What I have done today so far

It's only 12:30 in the afternoon, the potatoes are cooking and soon the cauliflower and broccoli will be steamed and served with fish for lunch.

So, I went ahead and bought art.

Just like every now and then I went through my favourite blogs and visited the virtual reality of some of my favourite artists.

Rima made me aware of some wonderful music she created the artwork for (and she is quite the amazing artist herself) and I went ahead and gave Telling The Bees a first listen. The perfect music for this time of year, for any time of the year, but with the wild weather outside a wonderful counterweight - soft and soothing.
So I bought their CD.

Then I visited Victoria.
You really should watch the little Argine movie about dreams coming true she has posted a couple of days ago, it is simply wonderful.
I also slightly robbed her Etsy store - she had my favourite knitting mermaid as a pendant and I couldn't resist the Birdcatcher lady neither.

So I had birds and bees today. Just perfect!

I really wonder what the rest of the day will be like.

Under the weather and knitting

No, we are not going to talk about the weather - unless you get your delight from me mentioning rain and storm and thundery showers on a daily basis.

We better spend the time with knitting:

My version of the baktus is ready, a squishy little number in cotton and garter stitch. Surrounded by a loving border of DMC Petra 5 crochet and picots:



The picture was taken during the daily 15 minutes of sunshine. Which was promptly followed by a cold downpour.

Sigh.

When I'm not behind the computer...

... I try to feed my creative soul.
Back in August, I had bought a lace collar at Armstrong in Edinburgh.
It was a dirty off-white and stained, still after giving it a good wash.
Earlier this month I went ahead, prepared a bowl (as in salad bowl) full of tea (black - I think some Earl Grey was involved) and gave the collar a bath, then a wash.
It came back a nice vintage light brown, a lot less dirty looking.
But still I wasn't quite happy with it.
Last weekend I took some of the sequins I had, needle and threat, light some candles, got a coffee, put on some music and started embellishing that thing.
It's now lined with sequins and the place where a button and its buttonhole have been are now covered in two flowers. What an odd place for a button to begin with!

Today I wore it for the first time. It's been 14 degrees Celsius out there, far away from the autumn feeling I would like to have in November and by no means even close to a pre-Yule feeling.



The earrings, though barely visible here, have also been made by me at some point. Left over yarn and two wonderful wood buttons - and voila, earrings. Some crochet was involved ;-)

There is one thing that I enjoy particularly in autumn.
Something I have enjoyed ever since I could combine walking with fallen leaves:



Shuffling through heaps of dry leaves! Brings out the child in me anytime!
I haven't managed to collect chestnuts or acorns this year, the cat love kicking chestnuts around and I love acorns, but alas...not this year.
We don't live close to any big trees with autumn fruits and nuts and there is no forest around here, normally I would bring them home from Germany, when visiting the parential units.

I love the colours of autumn, I love fog, I even love storms. We had our first "south western" beginning of this week and a second storm front is coming in next week. I love how the air smells of sea and tastes of salt.
We didn't have much of this so far, instead I thought I spotted the signs of new blossoms on trees. Not good!

Which reminds me - I need to get my balcony sorted. I'm planning to grow some tomatoes and carrots, next to some herbs next year. Also some wild flowers - my bees and butterflies invitation ;-)
Dutch gardens are usually more a terrace with a couple of plants in pots, so not really a good feeding ground for my winged friends. I don't care if the neighbours hate me - it's a pretty sight and makes me smile every time I look out of the window in our living room.

Oh, and lavendar...I need lavendar!