Wow! I feel like I turn away fro half a second and it’s been TEN DAYS since I’ve written a post!

The good news is I have finished dyeing the share yarn for Juniper Moon Farm.  Between working on that, homeschooling, and furiously trying to finish  a secret knitting project, I’ve been swamped.

There have been little tidbits I’ve wanted to share, I’ve just struggled to find the time to sit down at my desk and do it.  Not to mention the struggle that is Piccadilly.  Our adorable little trouble maker has entered full-on kitten mode, leaving a wake of destruction in her path daily.

Today she woke me up by knocking every single thing off the night stand, including a glass of water.  A few days ago, she greeted me with a ball of yarn dropped unceremoniously onto my sleeping face.  Yesterday we couldn’t get down the stairs because she had managed to blockade them with an impossible tangle of yarn hanging like a drunken spiderweb between the bannisters. Every day she steals something from the table while we are working on school. Is that your lunch? Not anymore!

Then there are days where she has the devil in her something fierce and jumping onto Oona’s head out of nowhere is par for the course.

But she is also the loviest of loves if you can catch her at the right moment, and it’s nearly impossible not to completely and utterly forgive her many transgressions against our property and persons.

I mean, really.

Aside from dodging naughty kitty activity, we’ve been enjoying the serious transition into fall weather. The leaves are glorious, and the persimmons are on the trees!

To be honest, we don’t actually like persimmons. We let the squirrels and chickens eat them, and we enjoy them as heralds of our favorite time of year. They look lovely covering the trees, and it means it’s nearly Halloween!

This little beauty has bloomed all by its lonesome in the back garden.  I planted about 6 of them in the spring, but sadly it appears this is the only one that took. Perfect color for this time of year, don’t you think?  I may have to do more soil amendment to coax more of them to grow.  It’s been rough overcoming our terribly unfit dirt here.  My neighbor Joanne seems to have made a good job of it, however, as she recently gifted us this giant beauty from her garden:

She explained that she put down cardboard over the winter to discourage weeds, and then had to keep adding good soil on top of the planted sweet potatoes because the soil was too hard for them to grow downwards. I say the proof is in the pudding, and I’ll be doing just that next year!

Lastly I wanted to share a snapshot from last week.  It’s not a great photo; the sun was far too bright and I couldn’t get close enough without frightening them off.  BUT, my butterfly bush was alive with Monarch butterflies.  They must have been migrating, and I was thrilled they stopped here.  I haven’t seen Monarchs in ages and ages.

I hope this becomes a yearly thing!

Well, there you have it. A small window into our lives for the last ten days.  Soon I will be busy dyeing sock yarn (hopefully after completing my knitting!!!) and we will be celebrating Halloween!

Slow down, fall!