 
and have just relaxed into walking the circuit, catching 
up with friends who own or work for businesses there, 
and enjoying the outdoors for a few hours, before 
calling it an early day and returning home for drinks 
on the patio. I guess we're getting older - LOL. 

So I hope all of you, my readers, have a wonderful weekend and I plan on being back again with you on Monday. Whatever you're doing on this First Day of Autumn, make it count. Do something for a friend, help a child or an elder, rescue a puppy, whatever - do something positive in your little corner of the world. We all need positives in our lives, and good things radiate outward to affect others in a good way as well. Slava Ukraini. 

Autumn is Creeping In on Tip Toes, But I'm Not Ready Yet

I'm ahead of schedule today, on a very busy day, but not because I was really good at setting my alarm. Rather, I awakened a bit after 2:00 am and simply couldn't fall back to sleep. So, I got an hour's jump on my day. All things totaled, that's not a horrible thing. I'll actually be able to sleep in a bit longer than usual on Sunday since we won't be going to Renaissance Festival,. We'll be going to the MN Gem and Mineral Show instead. 

We always look forward to the MN Gem and Mineral Show. The 
new State Fairgrounds location has been a great shift for them.  
The number of people attending the show has gone up a LOT. 
One of the vendors dropped into the shop yesterday for a few 
supplies and said that it's been a great move for them - much 
more room for each vendor, and a LOT more customers. 

This time of the year is always a more difficult adjustment for me than any other seasonal changeover. We're moving into Autumn now, and Winter is knocking at the door. I'm NOT ready for that at all. The garden looks sparse in sections because DH has been transplanting a variety of plants to new locations for next Spring, and because the colder temperatures are slowly causing the plants to either go dormant or die back. 

At this time of the year, our growing season is coming to 
an end. My tomato plants aren't getting as many ripe tomatoes, 
and those that are unripened might well remain unripe. 
We still gets lots of sun, but the temperatures are colder - 
enough that we're skirting with frost. I expect we'll have 
our first frost before too long and that will be the end 
of this year's crop. 

My tomato crop this year actually ripened at a sustainable rate - I didn't feel completely overwhelmed by the amount of tomatoes I was getting. I did dehydrate a small batch just to see how it would go (it worked beautifully), and I'll use those in cooking later this season. But my plants are slowing down. I have several Jalapeno peppers trying their best to ripen before the frost, and they might make it. But they probably won't be quite as red as those I got earlier in the year. I have a bunch of Tabasco peppers on that plant waiting to ripen a bit more, so I'll have a lot of peppers to dehydrate from that plant. My banana peppers are pretty much done for the season. 

At this point of the year, most of my Tabasco peppers 
are yellow or orange. Still, these peppers can be 
harvested at any point, so I'll leave them to ripen 
as much as possible, then harvest them and dry them. 
They'll grind up beautifully for my winter chili and 
soup recipes. 

The hummingbirds have almost all left for the season. There are a few still hanging around, and of course I keep the feeder full for them. But, I'm not getting the crowds. The males left almost a month ago, and the females and young ones are leaving now. They have a LONG flight down to Costa Rica, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again in the Spring. I'll keep the feeder stocked for them until after we get a few hard frosts, of course. But that won't be much longer. 

I'm up in the yellow portion, shading into the green. We 
start seeing our hummingbirds start their migration a 
month ago when the males leave. Now the females and 
this year's crop of yearlings are also leaving for their 
long flight through the USA and down to Costa Rica. 
Not all of them will go that far South, but not all of 
them come this far North either - LOL. 

So Autumn is creeping in. Autumn is one of our most spectacular visual seasons here in the Frozen Northlands. The exceptional range of colors we get from our trees and other greenery as they move into their winter naps is always spectacular. I expect that next weekend's drive to and from the final weekend of Fest will be a gorgeous visual treat to end our Festival year with. 

So, I'm off to the pool. Have a lovely Wednesday and Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Autumn Is Here - MN Gem & Mineral Show and Corn Mazes

We're totally into Autumn weather now and the leaves are starting to turn. It was a beautiful drive out to Renaissance Festival on Sunday, and it should be even better in two weeks when we go out there for the final day. We're probably skipping this coming Sunday to attend the annual Minnesota Gem & Mineral Show at the State Fairgrounds instead. We always enjoy that show. In past years (since they moved to the Fairgrounds) it has been held in October. This year they've moved it up to the last week of September which will be much warmer for their outdoor vendors (at least, under ideal conditions). 

