A lot

I feel energetic today. Maybe because I finished (or started?) some things that had been on my mind for awhile.

Yesterday a walk with a friend along the shore that felt like we were in a butterfly house, there were so many monarch butterflies. This morning I woke up with the word Lepidoptera in my head, which I couldn’t come up with yesterday. It’s filed in there somewhere.

We are rebuilding the beds in the hoophouse for winter growing. This is the view from the upstairs window with two beds done. It’s a team effort. I dismantled the old rotten beds. Sam built and filled the new beds. Today I planted spinach, escarole, and carrots. Pretty reliable winter crops except maybe the carrots which I’ve had trouble growing this year. Two more beds to go.

I finished the stitching on this little book (Handmade Book Club project). It took me a long time because I deviated from the directions. The stitching is all done through prepunched holes so it was painstaking. I’m not so much liking the “pristine” aesthetic here but I have the paper, so I’m using it.

Cordage is in progress from dried dandelion stems – with inclusions. I’ve twisted dandelion cord before but never with inclusions like this: feathers, old beaded things, scraps of fabric, random charms and unworn earrings. I like the idea of gathering up bits and pieces. Although I don’t have any jewelry making skills that would let me attach wires. There’s some eyelash yarn making a very fuzzy reddish section – good way to use something I was given and had no idea how to use.

Latest nine- patches with three-inch squares. The top one is like a meadow and the bottom one is like a barely told story. I am loving the dock seed-dyed eyelet for background, but I don’t have much more than is showing in the photo. I think it’s destined to be cut up for squares. Maybe not…

While walking with my friend we were talking about how much we love October. I said there should be a way to really celebrate this coming month. Later at home I thought of maybe visiting Acadia park once a week to walk or bike. I looked up a map of the carriage trails. I like this idea. We never go there in the summer, too crowded compared to over here where we can see it from quiet spots across the bay.

And lastly a pot of goldenrod dye on the stove. It looks muddy because there’s powdered chalk in it. I read that calcium carbonate makes flavonoid dyes like goldenrod brighter. We’ll see. I’m not really a recipe follower when it comes to dyeing so I certainly can’t predict success.