Ta-daaa.
With a little help from Oso, and plus, leaving out the raisins, because who wants raisins, really?? I made these carrot muffins. It was part of a fit of domesticity, which seems to be ongoing, wherein I decided that my house would be more of a house if somebody cooked something in the kitchen, and if it smelled like cinnamon.
For your viewing pleasure, I give you another muffin shot (oh yeah, it sounds lewd! But its not!!)- because muffins muffins muffins- what could be more happy!? That's the thing!

And then I started moving things around, because a bunch of my books that had been in storage for the last couple of years (long story there) came back to me. You don't even know how many books you have until you live in a Hobbit hole. Which I do.
How does it happen? When you aren't even looking they collect themselves. Then before you know it you have this very unruly situation. There's a reason why librarians are weird.
That's all I'm saying.
Here's the before picture-

its the empty space where the bed used to be- pretty, pretty empty space!

In progress.

Marcel is not sure how he feels about it, transition is not something he handles well.

But he must oversee all progress!

All done! Hourahh!

Play, play?? Play??

Plus- the Trekking Knucks are all fini-

And I've been wearing them.
Plus I started a new pair-

One is finished, so now I have Second Glove Syndrome, which is not unlike Second Sock Syndrome- generating enthusiasm for doing the same pattern with the same yarn, it can be challenging. At least with gloves there is the added incentive of needing to avoid the Michael Jackson single glove thing- you have to do it!! And thus, I have 2 fingers finished and a third on the needles.

The grey pair I'm making with leftover Dale of Norway Baby Ull.

Ok, I guess that's all I got.
More later!

Somebody left their bagel in our tree.
This is the view from my window on the 3rd floor.

I've been finishing up the log cabin baby blankie-

It looks so much nicer once you put the borders on. All I have left to do is sew in the ends and join the corners.

The Knucks were an experiment, I saw some on Ravelry that were made with sock yarn. So I am making them with some leftover Trekking XXL, which is working out nicely.

After I ripped it out 3 times to correct some weirdness with joining the fingers and thumb. Yes! I've learned quite a bit about frogging lately. One important thing to remember is that once you do it once and then rip it out, it seems to go much faster when you knit it again. Its like that phenomenon you get taking long road trips, where the way home always feels shorter than the way there. Embrace the frog.

I thought these were outstanding.
Monster maters!!! As big as your head!!

You have to love the colors.
There were flowers too and in the interest of remembering summer when it is February and everything is sleeping (as Oso says diplomatically- I say everything is dead but I am inclined towards melancholy) I give you-

Later we went to what is now one of my favorite places on earth-
Waters School Community Garden. Its surrounded by big old oak trees, and prairie plants, and smells like Ragdale prairie. At this point the plants are all overgrown and it is a big crazy tangle of living things. It hums, rustles, whispers, and clicks. If you go at night and you don't have a flashlight, the thing to do is rub the leaves and smell them and you will find- mint, basil, oregano, rosemary, dill.
Here is what I love-

These gnarly sticks that have been made into markers for garden plots.

The photos don't really do them any justice at all!
Then also I made a friend because I was less scary than the squirrels, who are entirely frenzied from the abundance of acorns and green tomatoes.

This bun was caught between me and a squirrel and didn't know which way to go. Poor bun.
Eventually the squirrel ran off and the bun went on her way.

We saw some of the last gasps of strawberries-

And these really nice morning glories-

I'm not sure what these were but I thought they were pretty-

Around the perimeter everything is engulfed in purple and yellow flowers.

And happy, happy wildflowers.

-From David Foster Wallace's story "Good Old Neon".

(thanks, Nora for letting me use your beautiful photos!)

You know you live a charmed life when this is the backyard-

And plus there are the prairie, the woods, and many little magic places in between. I worked in the new and improved Barn Studio- oh, how to describe it? A smallish barn, with white walls, skylights, an old and aesthetically challenged but entirely functional rocking chair for knitting and reading in, magic drawers and cabinets for stowing one's extra tools, and one's secret stash of emergency cookies- for low blood sugar purposes!- and also finding one or two interesting and helpful things that have been left behind by previous residents. How great is it for holing up on a rainy day? Well. If you have tea, and lots of pencils, and some good music (or not, you can listen to the raindrops on the skylights) then you can suspend yourself in time and so many things will come to you. Its true!