This will be the third, or maybe the fourth, year that the 
MN Gem and Mineral Show has been held at the State 
Fairgrounds. They take over the Dairy Building for their 
exhibition hall, and use the open space south of that for 
their outdoor vendors, of which there are always 20 or so. 

Today isn't quite as cold as it has been, I'll actually be heading out to the swimming pool in 63F temps instead of mid-50's. I'm always grateful for the warmer temps at this time of the year. I'll hold onto the end of summer for as long as I can. But Autumn is in the air - I need my quilt for sleeping, I've switched to my winter pajamas, and actually, it's really comfortable sleeping weather. In another six weeks or so, we'll have our first snows, maybe even sooner (hopefully not). 

It's apple picking time. Several of the larger family farms 
are open at this time of the year for apple picking, hay 
rides, and sometimes corn mazes. My younger nieces will 
sometimes get together and go out with the kids for a 
family outing. 

Thoughts of Autumn hay rides, pumpkin carving, and Fall food treats are uppermost in the minds of many. Apple harvest it in full swing, with the "First Kiss" apples DH so dearly loves already come and gone in the stores. I love to cook with apples, but I'm not fond of just eating them raw. My baked pears, however, have been delightful. 

I DON'T go into corn mazes. I don't do mazes at all. I'm 
absolutely NO good in mazes of any type. I get totally 
lost and off my directional sense. But, up here, corn mazes 
and other Autumn family activities such as hayrides, are 
big business. Even though we had a delayed growing 
season this year, I'm sure the corn is high enough to be 
a good maze. 

Chickie was supposed to meet with her doctor yesterday for a pain assessment and diet/weight loss plan. She needs back surgery to remove extra calcium build-up from her spine that is causing her a lot of pain. She can't have the surgery until she's lost X amount of weight, though. Yesterday's appointment was supposed to give her medications that would help her to lose some pounds, as well as tell her more about the actual surgery they will need to do. DH isn't happy about this all around. Without Chickie at the shop, it might make for another major delay in getting closed. We'll see what happens, though. I'll know a lot more when I get a chance to find out how her appointment went when we speak later today. 

Basically, this is one of the things causing so much pain 
for Chickie. She has several bone spurs in her spine that 
are impacting her movement and causing her a great 
deal of pain. But the doctors can't deal with these until 
she's lost some weight, so step one is to focus on that. 

So, that's all the news I've got - LOL. I'm heading out to the pool for some seriously necessary exercise. I always feel a bit like a slug in these months - I'm not really doing as much exercise as I should. Thank goodness for the swimming pool. Just the thought of being in the water is a motivator. Have a wonderful Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

A Bit of This and A Bit of That - Thoughts for a Monday Morning

I'm a bit crunched for time today because I took time to respond to all of the lovely comments and positive wishes sent my way on my anniversary. DH and I had a lovely dinner, although he wasn't super happy with his steak. I figure that's fine because he gave the other half of his leftover meat to me for meals this week, so I made out like a bandit. It did start a discussion between us of where we might like to try in future, and he might buy some steaks to make on the grill before it gets too cold. 

We haven't used the grill at all this summer. No real good 
reason why, it just hasn't been used. But, DH wants to 
do steaks at least once before the Fall season comes streaming 
in and it gets too cold and blustery. We don't have long before 
we have to return everything back into the storage shed for the 
Winter, so we'll probably get some steaks grilled within 
the next three weeks. 

Sunday we were out at Renaissance Festival. It was quite a bit colder, but I dressed appropriately and was actually quite comfortable for the day. That surprised me a bit, because I chill easily out there. We stayed until about 2:00 pm and then left. I noticed that the parking lot was quite a bit more crowded, as were the Festival grounds. My reasoning for this is that the State Fair is now over, so people are looking for the other Fall activities that they do. We'll probably skip Fest this coming Sunday to attend the MN Gem and Mineral Show, and then, the 1st of October will be the final day of Fest this year. We'll be there for that, without doubt. 

I generally use a 110 sunblock for my 
head, but I forgot to pack my tube. DH 
had some 45 that I used, and it seemed to 
be enough to keep me from burning. I also 
used my parasol, of course. It's why I carry one. 

