Posts under ‘Signs of autumn’

Everyone is preparing for autumn. Baking season has begun, with sourdough cinnamon bread. Next week is my last field trip of the season. The bees are frantically collecting every last drop of nectar. Knitting is starting to sound appealing again. Working with wool just isn’t much fun during a 90F summer like we’ve had this […]

November? You don’t say? These months, they seem to be sneaking up on me. Even the vegetation is confused, after that snow. My poor forsythia is changing colors, dropping its leaves, and blooming all at once. My trees are all winter-bare, but a last few are holding onto their leaves. Not for long, though. I’m […]

The poor tree mostly bounced back once the snow melted, although you can see a bunch of broken branches beneath its base. I’ll prune a bit and clean up, I won’t know until next spring just how badly it was injured. The rest of town doesn’t look as bad as I’d expected. Branches down all […]

The sun’s angle changes over the course of the year, as does its time of rising. This time of year, the angle and timing are such that it shines up a hill that I climb on my way to work in the morning. This hill. The sun peeks over the horizon, and the first thing […]

Anyone who’s been reading here for a while knows that I’ve gotten fairly confident with my ability to dye wool, but have been struggling with silk, due primarily to my very, very hard water. It comes out uneven, bad enough, but it also bleeds, which is horrid. And completely unacceptable. I tried everything I could […]

There’s always a settling-in process after a long trip, especially one with a substantial time difference. You need to unpack, return things to their proper places, catch up on sleep, see what has changed or not while you were gone. There’s always a sense of displacement: some things are the same but you feel they […]

Today was the first day of Penn State classes. My sleepy little town of 39,000 added 43,00 Penn State student, more than doubling in a single weekend. Every year it is just as disturbing to suddenly have hordes of undergrads disturbing the peace and quiet. Tonight was knitting night at the local public library. I […]

We got a hard frost Saturday night, and that was it for the tomatoes. Also the basil. I’d gotten most of the tomatoes off, but didn’t pick the last of the basil. It was 80F last week; I wasn’t expecting everything to go away quite so quickly. We finally closed the windows, but haven’t turned […]

This is what I rose to early this morning. My sofa faces the east-looking livingroom window. I watched the clouds change colors and positions, and finally fade, accompanied by the crunch of my breakfast cereal. It occurred to me earlier this week that I’m wildly excited by the first flowers of spring, and overwhelmed by […]

The Penn State farmer’s market had apples this week. They raise mostly heirloom and experimental varieties. Aren’t they pretty? The apple is crisp and tart, and very tasty. And no, I have no idea what it’s called, but will try to find out at next week’s market. I have two Things that must be done […]