Sun Dogs And Owls

It's been a quiet week with not much happening. I've been working on optimizing my home in terms of rearranging things to make life easier, instead of living with things where they were placed when I moved here so long ago. It is refreshing!

We've had a string of gorgeous fall days in the sixties with full sun. One day I looked up to see a sun dog
in the very high clouds. It's a mini rainbow caused by light refracting in the very high cloud particles.

Breaking down the Earth Boxes and putting away pots and tools has been my focus this week. A very hard frost put a period at the end of the growing season. 

I planted 70 garlic cloves this morning in my new raised bed.
Some from my niece Emily, who is a farmer, along with the rest that I grew. 

It’s a questionable design choice to plop a raised bed in the middle of a flower/herb garden, but why the heck not? One of the reasons I love to garden is that almost every thing is an experiment.

The day of appointments was successful. A skin check at the dermatologist resulted in one spot on my nose being hit with liquid nitrogen, but no biopsies needed! Then a haircut to freshen up my locks. I also donated another pint of blood at a Red Cross blood drive with only a little trouble. The tech was unable to hit a vein on one arm, so he called in a more seasoned phlebotomist who easily hit one on my other arm. Double cookies for me, and a good reason to take to the couch and read all afternoon as my body replenished its blood supply. 

I did not expect to see a Clouded Yellow butterfly on the calendula at the end of October,
but the climate is changing.

Saturday was the first day of early voting in my state, so I wanted to be right there to get that done. I'm going to be working at the polls on Election Day so I usually vote early. I was shocked to see the long line out the doors. My friends reported long lines at their voting locations too - we hope that is a good sign. 

Later, I ventured up the plateau to enjoy our monthly dinner with my dear friends and their spouses. Once again I was given the job of bringing salad, but I'm so tired of green salads, I decided on a broccoli salad. It was a nice change. 

On Sunday I attended a wool felting class with a few friends to learn the process of felting wool straight from a sheep. It was such a simple process. You just bunch up a clump of wool into a rough shape, then just stab it a million times with a barbed needle. I only got my finger twice.

Patty, Geri, and Amyjean working on their owls.

My little wool owl. I should have separated her eyes a bit more.

I admired this poster on the wall of the shop and was told one of the guys in the class
had taken the photos and created the poster for the town to sell. As you can see, its a
charming little town.

On the bike trail.

Today was another gorgeous day which I spent entirely outside. I took a 2 mile walk in the morning, followed by an 18 mile bike ride. Halfway up the trail I passed my friend Sue Ellen who was on her first ride after cataract surgery. We chatted for a bit, then went our separate ways.When I got home, the temperature was up to 65 and I couldn't go inside. So I reorganized the garage and did some garden cleanup while being grateful for another gorgeous day.