I wasn't really packed well for yesterday. DH was in a bit of a hurry, and I forgot my sun block and then I left my driver's license in the car. DH had a lower level of sun block that he gave to me, and I just decided I would live without an alcoholic beverage, which worked out just fine. But still - I know better than to go to Fest without my sun block. I did use my parasol, of course, but sun block in an outdoor venue is just common sense, especially because I want to avoid degradation of my tattoo. 

It's the end of the summer, and moving firmly into the 
Autumn season (one of my favorite seasons because it's 
so very pretty up here). Winter still is distant, but it's 
approaching the door. Time to start preparing for it. 

Once we returned home, we sat in the garden for a while, relaxing in the shade. DH has been pulling up and transplanting a lot of the garden, preparing for next Spring. It looks quite desolate in places, but that's the way it has to be in Autumn. It's the latter half of September and Winter is coming closer and closer. We don't want to be trying to do this when the weather is cold and horrid. It's quite bad enough to rake the leaves in the cold. 

Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

So, I'm wrapping this up and moving along with my day. It was a lovely weekend all around, and hopefully our good moods will carry over into the work day. I can hope, at least - LOL. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

August is Slipping Away!

Good morning and Happy Monday. It's the start of a new week, and on Sunday, we'll be at the Renaissance Festival for opening weekend. DH and I worked on the house yesterday, he had a bug up his ass to clean the craft room. As usual, my loom was an item of contention, but I returned it to the place it had resided before I had started to work on it again, and it seems happy there. I'm not 100% pleased to have it off my work desk, but it does allow me to clean and put away the materials that have gathered there since I put the loom up more than two years ago. (It's a VERY slow project!). 

I try to be very conscious about keeping trash minimal 
and recycling as much as possible. I know I'm not as 
good as many people, but I'm pretty consistent. 

I cut up a bunch of boxes. It's a good thing this is a recycling pickup week because I'll JUST (maybe) have room for my kitchen recycling bag to go into the bin before wheeling it to the curb on Wednesday morning. This week I have to concentrate on two things - working on the website for DH, and getting Sharon's room habitable once again. I doubt she'd like to share her bed with my Mom's dresses and their rack, so those need to get moved. 

Although I do the traditional "Spring Cleaning", the end 
of summer "Fall Cleaning" that I do is always my major 
annual clean. In part it's because Sharon is visiting and 
I want a clean house for a guest, but I also like having a 
clean house every now and again before we mess it all 
up again. 

I have a bit of time before Sharon gets here. I've done a lot of cleaning, but there's still quite a bit more that should be done. Some people do Spring Cleaning. I do some, of course. The dirt of winter needs to be pushed out of the house, and I do. But my major clean is always my Fall Cleaning for when Sharon comes to visit. It's my opportunity to do a deep clean on my house, and I take full advantage of it. 

Zahn McClarnon, Hunkpapa Sioux, plays the main 
character, Joe Leaphorn, in "Dark Winds". He's a 
good looking man, and an excellent actor, but he's 
not Navajo. He just looks wrong for the part. Those 
of you familiar with "Longmire" may recognize 
him from that. 

DH and I finished the night off by watching an episode of "Lewis" and then "Dark Winds". DH and I both enjoy Tony Hillerman books - DH is a bit obsessed, rather like I am with Tolkien. I hadn't watched the show before. DH was complaining about having a Lakota as the star - acting as a Navajo, and I admit, I have to agree. That's just really poor casting. They film the show in the Four Corners area, and I guarantee there would have been several excellent Navajo actors who could have played that role. Instead, they're all over the nation with tribes. The main character is Lakota, the secondary sidekick character is Kiowa. At least they have a lot of Navajo extras, and it was a lot of fun to hear the Navajo language again. It's a unique language, extremely complex and difficult to learn, which, when combined with their complex kinship system, sets the Navajo aside and apart from any other tribes. 

So, it was a relatively good day. I know we'll be regretting going to Renaissance on Sunday when we would much rather stay home, have a nice breakfast, and continue housecleaning. We'll see, but I suspect we'll be heading to Ren. It's tradition, LOL. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

It's Definitely Autumn - Time For Thoughts of Autumns Past

I'm running a little late today, so this may be a bit shorter than usual. Still, I'm here, I did my run this morning, and I took a bit of extra time to set up the portable clothing rack I had purchased from Amazon and hang my Mother's evening gowns onto it. The next stage in the photography and sale of these clothes will come with tacking a sheet up for a backdrop. Working in the spare bedroom is never comfortable in the winter - it gets the least heat of any room in the house. But, I do want to continue working on the project. I don't have a deadline, but it would be nice to progress - baby steps notwithstanding. 