Here are some things about the prairie in early September-
The plants are tall and tangled and they sigh and hum, crackle and buzz and breathe. There are swarms of dragonflies, hundreds of goldfinches that land on plant stalks, bumblebees on big fuzzy thistles, green-gold irridescent beetles, butterflies and moths in every size and color, and furry caterpillars. There is wild asparagus (-who knew?)! And millions of yellow flowers!
Oh! The living things!!
And around the houses, and in the crevices of the many stone walls and under the shrubbery- jillions of chipmunks who gave me this message-
"its our world. You just live in it. We won't be fooled by any schemes involving cashews either." They will look you in the eye very sternly if you block their doorway to the Chipmunk Underground, too. So look out cause they're serious!)
And the dead things- which are feeding and working their way towards transmogrifying back into living things- I became fascinated with the preponderance of fungus, lichen, and moss on all the fallen trees and decaying plant matter in the woods. Some of which is working its way into my work.
There is so much more to tell!
Like how indebted I am to all the nice people who I met whose energy inspired me to new levels- what was it Alexis had on her studio wall? Ah, yes! "The work comes from the work! Keep experimenting!" Thanks so much for the timely reminder!

Still much more to tell! I'm sure I will get to it- including some new work I started and some I finished. Now I am
off to re-assimilate some more!

Oh, p.s.I saw a hummingbird in our garden here at home yesterday. Perhaps it knew I needed a reminder that beauty is something that thrives everywhere, we just have to look and see it.

I love the part about the chicken coop liner. The guns are a nice touch, too.

To be a little dogue.

They have a really nice pool with a waterfall. Every now and then one would flick its tail and it would splash the others' backs. Then they would also scritch their noses on eachothers' humps.
And plus note very cute visitor in the foreground.

I always like to see these bearz too.

I didn't intend to cut their heads off but they swim so fast! Still,
you have to love the paw action.
Lucy was not so sure that they couldn't get out and eat her up in one very small bite.

(Lu actually liked the penguins best, I think. I didn't get any pitchers though, as their house is very dark. I did share a moment with a puffin. Really. We shared a moment.)

One kinda crazy thing- there was a zoo volunteer giving a tour to a school group. She had a taxidermied polar bear paw in a cloth carrying case that she took out to show them. I guess if you must carry a disembodied paw around, even though some actual living paws are right there behind you, its a good idea to have a protective carrying case. Personally, I think I might have chosen to knit a practical but also decorative paw-cozy. Can you see it now? Would it have "PB" embroidered on it? I think it would have to.

This lion is very regal! Even if he is a bit saggy around the mid-sections! Actually, I kept wishing I could pat his lion suit. (photo may not be work safe!!)

That's all. More later.

Marcel is very suspicious of cameras. Hence the worried expression. He's ok though. Really, if you look closely he's actually smiling a little bit.
And plus, these pretties are blooming in the garden~

Oh! The pinkness is outstanding. They smell pink too.

I love how these corners all come together-

Who knew garter stitch could be this much fun and look so pretty?
Plus, here is some bonus art that I made using the newly discovered Photoshop textures and brushes-

Photoshop really ought to come with a warning label.
"Improper use of this product may cause the following- neck pain, truly hideous art, gianormous and unwieldy file sizes, squinting, headache, back pain, time acceleration, tingly hands, confusion, difficulty in remembering to eat and sleep, giddiness, delusions, catatonia."

Btw, the Apple monitor went back, and I am getting a different one, not from Apple. Long story there- but the take away lesson is always count your prongy thingies twice (cannot emphasize this enough) and do your homework. Seriously.

He doesn't really like things on his head, it interferes with radio signals. And he has to monitor the radio signals. Because when you are a little dawg you never know.
When I'm not tormenting him with hats he sometimes has a howl. There is one way to stop him, which is to whip out the camera.

Right after I took this he stopped.
Wow. Look at that freaky color. I swear it looked normal before. My monitor has been dying a slow, painful death- whoa. Plus I have a beautiful and shiny new one, which after quite a lengthy ordeal and several phone calls to technikal support, I will be able to use it any minute now. Because I found out that if I get one of these thingies -I think that's the right thingie- it will talk to my somewhat elderly in machine years (but still spry! You know it!) computer. For the moment its a very nice looking sculpture. Ooh lala but it is pretty. Of course now I am way too broke to run out and get that new iPhone I wasn't actually thinking I needed anyway. This is how the get you. You start hanging around the Mac store and suddenly you are coveting fancy gadgets. Its a slippery slope. Luckily I am poor. The amazing thing is that as a poor person I am on my third computer. The other two are still hanging around, taking up space until I figure out what to do with them. I have an iMac from the pleistocene era. Speaking of sculptures. Sigh.

Here is some really nice art, if you are interested in such things. Mainly I like it because it is done in Photoshop- how crazy is that? And plus he shares some of his brushes on his blog. Be careful with those if you like to play in Photoshop as people have been known to get sucked in and disappear for days.

Today is the Dork & Roots Festival. You know what it means- hippies everywhere!! Omg. Maybe Marcel and I will go just 'cuz. We would hate to be sticks in the mud.