The View From Here

 Good Morning!

Once again it is still dark, so who knows what the day will be like...I've heard it is supposed to be sunny which would be nice.  Yesterday was foggy all day and a bit on the damp side.  I had some misty rain on the windshield driving home from the office.

The only person I saw at the office yesterday was Des - my financial analyst for Kevin's world.  She was coming in just as I was about ready to leave.  And, as I mentioned to some of you in my reply to comments yesterday, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I'm beginning to see it!  My major work of late has been on bonus calculations and I should have the final piece of that wrapped up later today.  I still have other projects that are screaming for my attention, but it will be wonderful to have that piece finalized!

Meanwhile, Fall is definitely here in Eastern PA.  At times yesterday while driving to the office I felt as though I was driving through a golden tunnel.  There were beautiful trees on either side of the road and some of them had branches hanging over the road.

The colors this year are funny.  Some are very muted and rather dull, but then you turn the corner and wham!  Colors are more brilliant and saturated than ever before.  Here is a picture of our crepe myrtle in our front yard.  The blooms (white) were pretty good this year, but now it looks like it is on fire!

 Sorry about the wires, but nothing I can do about them!  Fletch and I both remember this tree as turning gold in the Fall - never a red color.  Amazing!

I passed this scene on my way to work yesterday.  This is just as you enter Valley Forge Park on Route 23.

So much moisture in the air!  This house is decorated each year for Halloween.  Last year it looked like the skeletons were having a tea party.  This year it looks like they are cooking something in a giant cauldron.

The huge skeleton in front of the chiropractor's office is out all year.  In winter it has a scarf on.  I couldn't get a picture yesterday, but now it is wearing a purple cloak and has long grey hair!  It's wonderful.  Hopefully I will drive by when no one is behind me so that I can stop to get a picture.  Yesterday traffic was too heavy.

Finally, here is the view Fletch and I see when we sit on the patio in the afternoon.  We watch all the birds (so many varieties!!) and if we are lucky, Steve the Beav may run across the back.

We've had good rain - the grass is still so green, but it is not growing quickly.  It's been 2.5 weeks since we've had the lawn mowed.  I think the mower told Fletch he usually stops by mid-November, so I'm guessing one or two more cuttings and that will be it!  You can see in the picture above that it finally cleared a bit in the afternoon.  Blue skies returned.

OK!  Time to get to work.  Have yourselves a very lovely Thursday!

Weekending

Good Morning!

How was your weekend?  Mine was good - filled with fun things but also those pesky chores that needed to be done.

Saturday morning I took off early to feed Talbot and Marcel.  They were happy to see me...happier to have food put in their bowls.

 Once they were fed and talked to, I took off for Dee's where of course I got to see Giroux!  Dee made us some delicious London Fog tea and we knit a little bit and chatted.  Then we took off for the craft fair she had heard about.  It turned out to be a nice one plus it was situated in a very pretty park (Tamanend Park in Upper Southampton).  The craft fair was in an historic farmhouse and there was also an art show in another building.  All well done.  The foliage was very pretty.

And it was damp enough there were mushrooms about.

I want to go back to the park sometime as there looked to be nice walking trails and very pretty gardens.  After shopping a bit we headed to a diner for lunch.  While eating it started raining and then hailing!  And boy did the temp drop.  There was a Tuesday Morning (I thought they were all out of business, but apparently not) in the shopping center, so we stopped in there (and I found a Christmas gift!!).  We saw Coco, the cutest Dachsund ever!

Isn't that the best girlie dog sweater ever?

It was such a nice Saturday - thanks Dee!!

Sunday was filled with chores...groceries, cleaning bathrooms, scrubbing the kitchen floor and then I even scrubbed the outside of all the cabinets (even the ones over the frig!!).  I'll admit it had been some time and the cabinet doors were dirty and dusty.  It's nice to have that chore out of the way.

This girl loves stretching out on the kitchen floor - generally where I will be stepping - LOL

She is very long and pretty tall too.  She is still getting into trouble at every opportunity, but is so sweet we can't stay angry for long.  Her belly hair is finally coming back in where she was shaved when she was spayed - just in time for winter weather!

Now it's the start of another week.  Once Fletch is out of the shower I will get started on doing some laundry.  Tomorrow I'm heading to the office to meet up with Bill and give him some of the rhubarb that Fletch picked the other day.  I need to double check with Colin, but I believe we start feeding the cats again tomorrow night as C&M are heading to Austin to look for an apartment or house to rent come January.

Well, the sun is up and I need to go pour another cup of coffee and get myself woken up!  Hope your Monday is a good one!

Weekending - November 1, 2021

 Good Morning!

