Gloom Arrives

The Portland Gloom has set in.

We've had a lovely (and long) fall this year. Usually around Columbus Day we get a big wind storm that blows all the leaves off the trees. We weren't Portland residents when the big Columbus Day storm blew through in 1962, but that storm is the stuff of local legends. Our annual wind storm never materialized this year, and so we've been able to enjoy the leaves for longer than usual.

The photo-a-day prompt yesterday was "two colours," or "colors" as we Americans like to say. That had me out taking pictures of the leaves. My submission for yesterday's prompt was a cropped version of this one.

Farther down the hill, the red leaves of the red Japanese maple are fading to a brilliant orange.

Don't let that abundance of leaves hanging on the trees fool you. They are falling too...everywhere.

The water droplets on things were enchanting enough that I was motivated to get my DSLR camera with macro lens and try to capture some of those up close.

Here's one last remnant of summer.

Of course, I had company on my walk around the yard.

Smitty is generally relaxed when we're outside. Sadie always looks surprised. It must be their tails that make the difference.

Gloomy weather puts me in the mood for baking, and I realized with horror that it has been about two months since I've fed my sourdough starters. Somebody report me to the authorities immediately! Before I could get arrested for neglecting my babies, I got them out and fed them. As long as I was pouring stuff off, I decided to feed the poured off portion and bake something with it. When everyone was fed and taken care of, I had this one sitting on the counter. We'll just hope it's still alive.

After that, I moved into the sewing room to start making 72 square-in-a-square blocks for the cardinal's border. They'll be made with each of the five values of red, and the same two values of green. I started with the darkest red. There are 12 of these.

Smitty was helping.

It wouldn't be immodest of me to declare how handsome I am. It's simply a fact, and it would be silly to purrtend otherwise. 

By day's end, I'd only gotten through the darkest reds and the dark reds. By lunch time, I was feeling puny again, and so I laid down for a nap before heading out to pick up our CSA share.

Hopefully, I'll get the remaining three values of red finished today, although I'm threatening to go to the grocery store. Since I'm still able to put it off for a day longer, I'll probably stay in and sew. To be clear, grocery shopping hasn't yet been crossed off the list. On the other hand, I have a strict policy of never doing today what I can put off until tomorrow. It is especially applicable to grocery shopping.

Smitty was using the powers of his mind to will Sadie down out of the clubhouse about that time. They don't get their dinner until they're both available to consume it. This avoids the problem of piggishness on either side of the cat equation.

When we headed upstairs for the day, I peeked at the sourdough starter and was happy to see some bubbling action. It appears I haven't neglected it to death.

By bedtime, it had risen some. Remembering the runaway starters from our last bread-baking extravaganza, I stirred this down before we headed to bed.

By morning, it had risen even more.

Just before sitting down here, I perused my recipes. I think this time around, I'll make a Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin bread. I've made it once before. We'll be taking this bread along with us when we go to Cape Disappointment next week, and it might be good to have something that will toast up nicely for breakfast. For now, I'll just keep feeding the starter for a few more days before starting on the process of baking something up.

Also, I promised to report back about the needles. Either I bought cheap ones or the wrong ones because the ones I tried yesterday had a point too blunt to work with. My fabric is backed with a stabilizer, and I was having a hard time poking the needle through the fabric. This morning my friend Wendy and I were corresponding, honing in on the correct needles, and I think I've got the right ones on order now. I won't get them until next week, but that's okay. (Certainly I wouldn't want to leave the house to purchase anything that isn't groceries.) I'll just continue on with the larger-eyed needle I've been working with. This is only the first of 12 blocks, and so there will be plenty more stitching to do before the project is finished. More to come before I've finished making the point about needles. (Ha! Get it?)

Okay, all this talk about needles has me wanting to get at that slow-stitching. We'll see if it puts me in the mood for grocery shopping. Highly doubtful.