Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! It's my favorite holiday of the year. I was able to get quite a bit of our dinner done yesterday. Today there will be more, beginning with stuffing the turkey. And, yes, I know there are naysayers out there who will tell you not to stuff your turkey, but we do it anyway. We just check the temperature when everything is done to make sure it is hot enough to be safe. 

But let's back up to yesterday, shall we? Mike and I are endeavoring to get more movement in our lives. To that end, we recently purchased a Bowflex, and we are liking that a lot. It's filling in the space left behind when we sold our pool table earlier this year. We also moved our treadmill down with the Bowflex, and now we can watch TV while we do our walking. But I'm also going to try to get outside for more walking when weather permits. It looked as if yesterday would be my only chance for some time, and so I did that first.

The sun was shining at the top of our hill. We were above the clouds. It's the same this morning. 

When I drove down to the bottom of the hill, it was foggy and gray. It wasn't raining, though, and so it worked for me. It was good to get out and see some of the winter things that grow there. Here's my favorite local barn.

This is how it looks on a better day.

Despite the cloud cover, there was still plenty to catch my eye. The blackberries were making their way across some rocks that line a drainage ditch.

They were dressed for Christmas with their red and green leaves.

Nothing is blooming at this time of year, but the carcasses of things that bloomed earlier are still interesting. In better days, this was Queen Anne's Lace.

Here's how it looks from the top. Just look at all those seeds ready for next year's bloom.

Beside them were these little guys...about the size of a quarter.

Even the crispy grasses were interesting.

But at this time of year it's hard for anything that stands still to escape the moss and lichens. It's another good reason for us to get more movement in our lives.

This mule was contemplating where to graze next.

This was one of the few trees that still had some leaves attached to its branches.

I saw lots of trees with just one leaf attached. It always reminds me of that O. Henry story, The Last Leaf. I saw a dramatization of it when I was a little girl, and it has stuck with me ever since. It's a good story, and appropriate for Thanksgiving, I think. If you don't know the story, you can see a dramatization of it on YouTube:

Walking on, there were lots of pyracantha berries hanging on. These are often red in other parts of the country. Here, they are orange.

Also, I saw the first holly berries of the season. I regret not getting better focus on these.

These next ones are known as snowberries. Some experts will tell you they are edible if cooked at the right stage of maturity. It would be risky, however. They are considered mildly toxic to humans and other animals.

And I don't know about you, but cold weather gives me a runny nose...always. I'm like my grandmother these days, and I never go out without a packet of kleenex in my pocket. It was the same yesterday, and I pulled an unopened packet from my pocket. Generally, I'm using regular generic kleenex, but yesterday's was a surprise. I knew you'd want to see it.

Walking on...despite the moisture in the air, it didn't seem wet unless I noticed the dew on the grass and dripping from wire fencing.

I've walked by this "barn" hundreds of times, but never photographed it. It isn't really a barn, but more of a garden shed. The fog made it more picturesque than I remembered it.

I saw this single robin...no friends anywhere that I could see.

I passed by some apple trees with apples that were never harvested. It always makes me sad to see this pretty fruit go to waste.

Here, someone had gone to the trouble of putting miniature pumpkins on every fence post.

Every post for the whole length of the fence had its own pumpkin or two.

These ghostly trees were interesting.

Some of the fields have been planted, presumably with winter wheat, although this could also be red clover.

As I returned to my car, a blue heron flew overhead. I watched until he landed and then posed for his portrait. Isn't he a handsome fellow? Such excellent posture.

Here are some shriveled wild rosehips.

And a cattail that's seen better days. Smitty would be appalled at such a scruffy tail.

By the time I reached my car, I was cold and ready to go back home where the sun was shining.

It was time to head into the sewing room. Sadie was my sewing cat yesterday.

I found my applique cat right where I'd left him. It still needed topstitching on the birds and their legs and feet added.

From there, I was ready to stitch the yarn coming from the yarn ball entangling the cat. I wanted to use a thicker thread than regular sewing thread. Looking at my wall of thread, I was pretty sure I had something from my quilting fairy godmother, Ila. Ila gifts me with some wonderful threads...stuff I've never seen before. In this case, it was this 12-weight thread.

I always like the names of colors. "Red tomato." It brings a picture to mind.

And I love that Superior threads often tell you what needle to use. In this case, it was a 100/16 top-stitching needle. Well, I didn't have anything that large, and so I stepped down to a 90/14 topstitching needle. For good measure I used some Sewer's Aid to keep it lubricated.

And that performed amazingly well. It gave me not one bit of trouble. And take a look at this! I used the triple stitch on my sewing machine. Is this just too stinking cute?

Okay, so that block is nearly finished. I need to add a couple of pieced blocks to the left side, but I set it aside there so I could finish up December's Books & Roses block.

Now all the blocks are finished and ready to be sewn into a quilt top. Here are all the blocks for this quilt.

We had a pretty sunset last night. The sun actually sets looking in the opposite direction, but it lit up the sky to the north.

Okay, so here we are Thanksgiving morning. I hope y'all enjoy good food and good family time. As for me, it's time to get cooking.