Raptor Safari

Nope. It's not a Jeep thing. It's the photo shoot of a lifetime! And it's tomorrow! I have been waiting so long for this opportunity! I'll be able to get closer than I can out in the wild. I'll see my first ever live and in-person snowy owl. I'll probably go through every single camera battery and memory card I own. Then I'll be cranking out the midnight oil tomorrow to create my 2020 calendar!

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Cold Color

My avocado pit dye jars are inside for winter now. I let my socks, my scrunchie, one more hank of crochet thread, Lizard's tie and two more fat quarters solar cook in the living room window for two additional weeks, but only the socks and scrunchie took up more color.

That tie looks pretty darned sharp, though, don't you think???


The crochet thread actually did get a tiny bit darker, but you have to look really close to see the difference. Nevertheless, I'm going to have fun using it. I LOVE the crochet thread shades I got!


The smaller dye jar, with the skins, doesn't seem to be getting any darker, so I may go ahead and incorporate it into the compost bin. I need to start making more room for the amaryllises chilling in the basement. I'm going to start bringing them out one at a time each week beginning in November, hoping for flowers all the way through March. The absence of the skin jar isn't going to make a whole lot of new space, but maybe on warmer days I could put the avocado pit jars out in the sun while it's warm, then bring them back inside overnight, and it won't matter that they don't have a window seat.


I was hoping for time to make at least one quilt block with the natural-dyed fat quarters. Perhaps the forced delay will give me more time to decide what I want them to become. Sometimes I entertain the idea of designing a patchwork dress. But a natural-dyed quilt is tugging at my creative juices, too.




Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Wordless Wednesday

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Touch of Autumn

We scheduled two three-day weekends to hit the high country and enjoy the quaking golden aspens. Lizard hasn't felt up to road trips, so we spent one of those weekends prepping the garden for winter (just in time for an overnight low of -4!!!) and walking along the very same greenway I try to enjoy every morning before work.

We were not disappointed!!!

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Snowflake Monday

Last week's snowflake started with single crochet, then grew to half double crochet, then to double crochet. It inspired me to try going in the other direction.

I immediately fell for the final result, and it bore some resemblance to the Fellowship of the Magic Crochet Ring snowflake series. This is Pink October, and my newest snowflake has a feminine air, to me, which left me only one naming option.

Back when I designed those first eight snowflakes, I played around in Photoshop and wound up naming one of my masterpieces "The Mirror of Galadriel." Now she has her own snowflake!

You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!

Finished Size: 8 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet hithlain, size 7 crochet spear, empty Hobbit house, mithril paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school limpe or desired stiffener, water, Arkenstone chips, small container for limpe/water mixture, paintbrush, sword pins that won't be used later for sewing or battling orcs, clear thread or fishing line

Galadriel Snowflake Instructions

SPECIAL STITCHES:

Popcorn Stitch (pc)

Work 5 dc in designated st, take loop off hook, insert hook through top loop of 1st dc and replace loop on hook, pull loop through top of 1st dc.

Forge magic crochet ring. Don't engrave it with fire or anything fancy like that. Just crochet around it as follows. And never let Gollum get his hands on it!

Round 1: [Pc in ring, ch 3] 6 times, omitting last 2 ch of final repeat; 1 dc in top of starting pc to form 6th ch 3 sp of Round. Hide magic ring well. Pull it tight.

Round 2: 1 sc over post of dc directly below, [ch 5, 1 sc in next ch 3 sp, ch 3, 1 sc in same sp] 6 times, omitting last 2 ch and last sc of final repeat; 1 dc in starting sc to form 6th ch 3 tip of Round.

Round 3: 1 pc over post of dc directly below, [ch 1, sk next ch, 1 tr in each of next 3 ch, ch 1, sk next ch, in next ch 3 tip work (1 pc, ch 5, 1 pc)] 5 times; ch 1, sk next ch, 1 tr in each of next 3 ch, ch 1, sk next ch, 1 pc in next ch 3 tip, ch 2, 1 tr in top of starting pc to form 6th ch 5 tip of Round.

