An Active Autumn

The last of August and September have blown by.  Right now it seems I'm doing nothing but trying to catch up! 

The wildlife stopped eating my black-eyed susans long enough for them to bloom.  I love the variety of colors from yellow to deep orange.  My volunteer sunflowers had some nifty shading, too.

I spent a chunk of time working on our out-of-control yard.  We had someone come in and whack back all the brush around the edges of the yard.  I had no idea how much it had encroached - the yard looks so much bigger.  I also pulled out several bushes, roots and all.  I then tackled the side garden which was neglected since we moved in:  I removed copious weeds, ferns and lily of the valley that had started to choke the ornamental grass planted there.

 

I wanted to mulch that bed, as well as add some more to a few sections to the yard... so I ordered six yards of wood chips.  I began to reconsider the wisdom of ordering that much as I worked through the first third of it.  Amazingly, the pile was all gone in just over a week.  I'm hoping this will mean less weeding next year.

It wasn't all work.

Although I kayaked very little this summer I did get to try a new spot:  Barton's Cove.  I had not kayaked on the Connecticut River before - it was quite pleasant.  I'll have to try it again. 

My mom and I traveled to the Cape in September to meet up with my friends.  We stopped off at the Eastham Library, which had a display of clothing art.  So many beautiful things.  The white dress had a lace overlay that had been pieced together so there were no seams (amazing work).  The jeans were almost more patchwork than denim and had seen a lot of history since the 1960s, including protests and concerts.  Fun!

One of my friends gave me this pillow.  It's pretty goofy - but so are guinea pigs!

Now that I'm back home for a while I'll need to keep my eye out for foster guinea pigs from Dakin Humane. 

 

Our Chick Weekend (it's really closer to being Chick Week) was a blast.  The weather was beautiful and we spent lots of time walking the beaches.  In what appears to be a new tradition, we rolled out of bed one morning to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic.  I think I like sunrises even better than watching the sun set.

We celebrated a birthday with ice cream (Mom was horrified we had ice cream for dinner).  We also stuffed in a hike up Fort Hill, a trip to Chatham, a round of mini golf and our annual pilgrimage to Atlantic Spice.  A good time was had by all.

Within a week of coming home from the Cape, I was off to Minnesota!  But that's a post for another day.