Crazy Snow and How to Pass the Time

Saturday we got 2 1/2 inches of rain. Sunday was incredibly gorgeous - sunny and 60. Monday was 40s and drizzle. Today? Snowing heavily with a predicted 12-16 inches and winds to increase to 50 mph. If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute and it will change. So, seeing as I was snowed in today, I had a studio day. Don't get enough of those.

I'm calling this "In An Autumn Wood". It's was fun doing a fast project. It's 9 inches square. Every now and again I need instant gratification, as so many of my projects take the better part of a year.

Frosty nights!

Well, the frost was on the pumpkin this morning. Night temps have been in the low 20s for the past week. Here's a photo of Grootendorst roses hit by the frost.

And as it is getting on towards Halloween, I thought I would post a pic of my crazy quilted witch's hat. It is a Crabapple Hill pattern - that I had to tweak of course. It's actually a pillow rather than a hat to wear. I thought it was highly amusing. I've had that fabric with the eyes on it for some time, just waiting for the right project. There are two sayings embroidered along the brim: "If the hat fits" and "Member in good standing of the Black Hat Society". Now, where is my cauldron and broom?

October's Bright Blue Weather

October's Bright Blue Weather by Helen Hunt Jackson (b. 1831)

O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather,
When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair
Later aftermaths are sowing;
When springs run low and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiselessly in the bush
Of woodsd, for winter waiting;
When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather,
O suns of skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.

Amen, sister, Amen! We have had a glorious streak of weather here and autumn is dazzling! On Saturday, Green Spiral Herbs vended at the Schoharie Old Stone Fort History Fair. Sunday, we vended at the Catskill Ginseng and Medicinal Herb Festival. It was a terrific day out. Lots of people buying our herbal stuff and enjoying the weather and speakers at the event. A reporter from the Catskill Daily Mail interviewed me and a few others. Here is the article http://www.thedailymail.net/articles/2008/10/12/news/news3.txt We bought a few more ginseng roots to plant on the property. Monday was my birthday and DH took the day off work and took me on a lovely drive to look at the gorgeous trees. He made me dinner of bacon-wrapped scallops and spinach orzo. Delicious! We spent time in the garden, collecting more seeds (culver's root, black cohosh, Korean angelica, feverfew, meadowsweet and a few others), harvesting more herbs and doing some general fall clean up. Yesterday would have been my brother's birthday (he passed last year). I wished him a happy birthday and felt his presence with me as I gardened. Today, 125 garlic were planted. I harvested more dill and coriander seed and comfrey leaves. There is a patch of nettles that were just coming up, so I picked those as well. As long as nettles are young and tender, they are good. I started putting sand around the base of the lavender plants (we planted 500 in mounded rows earlier this year). The sand will reflect light back onto the plants and keep some weed growth down. I picked a few leeks to make potato/leek dinner for tonight. I love autumn!