Progress isn't measured by time, but by action. I made 
one more step towards my goal of fixing and selling 
my Mother's gowns this morning by setting up the 
portable clothing rack and getting them hung on it. 
Now that they're not being crowded in the coat closet, 
I can concentrate on photographing and listing them for
sale on Ebay or Etsy.   

DH and I actually had a relaxing Sunday. It was quite windy, so raking leaves, despite the (relatively) nice temperatures and full sunshine, just wasn't a possibility. I think the wind finally managed to get almost all of our leaves down, though, so DH will probably get started on raking the leaves this week. We need to get them off the lawn before the snowfall comes, and the later we get into the season, the more difficult that will be to accomplish. It's a hella-lot of work to get our leaves taken care of, and the gutters will need to be cleaned once more too. The gutters are pretty easy - a precursor for when DH will need to rake the roof after every snowfall. But when there's moisture that has frozen in them, the gutters are much more difficult. Hauling the leaves over to our compost pile is much easier with two of us but still takes a lot of trips back and forth from the upper back yard to the farthest corner of the front yard near the drainage ditch. 

Although this is NOT my yard, it looks pretty much like 
what my yard looks like right now. Fall leaves everywhere. 
In my yard, after yesterday's windy day, my trees are now 
almost completely bare. The fallen leaves are exactly 
like what you're seeing here, though. A carpet of golden 
leaves just waiting to be raked. 

Obviously we didn't get any gutter guards installed - yet. He's mulling it over, and we'll probably get some within the year. The quotation is good for a year, so we have that in our favor. We rarely jump on things as quickly as sales people would like. Even with Minion, I went back and forth to the car dealership several times and measured, then measured again. I double-checked all of the specs, made sure it would totally meet my needs, and then, finally, bought her. She's been a great car to have, and I've never regretted that purchase. So sometimes we just move slowly - but we end up with exactly what we wanted. 

I have a 2015 Mazda CX-5 and I love it. I loved it so much, 
that when Chickie needed a new car, she got a 2014 version 
of the same car. So we BOTH love our cars. I'd get another one 
in a flash - it's been extremely dependable and very easy 
to operate. Before we had the truck, Minion was our truck 
and performed the job well. I have about 65,000 miles on 
her now, so expect her to last several more years before I 
need to look at a replacement. 

The only exception we've ever made to the "check it out and then check it several more times" unspoken rule is with appliances. When the refrigerator died, we were there buying a new one immediately, even though we couldn't get exactly what we ideally wanted. We had to settle, because life just isn't good without a refrigerator. It was still several days before the installation could happen, and we were living with dry ice and lot of ice cubes in coolers for several miserable days. The oven replacement, on the other hand, took months because that was extremely size specific and we could live without an oven. Still, I'm quite happy with our new oven, and I'm getting quite comfortable with it. 

This year I'll be able to make a Thanksgiving 
turkey on time in our oven. Last year we didn't 
get our replacement oven until closer to 
Christmas, so we had turkey, but our true 
Thanksgiving turkey was a dinner out. It was 
good, but it didn't give us that lovely smell that 
we associate with Thanksgiving throughout my 
house. I've been getting used to my new oven and 
I like it. It's a delight to have a functional broiler 
once again. 

So sometimes taking some time before choosing a product or device isn't a bad thing. Some things need to be replaced immediately (when the upstairs TV died, DH had a new one installed before the day was ended). Other things can take much longer (we've needed new windows for two decades. Maybe next year). But through it all, life goes on. The sun rises and sets, people are happy or sad, and the Great Wheel turns, never-ending, in the dance of the Universe. May you find your place within the Great Dance and have a wonderful day. Slava Ukraini. 

Good Samhain To All - Stepping Into The New Season

Good Samhain and Happy Halloween to all of my readers. I'm festooned in a shirt of spider webs with two silver spider pins, one spider earring, and my glass spider for jewelry (and a touch of gold, because what spider can resist gold?) LOL. I have a good book on my phone, tasks awaiting me at the shop, and the envelopes for my Holiday Cards are underway. I'll try to get another 20 of those done this morning, with the final 20 tomorrow morning. The ink takes time to dry on these and I can't leave them sitting out to dry while I'm helping customers. 

