At last, the October rains (10 inches ABOVE normal just for the MONTH) have stopped, and the sun has come out. For 5 whole days now. On Sunday afternoon I took this photo of the backyard sugar maple, pretty close to its peak for this year. It was the first chance I had to take a picture in decent light since it started turning color. All week it has been "raining" leaves in the back yard, but many remain on the tree even today. I took more photos around the yard and will post those in coming days as we are having sort of an Indian Summer, although not officially since we technically have not had a Hard Freeze yet. But this will do.
Our week has been busy. A lot of jobs we do for our church converged on this week and between meetings and mailings and figurings and editings, not that much time to just sit in the sunshine and drink coffee, visit with the neighbors or play with Ava the wonder dog. The front flower bed is drying out so we hope we can plant daffodil bulbs by the weekend. Norm turned up some of the soil and it is still pretty gummy. Norm also has been waking up at 5:30 a.m. ever since the time change, so he has been going out to rake leaves, or mow them, or stuff them in cans to be hauled away, often before breakfast. Tuesday he realized that his elbow was hurting--there must be a Raker's Elbow version of Tennis Elbow, since I can swear our tennis racquets have not been used in four decades. At least not for the purpose of playing tennis! Ice, heat and an Ace Bandage are all being deployed in succession and he says it is some better.
I'm looking forward to a meeting of the Shawl Ministry knitters tonight. One reader asked me in an e-mail about this: the idea is to give a shawl (sometimes a lap blanket--guys are shawl shy, usually) to someone who is going through a rough time physically, mentally or spiritually, as a tangible reminder that they are in your prayers. When one of us finishes a shawl it is dedicated in church and passed around for everyone to touch before we give it away. Those of us who knit (some people crochet, or quilt--there are shawl quilters, too) shawls sometimes use a special "trinity stitch" and may meditate or offer prayers for the recipient while we work. We work alone at home on our creations but once a month we get together to share our thoughts, pray for people we know who are hurting or going through a transition, dedicate finished shawls, and also to share good news. Some shawls are in celebration--a wedding, a graduation, an ordination, a baptism, a new baby, etc. Prayer shawls are always a gift--they cannot be bought and sold, only given away. I had heard about such groups for years but it took a 20-something woman who joined our church in the past year, who wanted to learn to knit, to get a group started for us. As a result, I've revived my love of knitting, first learned when I was in college and my Aunt Eadie taught me how to hold the needles right. Now I just need more hours in the day to get in all of my passions: tai chi, walking, photography, sewing, quilting, knitting and writing.
After the camera battery finishes charging, I'll take a photo of my first shawl, finally finished a week ago after several months, and post it with the quilt gallery. No promises, but I'll try to remember to do it.
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