Seasons

I love October so much – all the hand-knits come out, the weather is just right for layering wool and jeans and boots to play outside. It’s cool enough for the best easy crockpot meals and stews and I no longer have to plan what to make for dinner that doesn’t involve turning my oven on while it’s 90 degrees in the house.  There is thinking ahead to Christmas gifts and crafting in preparation, and the air outside just smells so wonderful – cool and smoky, earthy from fallen leaves and rain, and something else I can’t articulate. October feels like a month of change and growth, preparations and looking forward, even more so than new year’s or spring does to me.

Fall Cookies

K had so much fun decorating these cookies, it was all worth the mad scramble to clean up the scattered sprinkles before they stained the carpet/floor/clothes/everything. We will definitely repeat the process for Christmas cookies - but I do look forward to decorating more cookies outside in the spring and summer where the cleanup factor is less of an emergency.

I baked them and did the icing of course but she did all the sprinkles by herself and this is the proudest she has ever been about something she made - she has been talking about these cookies all week, and rightly so! They are so beautiful, the pictures from my half busted phone really don't do them justice.

East

We just got back from a whirlwind trip to Boston and Maine, and while I lugged my camera around with us I really did a bad job of taking it out to snap pictures as we were so busy visiting with family and small adventures squeezed in between. It was a good trip, but we simultaneously wished we had more time and swore off any more big trips in the near future.

Highlights: time with family, seeing my grandmother (and K meeting her great grandmother for the first time), morning coffee at Minute Man park (first 5 pictures), the lighthouse on Cape Elizabeth in Maine (next 3 pics), a day in Boston seeing the USS constitution, taking a water taxi and walking the freedom trail of historic sites, and Walden Pond (las 3 pics).

La Push

Last weekend we went to La Push, anticipating a forecast of rain and cozying in with hot drinks, snacks, books and knitting inside but instead it was cool but gorgeous out. G, K and I drove out on Saturday morning and spent the first night alone, then G had to head back for work while K and I were lucky enough to stay for two more nights with my parents and two family friends.

Favorite moments included sunset marshmallows, playing in the sand, wading in the water, K pretending to do my knitting, seeing the giant root ball on 1^st beach we have seen every year since the first year it showed up, making  a total cozy mess of our cabin, trying Indian pizza for the first time (cauliflower crust, masala sauce, peppers, cheese, yum), and really, just everything. This place is so magical.