My spiderweb shirt is quite similar to this one, with 
mesh spiderwebs for the sleeves and along the yoke 
of the shirt. I'm wearing a grey sweater turtleneck 
underneath so the webs show up nicely. With my 
spider jewelry, I'm totally honoring Grandmother 
Spider today. 

Once I've finished decorating the envelopes, I'll put together my final mailing list and start printing them for mailing. If things go according to schedule, I'll have them in the mail around Thanksgiving. We'll see. There's still a fair amount of work to be done. But these cards aren't as labor intensive as last year's were. I needed to back off a little bit this year, 

The bonfires of Samhain are sacred and cleansing. Often 
the animals would be led between two bonfires to 
allow their participation in this event. We are a step 
closer to Winter Solstice now, and the Season of Hunger 
will soon be upon us. It's time to cleanse the soul with 
the fire, reflect upon the year, and celebrate the 
harvest with loved ones. 

Samhain is the end of Autumn and the start of Winter. The harvest is now in, the slaughter of the last of the animals for winter stores will happen shortly, and the tribes will start pulling together, ready to share warmth and resources for the bitter season ahead. It's not deep winter, we haven't even hit Winter Solstice yet, but Samhain is the classroom "five minute" bell - the one that you have to pay attention to. The cold is coming, and the season of starvation lies ahead. The season of reflection begins now and continues until Imbolc when the first stirrings of Spring begin. 

To everything there is a season, and Autumn is a season 
of reflection and preparation. We are now setting our 
feet on the beginnings of the season of cold and it is 
time to celebrate life with the harvest, and prepare for the 
months of need ahead of us. 

As we enter this season of reflection, remember that the focus is two-fold. Inner reflection for your own benefit - analyze and understand yourself and your own place in the world with greater clarity. And outer reflection - how is the outer world going to interact with you? What impact will it have upon your daily life and how can you attempt to improve the greater good? For many of you that will focus on the choices facing you this election day, which happens to be tomorrow. 

No two people will see the same thing. Everything you 
see is filtered by your mind and experiences. Your life 
is unique to you, and although you can share it, no-one 
else can live it for you. 

DH will head to the polls, shaking his head. He said to me "It's one of the few times in my life I'm voting Democrat" with disgust in his voice. I'm delighted, as a life-long Democrat. But everyone must vote their own conscience. I'm relieved that I voted more than a month ago. I don't have to try and get my vote in, then run to the shop to open on time. I've done my duty and maybe ... maybe ... we might get a few weeks of respite from the never-ending political advertisements and platforms. 

Once again, Good Samhain to all. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Good Diwali and a Photo Blog of Autumn For You Today

My goals today have already taken a beating, and it's only a little after 6:00 am! First, I awakened at my usual 3:15 am and settled down to my morning meditation. I'm working through a workshop on "Insight Timer" called "10-Day Setting Boundaries Challenge" which has been pretty good, but afterward, I started in on my daily puzzles and got wrapped up in those for too long. 

Let me start by wishing a good Diwali to those 
of my friends who may celebrate the day. I've 
always been fond of Diwali - a festival of light. 

Then I scurried down, changed into my exercise clothes and did a quick 2-1/4 mile on the treadmill followed by a shower. I got dressed for work, made my morning cup of tea, and settled down to write this, almost 1/2 hour later than usual because I got caught up in my on-line jigsaw puzzle game that I've been playing for several months now. I can officially declare that I'm as relaxed as someone running 30-45 minutes late on their daily schedule can be - LOL. 

I've mentioned my neighborhood wild turkeys before, 
but last week on Monday they were in my neighbor 
Chris's yard when I got home from work. So I snapped 
a few pictures before heading into the house. 

As you can tell, they've grown up quite nicely. They'd 
make a great Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner, but I'd 
rather not have to kill anything, or pluck it, clean 
it, etc. No, the turkeys are completely safe with me - LOL. 

So what I'm doing today is giving you a lot of photos - Autumn photos, mostly from yesterday in my backyard, but a few from my neighborhood. And my neighborhood turkeys are back. They were in my yard two weeks ago, and one week ago they were in my neighbor's yard. I got a couple of photos of the turkeys to share with you too. So, today is a photo blog. 

I'm going to start with this tree, which isn't mine, 
but is in my neighborhood. I consider this a 
tree that just can't make up its' mind. It has 
yellow leaves, it has a lot of red leaves, and there 
are still some green leaves on it also. It's truly 
a tree for all seasons - LOL. 

