Oh, October!

My favorite month is here at last. It's the month of my birthday, of Halloween, the peak of the leaves, and Uncle Johnny's Redneck Party. Wool sweaters, wool socks, birkenstock clogs, and knitting up hats that may or may not fit better than last year's hats. Hot tea, hot cider, hot coffee.

And all these damned black walnuts! Standing in our kitchen you'd think you were in a war zone with those things dropping against the house and roof all day every day. On Sunday we decided to finally do something about it. We gathered, hulled and soaked all the maggot-less ones for a couple of days and today my once-white backing for a finished quilt top is now kind of a pukey greenish-brown. I may give it another soak tomorrow, if it isn't raining. I'm proud of our dyeing adventure. I've planned to dye many a thing with many choices of organic matter, but I only ever get as far as the foraging stage. I tend to pick, pick, pick, then leave all my stuff lying on a table someplace. I've never gotten anything to the stove top until this weekend! And that was really thanks to Martin, who kind of did all the work.

The Feast. Was it the best ever? Maybe the second best ever. The girls were AWESOME and aside from being our all-time favorite event of the year (right up the with the Fiddlers Gathering), we had new fun this year through Anja and Greta's enthusiasm. Anja loved every bit about the entire weekend. She even was able to sell some soap for our booth! She would hold up a bar and say "we have soap!" very sweetly. She was good at taking money from people. Saturday was cold and rainy, but we stayed dry and warm under the booth. We didn't camp because of the cold and wet, and Sunday was sunny, but still cold, but we were all bundled so it didn't matter. I came away with some great pottery deals, including a pair of taper candle holders that Martin won for getting 2nd place (again!) in the Highland Games! Go Martin!

My birthday was marvelous. Martin took the day off and we all had a quiet day at home together. I'd like to point out publicly that my nephew, Christopher, gave me a skein of yarn he bought at the Feast WITH HIS OWN MONEY. Such a treasure! I bought some buttons on sale at Jo-Ann's and I think the yarn will become a little sweater with those buttons. Martin gave me "What's New, Cupcake?", the sequel to my beloved "Hello, Cupcake!" book. And we had dinner with Martin's family at Qdoba, after which the four of us headed over to the Horticulture Park to play in the enchanted forest for awhile before bedtime. A lovely day!

And other than that, everyone around here just keeps on growing. I can't believe Anja will be three in less than a month. I can't believe how big Matilda has gotten. I can't believe how many cupcakes I ate for breakfast the other day!