Autumn's Golden Light, Stitching Updates, Help on the Journey

 The last flowers to come into bloom in my garden are the Asters. The wild ones are also in bloom and like these, starting to fade. The sunlight lately has been wonderful and has that noticeable October slant. But shines strongly with a golden tinge that makes it beautiful. I've tried to capture it in this weeks' photos.

Lots of things are being illuminated by this wonderful light like a baby Chickadee- so tiny!- trying out the birdbath for the first time, judging by how long it stayed there poking about. 

He finally took the plunge and immediately took off so I didn't get a photo of an actual bath.

And last week a tiny creature took all night to create this beautiful and large web at the pond's edge. Did it get tired as it progressed I wonder. Gone the next day. But I had to investigate webs and found out this is an Orb web, a typical wheel shaped structure probably made by a common spider from the Orb Weaver family. In the case of this one, the spider would have had to size up the space beforehand and carefully choose the anchor points. Where the weaving is widening would have had to do with the tall reeds it was being attached to not its lack of skill or tiredness. Spun in about an hour, it had the potential to capture many insects overnight so hopefully it was worth the effort. 

The Red Squirrels are extra busy these days gathering and stockpiling. How they all seem to know the season is changing. This one was glowing in that late afternoon light. I wish the photo had captured a crisper image of the squirrel but it appears the twigs were well in focus.

Not just the wildlife have been busy, I too have been keeping myself very, very busy. Besides my daily tramping about outside, here are a few snapshots of what I've been doing inside.

The scrappy EPP Tiny Nine Patch quilt keeps growing and I think I'm nearing an end with this project. The red certainly makes it cheery. This was meant to use up scraps but I still haven't made a dent in my scrap bin. That last bit seems to defy logic.

It is about 48 in by 90 in at this stage.

More simple embroidery stitches on the Newfoundland Redwork Pictures, a project of Mom's that I am finishing. The top photo is of a line drawing of the Newfoundland museum called Rooms and the bottom represents the fabulous jams to be made from local wild berries, Bakeapple, Blueberry and Raspberry. I started stitching the label with two strands which proved to be too big for the space. Will remove that and start over with one strand. Presently stitching with DMC 115, a variegated thread which I think adds a little interest to the basic running stitches.

I'm reading and enjoying another Emma Donoghue book...Learned By Heart. Emma is the author of Room which is on Netflix as a movie now. I read the book when it came out but had to skip some chapters and go to the end; I haven't watched the movie but it gets great reviews.

This story is about Anne Lister and Eliza Raine while at a girl's boarding school in early 19 century England. How an author can create/ bring such varied storylines to life is a wonder ( and The Wonder just happens to be the title of one of her books). I like the title of this one and it is a familiar phrase as back when I went to school there were many things we had to learn by heart. Was that a big thing in your schooling as well? I don't think memorization is as important these days. 

I think we have a muskrat in the pond. There was a tunnel into one of the banks when we came here and we've always wondered if there had been a muskrat here as they are very common in small ponds in Ontario. Lately, twice I've glimpsed something much much larger than the frogs moving through the water stirring mud in its wake and going into the tunnel. A lone muskrat would have a field day there having it all to itself. 

I got several questions about what was on my turkey before baking in the last post. As many guessed, it was pats of real butter. It was fresh from the fridge which made it hard to cut hence the odd triangular pieces. Happy to know so many are paying attention here and your kind words and encouragement are sincerely helping me through whatever the heck this is I'm traversing.☺ How we all love to know we are not alone on the journey.

On that hopeful note, I'll sign off for today. Staying Steady and Keeping Calm (trying to). Hope you all are too!