How was your weekend?  How was Halloween?  We had exactly one group (of about 5) come to the door (while we were having dinner).  Two little kids and two bigger (teenager) kids and one dad.  They all took some candy and that was it!  We left the porch light on and the front door open for quite some time and then by 9 p.m. we shut off the light.  I missed seeing more little kids dressed up.

My weekend was nice.  I met up with Dee for coffee and knitting and chatting on Saturday morning.  As always, that was so enjoyable.  (What did I do before Dee and Steve moved up from Florida??)  Despite interference by a certain someone (that would be Mabel), I managed to do a little stitching and a bit of knitting.

Progress is occuring on the 2nd sock.  And...I managed to change the tablecloth to a fall-themed one.  The picture above has so many good things:  clean tablecloth, knitting, ginger-turmeric tea and one of my all time favorite bookmarks which my Dad had given to me at some point (it says, "The best man for the job is often a woman").  Also the white envelopes behind my tea are our mail-in ballots for the election.  We will be dropping them off today at one of the local collection points.

Yesterday was filled with laundry and grocery shopping.  Yikes!  Is it me or have prices sky-rocketed?  Fletch and I went to one store and dropped $287.  Later I went to two other stores trying to locate a few things we couldn't find at the first.  Those two stores were another $60.  There are only two of us!  I did need to re-stock a few things (soups, canned beans, cat food - of course), and even though I had made breakfast, I guess I was hungry when we shopped because I bought more snack-type things than usual.  But still!!  We also had not shopped the previous weekend...but still...

This little one continues to amuse and delight us.

Thankfully she is quiet all night (and I am keeping the bedroom door shut), but once I am up in the morning, she is flying around - sliding on the hardwood floors, crashing into things, spooking herself out, etc.  Yesterday she was prancing in the kitchen in front of the sliding door to the patio.  She kept arching her back (just like a good Halloween cat) and then I realized it was still dark out and she was reacting to her reflection in the glass.  LOL

Today holds a conference call for me at 10, then Fletch and I will drive to the 4-H center where we can drop off our ballots.  A stop at the library is in order as I received notication that a book I requested is in.  I have a pile more laundry waiting to be done and I'm hoping for sunny weather so that I can at least hang out the jeans to dry.  Not too exciting, but we will see what the day holds.  Happy November!

Unraveled Wednesday October 20, 2021

 Good (Chilly) Morning!

There is a nip in the air and I confess to putting the heat on in various rooms this morning (we have electric heat and each room in our house has its own thermostat).  A few days ago I came downstairs and it felt fine and then I realized that Fletch had left the heat on (as low as possible) in our downstairs bathroom.  That was enough to take the chill off.  But this morning - nothing!  So I cranked it on in the living room, kitchen and downstairs bathroom.  I put it on briefly in the office room (where I am sitting now), but I turned it off soon.  Coffee going down the throat is warming me as I sit here typing.

I woke up this morning to this little sweetie walking across the bed.  I guess she is getting used to us!  LOL  She is a very talkative little thing.  Yesterday she sat in front of the sliding door to the patio talking up a storm to the various birds out there.  There are times when she almost coos like a dove.  She could be a bird whisperer - HA!

Well, today is Wednesday which means Unraveled Wednesday.  As usual, I am linking up with Kat and other Merry Unravelers to talk about making and reading.  Peggy's sock doesn't look all that different from last week, but it's true that a few (very few) rows have been added.

For some reason other things have been occupying my time.  Not a single stitch or row was added to my second French Market Bag.  Furthermore, there has been no start on the cowl I want to make for Mailing's Mom or the scarf I want to make for her Dad.  I'd best get cranking!

On the reading side of things, I finished one book the other night:  The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker (thanks Kat for the reminder of this series).  This is book #2 in the Bruno, Chief of Police series that takes place in the French countryside.  Last night I started another book in the Linda Castillo series that takes place in the Ohio Amish countryside.  I also picked up a couple more books from the library - Malibu Rising finally came in (I had been on the wait list forever!!) as well as Life in a Day by Doris Grumbach which Jane had mentioned on her blog.  I had not heard of Grumbach, but the description of her book reminded me of May Sarton's journals which I devoured decades ago.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I will be heading to the office today.  But, I don't intend to go in till maybe 10 a.m.  I'll stop at the liquor store to pick up some wine...also champagne for Colin & Mailing (we completely forgot their 1st anniversary!!) and also Trader Joe's for a couple of things.  I'm hoping for a peaceful afternoon filled with some knitting!  And perhaps a bit of kitten cuddling!

(Picture taken this morning as I was waiting for the coffee to finish perking - she is laying on the kitchen floor in front of the sink.)

Weekending

 Good Morning!