Round 4: 1 sc over post of dc directly below, [ch 8, 1 sc in next ch 5 tip, ch 3, 1 sc in same tip] 6 times, omitting last 2 ch and last sc of final repeat; 1 dc in starting sc to form 6th ch 3 tip of Round.

Round 5: 1 pc over post of dc directly below, [ch 1, 1 dc in each of next 8 ch, ch 1, in next ch 3 tip work (1 pc, ch 5, 1 pc)] 5 times; ch 1, 1 dc in each of next 8 ch, ch 1, 1 pc in next ch 3 tip, ch 2, 1 tr in top of starting pc to form 6th ch 5 tip of Round.

Round 6: 1 sc over post of tr directly below, [ch 12, 1 sc in next ch 5 tip, ch 3, 1 sc in same tip] 6 times, omitting last 2 ch and last sc of final repeat; 1 dc in starting sc to form 6th ch 3 tip of Round.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 7: 1 pc over post of dc directly below, [ch 1, 1 hdc in each of next 12 ch, ch 1, in next ch 3 tip work (1 pc, ch 5, 1 pc)] 5 times; ch 1, 1 hdc in each of next 12 ch, ch 1, 1 pc in next ch 3 tip, ch 2, 1 tr in top of starting pc to form 6th ch 5 tip of Round.

Round 8: 1 sc over post of tr directly below, [ch 16, 1 sc in next ch 5 tip, ch 3, 1 sc in same tip] 6 times, omitting last 2 ch and last sc of final repeat; 1 dc in starting sc to form 6th ch 3 tip of Round.

Round 9 for pink snowflake (shown below): 1 pc over post of dc directly below, [ch 1, 1 sc in each of next 16 ch, ch 1, in next ch 3 tip work (1 pc, ch 12, 1 dc in 10th ch from hook, ch 12, 1 dc in same ch, ch 9, sl st in same ch, ch 2, 1 pc)] 6 times, omitting last pc of final repeat; sl st in top of starting pc; bind off. Weave in ends.

Round 9 for white snowflake: 1 pc over post of dc directly below, [ch 1, 1 sc in each of next 16 ch, ch 1, in next ch 3 tip work (1 pc, ch 7, sl st in 6th ch from hook, ch 1, 1 pc)] 5 times; ch 1, 1 sc in each of next 16 ch, ch 1, 1 pc in next ch 3 tip, ch 2, 1 tr in top of starting pc to form 6th ch 5 tip of Round, ch 1, 1 dc in top of tr just worked to form 6th ch 3 tip of Round.

Round 10: 1 pc over post of dc directly below, [ch 20, 1 pc in next ch 3 tip, ch 12, 1 dc in 10th ch from hook, ch 12, 1 dc in same ch, ch 9, sl st in same ch, ch 2, 1 pc in same tip] 6 times, omitting last sc of final repeat; sl st in starting pc; bind off. Weave in ends.

Finish: Tape mithril to top of empty Hobbit house. Attach snowflake to Hobbit house on top of mithril with swords.

If using limpe, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of limpe in small washable container. Paint snowflake with limpe mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with Arkenstone chips. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to cure at least 24 hours. Remove swords. Gently peel snowflake from mithril. Attach 10-inch clear hithlain to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around ent branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.

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I wish I was there!

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Garden Gone

2019 wasn't my best gardening year, but there were successes along the way.

I waited until after Mother's Day this year to plant... that's what they say we should do in these here parts. A week later, snow and overnight hard freeze took out almost everything I planted. I had to start over.






I replanted a few things, but I basically let last year's seeds grow where they fell, hoping for the best. The weather then got hot, hot, hot pretty darned fast, fast, fast. We spied our first praying mantises on June 18. Quite a few were streaming out of one of the tomato pots, where a pod was located. We saw only two grown praying mantises the entire summer, and that was back in July. We haven't seen any since. I suspect our hungry birds had some tasty meals.


