Saturday we put out one of the birdfeeders with bird seed.  Yesterday afternoon, an assortment of lots and lots of birds came to the feeder.  Four squirrels ate the seed that the birds spilled.  This morning one of the squirrels was hanging onto the birdfeeder eating at the helpie-selfie buffet.  We are going to have to make a more substantial squirrel inhibitor. 

During the past week, I worked.  Here are the fruits of my efforts. 

The three pockets are finished. 

The Quaker motif is also done. 

The back is finished now except for weaving in the yarn ends.  I have no idea when I will be able to begin one of the front sections. 

Thanksgiving

Today is the U.S. Thanksgiving Day.  We will take a moment or two our of our lives to remind ourselves how thankful we are for the bounty and riches we have.  Among the things for which I am thankful are you, my friends. 

Our current weather conditions are cold and windy but the sun is out shining bravely on the new, clean snow.  There is a path of well tracked mouse tracks along the house side of the back entry ramp.  So far, there are no rabbit tracks in the garden. 

Our family feast will be among only our immediate family.  We have a small fresh turkey which will go into the oven in a few hours.  With it we will have two kinds of dressing, our traditional bread dressing and a cornbread/white bread dressing with chestnuts and maybe some craisins or dried cherries for good measure.  With the two dressings, we will skip potatoes and rolls.  This morning I prepared a pumpkin maple pie which looks lovely; we have eaten almost all of the piecrust cookies made from the leftover crust dough.  We sprinkle the dough with cinnamon and sugar before baking it.  I have also prepared a green bean casserole, not the Cambell's soup recipe, and it is ready to go into the oven at the appointed time.  I also cooked the cranberries that are now cooling on the porch.  It has reached that time of year when the porch becomes a large walk-in refrigerator. 

Last night I baked the perfect little pumpkin only it really was not a perfect pumpkin.  It was extremely stringy inside and had a maximum of a ¼ inch of flesh.  I thought that Roger had planted Sugar Pie pumpkin seeds.  It turned out that he had planted some seeds which came in the post as a promotional offer for something not even related to gardens and gardening.  We had inferior seeds.  If I had only known, I would have gotten some good seeds.  Well, now Roger knows that it does not pay to save some of these freebies.  And yes, it sometimes is a very good idea to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially if it is intended for the garden. 

The weather has been frightful, encouraging me to stay inside.  Sunday morning we woke up to a glazing of glare ice on every imaginable surface.  To walk out of the house, you had to accept the fact that you were taking your life into your hands, or perhaps I should say onto your feet.  Right now we are having a little bit of snow which is covering the dirty, frozen slush. 

Here is a progress report.

Cross stitching is progressing.  I think the little acorns are adorable. 

Not quite as exciting but progressing, nevertheless are the three little pockets. 

Um, it looks like I have been concentrating on the knitting.  After six more rows, I will begin shaping the armholes.  There are five specialty yarns in this design.  All five are now incorporated into the back. 

Since before the weekend, we have seen very little of the sun.  Apparently November is the cloudiest month of the year for Minnesota.  November 2010 seems to be proving that statement true.  I have been keeping myself busy.  I wonder if perhaps I am trying to do too many things at the same time. 

First is a little cross stitching. 

Three little sewing projects are we. 
Today I cut the fabric to make three pockets, both for the pocket and the lining.  I think that you can easily determine the pairs. 

And just for good measure, I am doing a little knitting.  Is this foolhearty?  I really cannot say.  A number of years ago, I began this chevron stitch vest but stopped in the middle of a row, never to resume knitting.  Eventually I ripped what I had knit and rolled each yarn into a ball. 

For some unknown or perhaps unknowable reason I developed a strong urge to try it again.  Last month, I carefully knit a couple swatches to determine if I was knitting to gauge.  Then a little more than a week ago, I cast on the requisite number of stitches and began knitting.  Rows one and two in the first multi-color were easy, plain old knit.  Rows three and four in the solid color fuzzy chenille were slightly more difficult as I had to establish the pattern stitch and the chenille made it difficult to see what I was doing.  At the end of row four, my stitch count was correct so I deduced that I had done it correctly.  Rows five and six in the multi-color mohair were a little easier simply because the mohair made it easier for me to see what I was doing.  Rows seven and eight in the solid color cotton tape were almost my undoing.  It was still difficult for me to see the developing pattern stitch and I made a couple miscounts.  After ripping out and reknitting a couple times, I had the pattern stitch correctly established and I could see it.  Beginning with rows nine and ten, the knitting seemed to work itself. 

I would like to have this sleeveless vest to wear on Christmas but there is little to no chance that will happen.  I would consider myself very fortunate to finish the back by Christmas. 

The Snow Came

Friday night/Saturday morning the snow came.  It was a wet, heavy snowfall that accumulated.  It was the kind of snowfall that young kids love because it packs into the most beautiful snow people and snow castles.  It was the snow that older kids love because they can make the best snowballs.  The best thing about it was that it came on the weekend when everyone could go outside to play in it.  It might have been better if it had come on a weekday because the schools might have given everyone a snowday. 

We unfortunately did not like it.  We had to get up Saturday morning to drive to a workshop 80 miles from home.  We set out at 6:00 a.m. in the dark.  I tested the brakes in the road just down the street from home before I got out into any traffic.  Yes, the anti-lock brakes worked.  Yes, I remembered the feel of a car coming to a stop in the snow.  As soon as we got out onto the highway, a large truck, really a tractor and semi-trailer, passed us splashing slush across the front of the car and onto the windshield.  Instantly it seemed like a curtain was drawn across my field of vision.  I had not even had enough time to judge the traffic behind us; I did not even know if there was traffic behind us.  The only thought in my minds was, "What was I tthinnnnnnnking?" 

The windshield wipers slowly cleaned the goop off the windshield and my field of vision became larger and clearer.  Traffic was really quite light; we were fortunate it was early on a Saturday morning.  About half way to our destination, we realized that there was more rain than snow falling.  That made the driving conditions much less messy and a little easier.  The sky was so heavily overcast we still felt we were in the dark when we arrived. 

Just in case the weather conditions deteriorated, we each brought along an overnight bag.  Our rationale was that if we were prepared, we probably would not need the provisions.  But if we did need them, we had them.  They were a good insurance against bad conditions.  The drive home was much easier as the roads were much cleaner and we at least had a little twilight  when we pulled into the driveway. 

This little squirrel ran along the fence top early Sunday morning.  He looks so happy to be running outside. 

The snow hung itself out on my clothesline.  It would not have been so bad if it had fallen off or melted.  Instead, it froze to the clothesline.  This morning when I tried to hang out the bed pillows to air, the weight of the snow and ice caused the central pole to bend near the ground.  When the pole could no longer support the weight, it toppled over.  Right now I have no idea what I am going to do to air pillows during the winter. 

During my absence, I continued to check out estate sales.  I found this little Irish lace crochet doily.  The colors are a little over-the-top and make it look like something from the 1930's which, for all I know, may be when it was made.  I would prefer it in traditional all-white but I still like it. 

At last the election is over.  It looks like the general feeling was, "Throw the bums out!" in a fit of exasperation.    Now, at the national level and in MN and probably other states too, the politicians must work through widely diverging goals and agendas to take some concrete steps forward.  The big question is whether they can rise to the occasion or will they fall into serious gridlock.  If they do not make some gains, there will be a frustrated electorate at the next election and it will have one thing on its mind, "Throw the bums out!"  The one good thing is that there are no more political commercials.  It was extremely negative here.