Spiders are not afraid - are you?

OK -- I see I have some gardening to do in the fall!! I spent another hour yesterday removing more creeping vine from the rocks surrounding the pond. That is always a precarious job because you are standing on the rocks, staring down into the water, and if you slip - well, then it's time for a dip amongst the water lilies! 

I would say that over half the backyard is cleaned up now, but the gardener guy is still going to come this week, as there is the side yard and the front that need to be taken care of. And at some point, I need to go into the forest and trim back the stuff that is attempting to encroach through the fence. 

An hour a day or even half an hour works for me!

We had some bad excitement near our house last night. A house fire quickly spread to two other houses, and they were ablaze. Lexi and I had just walked past those houses yesterday morning! One "elderly senior" was taken to hospital with critical injuries, but otherwise, I think everyone is OK. 

Such a terrible thing to happen and to spread so quickly to other houses. We have had our share of house fires in this neighborhood, and they all seem to start upstairs, although one of them started in the garage. To my knowledge, just within several streets of my house, this is the fourth in the last ten years, which seems like a lot to me. 

I have friends of mine who live in the neighboring city, and they live in a townhouse. The townhouse beside them caught on fire and they escaped unharmed, but that was in September. They are still not back in their house and may never go back. I don't think they have even started to fix the roof. What a shame, and what is causing the delay? 

Speaking of fires, Lexi and I noticed that the fire hydrants in our area (not all, but some) have been repainted GREY. Why is that? To make the neighborhood look prettier? The darn things just blend right into the background. Actually, from where this picture was taken, the houses are just across the schoolyard. As I suspected, this is just the primer coat, and it will be red soon. 

Grey fire hydrants

Well, onto happier news. 

I let Lexi dictate where we walk each morning, within reason. But she hadn't made her way to the forest, and I like to brush her each day in the forest. There are mounds of dog hair in several spots, but when I reached the tree that I attach her to, I spotted this giant Daddy Long Legs spider!!!1 He was big, and he wasn't afraid!!!

Daddy Long Legs

It made me think of my recent little wall hanging that I made. 

I'm not afraid of spiders, so I was OK. 

We had a lot of downpours while I was away last week, and of course, the gravel paths in the forest are rutted once again. The tractor was just there the day I left to grade the previous ruts down. I must dig out my pictures of what they do in Spain on the steeper paths because this is ridiculous. They need to probably rip that hill apart and compact the crap out of it with sand and gravel, or just pave it over. That would be much more efficient than just grading the ruts out. But what do I know? 

New ruts AGAIN on the path

 Oh my god—Lexi is protesting. Murphy knows that Lexi's dish is OFF limits if there is food in it. The moment that the dish is empty, Murphy is there licking it out. Twice yesterday, Lexi left a few pieces of kibble in the dish, so Murphy wasn't able to lick it out! I had a good chuckle over that. 

MOM - tell Murphy to keep out of my dish!

Besides the gardening, I managed to get some machine embroidery done. The tree is felted, and the stars and the presents are stitched with thread. I didn't stabilize it enough when it was time to do the stitching. I hope when the back is cleaned up that it will be OK. I want to add something else to it before I trim the background away. 

Felting with the embroidery machine and stitches

And then I also stitched this one out, which included felting, thread, and ribbon. All done with the embroidery machine. These are designs in the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 3 but require the Special Techniques Hoop. I love this one and need to find a word or saying to add to it. I will Google it!

Machine embroidery with ribbon, felting, and thread

There was an issue with the third design I wanted to stitch out, so I must report that.  

One of the goals on my visual To Do list was to thoroughly investigate felting with the embroidery machine. I think I can safely say that I have thoroughly investigated it, as I had done quite a bit before with designs that can be done in any of the embroidery hoops. 

Before I cross that item off the list, I must finish all the samples. Then it will be done. 

I also managed to get one block and part of another done on the pattern that I'm testing. I saw Lorna (Sew Fresh Quilts) post her progress on Facebook last night, so I'm showing you the pattern. It is adorable. 

Down on the farm

Lorna and I were furiously emailing back and forth as we worked out a few small issues! I love pattern testing but it requires a lot of thought and concentration!! 

I hope to get another block complete and to finish cutting the next one out. It's absolutely adorable and would make an excellent class for teaching! That makes TWO that I have on the list for next year! 

After gardening, I spent the remainder of the morning in the office clearing up paperwork. I am just gob smacked at how quickly it accumulates if you don't take care of it. At least when I need to file something, that is easy, and I try to do that religiously! 

I'm off to volunteer today, and that should be an interesting experience. I will NOT take my credit card to the puzzle warehouse! I will NOT take my credit card to the puzzle warehouse! OK - I need my card because I have to get gas for the car!

A reminder: if you want to participate in my focus group for machine embroidery, I'm running a session tonight at 7 PM and one on Monday at 3 PM. Send me your email if you want to be part of that. I'm really looking for what kind of machine embroiderer you are. What designs you like to buy/make, what you like to stitch on, and how much hand-holding in the form of step-by-step projects you would like to see.  (elainetheriault@gmail.com)

And on that note, I'm out of here. 

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!!