A mama bunny tunneled under my dahlias and peonies in the raised bed flower garden, toppling most everything. We now have three bunnies making periodic visits to the backyard, but no one else has taken up residence in the raised bed gardens. I think onions in one veggie garden and spicy oregano and pineapple sage kept visitors at bay. I think we will have a bunch of onions in the flower garden next year...


Then came nature's July 4 fireworks. We had the biggest hail either of us have ever seen in person. Most of the garden and much of the raised bed gardens were shredded. We've lived here for more than 10 years now, and I think we had hail three times in all those years... small hail that did no damage. This year, we had three Hail Marys in just over a week. We were lucky we didn't have to replace our roof (yet), as many of our neighbors did. We also had only three noticeable dents in the car. Many of my neighbors had significantly more auto damage than we did.










The hail also destroyed a good portion of the crocheted rock coverings, and it took me a while to decide whether I wanted to redo all that work. The snowflake rocks are gorgeous, especially when the garden is dead, and they help the garden during drought, so ultimately I decided it would be worth crocheting more rock coverings.






This was the year I decided to try to use up my store-bought crochet thread on rocks for the garden. I got the idea after making "dinosaur egg" rocks for my grands for Easter. (They LOVED them!) Everyone who saw the rocks wanted some, so I didn't get my own complete rainbow in my garden until just a couple of weeks ago. In the meantime, we'd visited my mother-in-law, who had (appropriately) claimed one of my rainbow rocks on Mother's Day. By September, that rainbow rock looked quite a bit different after basking in the summer desert sun! Even my own rocks faded a bit in just the short month I had them out.

I'm not so sure I'll be putting any more rainbow rocks in the garden. I may change my mind. But for now, I'm going back to ecru and eggshell for the garden.


Lizard's mom's rock in May


Lizard's mom's rock now


my rocks before they faded


my rocks now
There were not many, but I had some fabulous flowers this year.






I had my best pepper crop and my best tomato crop in Colorado ever. I cheated on both. The hail destroyed all the veggies in the raised bed gardens. I bought three more mature tomato plants and a mature pepper plant from the nursery, and I kept them on the porch, sheltered from future storms. The most productive tomato plant and all my potted peppers are in the living room now until next June. Not sure the tomato plant will go along with the plan, but I've grown peppers indoors all year 'round for about 12 years now.

I'm from New Mexico. I can't help it. And it brings us both joy. And good spicy food!






Typically, we get a snow in September, then an amazing Indian summer that sometimes lasts into November. This year, September was so hot, some of the birds that should have migrated still hadn't, as of last weekend. We had a ton of wild sunflowers this year, which must be the gourmet meal of gold finches (and other songbirds). I confess; I enjoyed watching those little guys every night after I got off work! I wish they could survive the winters and stay here all year.

We feared the warm weather and availability of sunflower seeds might be fooling the birds into staying too long. I hate to see them go, but we knew they needed to hit the sky before the first big storm this week.

Last Monday, we dug up the garden, including the sunflowers. Lizard said the goldfinches were hanging out on our porch on Tuesday, gazing over the garden in disbelief. As if to sing, "Where's the food?!?" (Remember the old, "Where's the beef?!?" commercials???)






I clipped the remaining flowers so I can enjoy them inside. Tuesday night the Young Men from church came over and raked up everything we cut down, bagged it up and hauled it to a mulching center. We supplied giant chocolate chip cookies and root beer. The cookies were gone in minutes. We still have some root beer...

Wednesday night, I caged and mulched the hydrangeas and hibiscus that have not bloomed since I transplanted them. I found out flowers will be on old wood, not new, so I'm trying to protect this year's wood in hopes of blossoms next year.

Last night, the mercury dropped down to 23, and freezing rain was coating the ground by midnight, and beloved snowflakes began accumulating about three hours later. Tonight it's supposed to get down to 8 degrees. We've had 50 mph wind gusts off and on throughout this "fast moving" storm. The garden is done until next year.

But I still have a few flowers in my kitchen!

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