Looking like another beautiful day here in Eastern PA.  The weekend was absolutely gorgeous - in so many ways!!  I think we are all breathing a little easier today.  Lots to be done - hard work, hurdles to jump, etc...but we are moving forward...finally!

Saturday morning I met up with Dee for some coffee and chatter-knitting.  As always it was so good to get together.  That night Fletch and I had a fire.

We could hear a bunch of celebrating going on in our neighborhood.  Lots of music and fun going on.

Sunday was my day for chores.  I did grocery shopping and 3 loads of laundry.  When I got home from the grocery store, Fletch was vacuuming!  He said he had gotten so aggravated and frustrated working on a project that he took a break to vacuum the guest room.  Ha!  My response was:  "we need to get you aggravated a little more often!"

Tyg was very lazy on Sunday and mostly stayed inside napping, so I took the opportunity to do a little archery:

More arrows hit the target than not this time!  It felt good to draw back the bow again and get moving!

Our Red Bud is just about naked now as are many of our trees.  The burning bushes are gorgeous now.  That one by our shed is even more red now!  BTW, the wood up against the woods behind the target is to stop any arrows that go over the target from going into the woods...and believe me that has happened!  I overshoot or undershoot more than I get on target.

Now it is back to work.  I'm heading into the office tomorrow to see Bill and Kevin and do a bunch of color printing.  Most likely I'll just be there for the morning.

Wishing everyone a great week!

Fall

 Hey There - Good Morning!

I'm happy to report that I survived my work meeting yesterday.  It was surprisingly not as long as I anticipated and not quite as long winded with unnecessary talk as I expected.  There was still much that was said unnecessarily, but overall a better experience than I thought.  One thing that annoys me is when people say they will get something to you in a couple of hours and then it is much, much later.  The finance guy promised to send out the "master - parent- company" spreadsheet in a few hours after our meeting...so I assumed I would have it by 3 or 4 at the latest...maybe 5.  Nope - it came through the airways close to 10 p.m. last night.  My day (most of it) today will be spent completing that spreadsheet.

However, there was delight yesterday.  I spied this tree along the drive into my office complex.

Gorgeous, isn't it?  Just brilliant.  There are still a number of trees around here like that.  And some that I call half and half:  the top half has changed to red or orange or gold or a mix of colors and the bottom is still vibrant green.  However, today is a heavy rain day with the remnants of the hurricane, so by tomorrow many trees will be bare branches (still beauty there my friends).

My drive to work is very pretty.  I typically drive through part of Valley Forge Park.  There is a house right at the edge of the park that every year is decorated for Halloween.  Yesterday I finally pulled into a parking lot across the street (Valley Forge Post Office) and took some pictures.  First the whole thing:

You should be able to click to enlarge.  I like the leg sticking out of the cart on the far right - lol.  And here are two close ups - first the left side and then the right.

The bottom picture looks like a skeleton in a bathtub!

I think there are more decorations this year.  Maybe it's that people are home more and have time to do it?  Or folks are so bored with staying at home?  Whatever the reason, I'm enjoying the Halloween decorations.  I'd love to get more pictures, but many are on busy roads where there is no space to pull over.

Last night I ended up doing a little baking!  I had been thinking about pumpkin bread...with cranberries and with pecans.  So I made some.

My kitchen smelled so good while this was baking.  The loaf on the left did break in two after I took it out of the pan - lol.  That will be our loaf.  I will most likely give the second loaf to Colin & Mailing.

That's it for me this Thursday morning.  I've got to get cracking on my regular Thursday morning financial reports and then buckle down and get that spreadsheet completed.  Wishing you all a wonderful "it's almost Friday" kind of day.

A Finished Hat

Good Morning!

Did you all have a nice Halloween?  We did not have a single person/child/animal come to our house for treats.  So...I brought the candy we had bought into the office...it will disappear quickly I'm sure.

Around here, the colors are finally beginning to pop.  I pass this tree on my to and from work.  Yesterday on my way home I was able to stop in the street for a moment to get a shot of it.  It is just brilliant!

Yesterday my office closed early for Halloween.  Lots of other places must have too because traffic was heavy at 2 p.m.!!  But, with the bit of extra time, the Crazy Hat was completed last night.  Just as I thought, a 4th color came in at the top.  This color wasn't as long a repeat as the others, but I like the way it turned out.  First up, my willing model, Fletch, in the completed hat:

And here's the top - I tried to spread the hat out so you could see all the variations in color.

I even tried it on - so soft and (I think) it will be plenty warm.  I love it.  Guess I need to make one for moi!  But I think next up will be some socks (of course) and some fingerless mitts.

Meanwhile, gotta run - more reports to do today at work and also open enrollment starts today.  I need to remember to sign up!  hope your week is going well.