Monday ...

    Sunday got away from me by the time I got home from volunteering at the art gallery.  It was cold, crowded, and I had to park two blocks away.  The 55th annual Fall Foliage Festival was being held in town.

    I entered this weaving into the gallery's fall festival show and took second place.

    Last week was moderately busy, with a visit to the food pantry, and discovering that there was also a pet food pantry in town.  A seminar on Medicare.  

    Early this morning another food pantry box.  This week will be busier than last.  Blood tests, prescriptions pickup on Tuesday, a job interview on Wednesday (since the end of July, I've applied for 53 jobs, and have three interviews I'm waiting to hear back on).  Thursday, finally after almost two years of waiting, I have an energy audit of the house to get some assistance with insulation.

    The weather has turned cold with last night's low in the low 30s.  I'm grateful I got the gas heater installed, and all my plants in a few weeks ago.  Waiting in line for an hour this morning, temps in the 40s, was miserable, but I'm grateful for the opportunity.

                    Stay warm out there...💛 ... Ci

 

October's Whimsy Hunt (so far) ...

First, one last watercolor ...  

(click to enlarge)

Now to the whimsey hunt...

▢ Something with more confidence than evidence...

☑ A stick, probably enchanted....  

An enchanted dowsing branch, dropped while a
magical small creature ran home in the rain.

☑ Something caught mid- bad idea....

This boy ~ Oliver ~ is obsessed with the 
small Schleich tortoise in my jade plant.

What, ma?  I wasn't dropping
gravel on the floor.

▢ A creature choosing comfort over dignity.

▢ Something outdoors that would make an excellent tiny chair.

▢ A tree being unnecessarily dramatic.

▢ A pumpkin with questionable intentions.

☑ One tiny October mystery.... no photo with this one because I'd have to plead the 5th later, but I saw random Roses of Sharon apparently growing wild on my walk.  Where did they come from?

    I have marked my calendar to "rehome" some of them in the spring to my backyard near my lilac sapling and the forsythia bushes.  Shhhhhhh...

▢ Footprints belonging to someone I did not see.

☑ Something that appears to be hiding, but poorly.... This is a spotted lanternfly ~ an invasive bug ~ that while it poses no danger to humans or animals, it does cause significant harm to plant life, agriculture, and local ecosystems.  I'd never seen a live one, just the warnings for them.  It probably wishes it had hidden better because it is now squished.

Not exactly hiding but might have thought
my door frame was a tree.

☑ The sun clearly showing off....

After nearly 24 hours of rain, a tiny rainbow.

☑ A puddle reflecting something more interesting than itself....

Perhaps a portal to a
forest in another parallel dimension?

⬚ Soup, obviously.

Words on Wednesday ...

     It's been a minute since I joined in... actually, almost a year.

   Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.
    This month, Sean Jeating is providing the prompts which will appear on River's blog.

    I've marked the words/prompts for this week with a bold underline.

    The couple's children, all six of them, had petitioned to become emancipated from their parents the week before which was making their "fun" and "idyllic" holiday in the Maldives quite the opposite.  It was one thing for your 15- and 16-year-olds to say they wanted to be out on their own, but for the five- and six-year-olds to also want to leave their parents was a serious parental ego buster.

    As it happened, the court ordered psychologist agreed that not only would be in the best interest of the children, but also for their parents.

    "Can you just tell me how I'm supposed to explain this to my parents, their grandparents, when we see them over the holidays, Smokey?" Rose whined to her husband.

    "Can you for one small moment in time, not make this all about you?  This was supposed to be a peaceful holiday for all of us, and instead of coming together as a family, things imploded and we're now spending it alone in the lap of luxury while our children are with strangers at Disney World."

    "You don't have to yell at me, Smokey.  I told you from the beginning I wasn't cut out to be a full-time mother, and if not for the nannies, I never would have agreed to adopt the four littles.  I didn't even want that wretched child I had out of wedlock before we met and certainly wouldn't have agreed to marry you if I'd known you came with baggage."

    "Exactly why did you agree to marry me, Rose?"

    "I needed someone who could provide me with the lifestyle I wanted to become accustomed to, of course.  Why else would anyone want to get married?"

    "Uh, love?"

    "Don't be foolish.  That's just an urban myth."

October whimsy hunt

twigandtoad.com

     This came to me courtesy of a message from a friend and is originally from Twig and Toad (<link).  I will be posting my findings on Saturdays instead of watercolor creations because I need a new set of watercolor brushes.  The ones I have are old and are for acrylic paints.

    I already have several ideas (some which involve Oliver and his current favorite thing to do to annoy me ~ boys will be boys, even if they are cats!).

    We did have nearly 24 hours of rain yesterday from now tropical storm Isaias as it moves northeast, so finding a puddle was easy enough to do this morning.

    Other things on the list will be a little more difficult, but challenge accepted!

    Find your whimsy today ~ Ci💚