The rest of the photos are from my backyard 
yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful day, 
warm and breezy. We still have a lot of leaves 
left on our trees, so it wasn't worth the effort 
to bother raking yet. We'll end up doing that 
in the cold, as we usually do *sigh*. 

This red tree is at the southwestern corner of 
my house. It's a lovely spray of colors to brighten 
up the upper back yard. The open expanse ahead 
of us is usually filled with ferns. Of course, they 
are long dead now - killed by the frosts and 
cold temps we've already had. 

Ahead of me when I'm sitting in my chair on the 
patio is this lovely golden tree. You can see a 
few of my maple tree's red leaves above me, 
trying to photo bomb the golden one. LOL

A bit to the south of the golden tree are my taller trees where 
my squirrels love to nest and my hawks also loved those 
trees to perch in. My Tuff-Shed utility shed is on the 
right side. 

To my right and above me is my silver maple - a 
tree that's getting on in years, and not as healthy 
as it used to be, but it's a gorgeous tree and we're 
hoping it can hang in there for a few more years. 
It always gives me glorious golden-orange leaves. 

So, there you have it. A photo blog for a change without a lot of chit-chat. I wish all of you a wonderful Fall (or Spring) day and a day of joy. I'll be back tomorrow, and maybe be more on-time and on schedule too. Shocking, I know! LOL Slava Ukraini. 

The Final Day of Renaissance Festival - Autumn Is Officially Here Now

Yesterday was the last day of Renaissance Festival. The lines to check into Will Call for our tickets was longer than I'd ever seen it. Fortunately, it moves quickly. I decided (against DH's desire) that we would pick up our season tickets for next year on our way out instead of filling out the forms, etc making everyone else behind me have to wait even longer. 

Of course, the line I was waiting in wasn't this long. But 
it seemed like it - LOL. Still, it moved fairly quickly, and 
the woman behind me and I struck up a conversation. 
She was a teacher and a delight to spend some time 
chatting with. 

In days gone by, we would stay through the day and into the night, celebrating with the artists and performers and other Festies when the doors closed for the final time of the season. There would usually be a lot of singing and dancing, a bonfire or more, fire eaters, jugglers and acrobats, and others in a party lasting 1-2 hours. The last time I remember staying for the final was more than ten years ago. The children my friend Liz had with her were quite young, and so were we - LOL. 

I went back as far as I could easily go on my computer. 
This is the Court of my Ren Fest in 2015. We still have 
the same King, but we have a different Queen. I think 
we're on our third Queen since Katherine (the Queen 
in this photo) left the position. 

We had the joy of running into Ben and Liz yesterday, sans kids (who are now 16 and 13 - time flies!), and it was fabulous to see them and give Liz a big hug (actually two, because I've really missed her). We first got to know Ben and Liz when they were two of the Mayor's entourage, playing bocci ball on the hillside near the snakes every Fest afternoon between 1:00 and 2:00 pm (approx). The two of them fell in love while at Fest, and were married at Fest. They brought Duncan, their son, to Fest with them early days, but as the kids grew older, Liz stayed home with them and Ben started working with one of the local leather-smiths in a small business that soon turned into a much larger one. 

This is King Henry. He's marvelous in the role, and 
really plays well to the crowd as well as to the 
various kids he meets as he wanders through Fest. Of 
course there are required attendance times at 
various places as well. Yesterday was the annual 
awards ceremony. We usually stay to watch that, 
but I wanted to listen to Court Revelers instead. 

Ben comes into the shop for leather every once in a while, but I hadn't seen Liz for at least ten years. It was an absolute joy to see her again. We didn't get a lot of time to spend together, but just those hugs made the entire day for me. 

Here are the King and the current Queen on top of 
the entry gates in the pre-opening performance. 
The King is reading a proclamation that will 
declare the Festival "Open" to all, the gates 
will be opened, and the visitors to the Realm 
will enter. All this, after the cannon has gone 
off, of course - a highlight of the morning (and 
quite loud). 

I insisted that we go to King's Pub and hear the Court Revelers, so after Jim had a gyro and I had a lovely bowl of Chicken Pho, we headed over to the pub. It always gets crowded for the group - they are extremely popular with good reason - they're simply marvelous acapella singers. I had an enjoyable 45 minutes listening to them. Then we wandered a bit more and decided to leave and enjoy the rest of the spectacular (if cool) day in our own backyard, which we did. Now it's back to reality. Summer is officially over and Autumn has arrived. Have a great day - Slava Ukraini.