hot stuff

in which our plucky heroine enjoys cooking with gas...

Saturday, my dear friends Rois and Chance stopped by for part of the day, and Chance was able to connect the new range... What a different stovetop experience than the brokendown electric stove. I love the greater responsiveness of the flame, and look forward to putting the high powered burners to the test this autumn and winter making preserves, marmalade and tomato sauce for pantry storage. I've been waiting sixteen years, every since I moved here, to be able to  convert the kitchen to a gas range. Incremental progress is still progress!

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tie-dye top	sample leaf and stem	yard waste bin
2	knitted elephant	pruned Japanese maple	recycle bin
3	-	assemble OMAR	recycle bin
4	-	repaired door closer	yard waste bin
5	-	picked quinces	-
6	x	stove installed	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - I have an appointment to see an orthopedic hand specialist about my right hand. Not so grateful I have to wait until December, but at least I can hopefully get some more information about what is wrong and what to do about it...

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine rather flails a bit...

This month has been rather hard going, with worry internal, external, and global, and I've not been anywhere near as "productive" as I prefer to be, compared even to September. I've been starting projects and not finishing them, even the one or two actual work projects are all in pieces still. Maybe November will turn the tide. At least I have plenty of ideas for things to do. It is time, for example, to start creating drawings for a 2022 calendar, and other sorts of scribal art.

I'm also really finding great pleasure is mulling over dollhouse options, for later this winter when I start building the wooden cottage. I am currently thinking of a sort of Tudor/Craftsman combination, with deep eaves, and decorative rafter tails, roof beams, a stone fireplace and a decorative printed frieze all along the upper edge of the main room walls.

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beauty in the time of isolation:

The small strawberry plant did well in the hanging planter. Squirrel depredations were thwarted, there were a few sweet berries, as well as many new runners and baby plants. Now winter is on the way; leaving the plant hanging on the porch seems less than ideal in wind and stormy weather, and freezing ice. Somewhere in the yard, in a planter, and with some suitable encagement to keep the bushy-tail tree-rats at bay, and replanted next spring, with fresh soil and plenty of compost.

※※※

It will be good to see friends this weekend, to (fingers crossed, hopefully) get the new stove functional, to have some just for visiting and chatting in person time, albeit outside in the rainy front porch. Maybe we can sit indoors? If I open the windows wide? We are all vaccinated, but run in different circles. I wish I felt confident as to what is the most appropriate way to act anymore. I feel like any contact with other people is a huge risk, and am permanently apprehensive about what formerly and still is a true necessity of life. Zoom meeting is not at all the same, but levels of community transmission are still very high, all over Oregon.

※※※

This evening, after watching a video about how to know when they are ripe, (they more easily come away from the branch), I went and picked most of the quinces from the tree. Some are beginning to be fragrant, some others had obviously been bitten into by varmints of some kind, and need cut up and processed before they get moldy. I tried the technique suggested here, with one of them, and indeed it made the fruit easier to peel, though only a bit easier to cut up. Baked a second time in the lil convection oven, a mixture of chunks of quince and chunks of apple made a great dessert. I added a dab of butter and brown sugar at the end. It'd be even better as a crisp, with some oats and pecans as well.

Here's a bit of fruit harvest statistics: rather a bit more than 10# of quinces from the young quinceling (planted in 2018), at least 50#+ from the persimmon tree in the parking strip, and an unknown amount of the plums from the plum thicket. Plus enough windfall apples to make 22 half pint jars of applesauce. Not bad at all

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~ creativity challenge ~

This miniature cat head candy bucket was an experiment in hollow form spun cotton. Difficult, but doable. The next experiment is a jack-o-lantern, which will need painted, and a sort of tabletop making use of a flickery LED tea light...

※※※

Still hanging with no return call from my primary care doc about the various test results. Apparently the bones of my wrist are all as they should be. I could have told them that without the x-rays, since that is not where the problem is! Sometimes the flow charts are useful, and sometimes they just add layers of time and expense between what is wrong, and seeing someone with information about what to do about whatever is wrong. The lump on the back of my hand continues to enlarge.

※※※

October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tie-dye top	sample leaf and stem	yard waste bin
2	knitted elephant	pruned Japanese maple	recycle bin
3	-	assemble OMAR	recycle bin
4	-	repaired door closer	yard waste bin
5	-	picked quinces	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - another pleasant surprise today, when a small package of Goya "alphabet noodles" showed up on my doorstep, a gift from my sister. Now I can make the Trick Or Treat banner for my tiny friends!

p.s. Sister Gigi told me that she was able to find some canning jar lids in the grocery store where she was shopping, so more will be coming my way! And my friend Tamra found some as well... dare we hope that the strange almost two year shortage could be ending?

a fundamentally slightly better day

in which our plucky heroine makes tomorrows breakfast...

Resilience = successful non-stovetop experiment - it is possible to cook spinach by piling the cleaned foliage in a large bowl, and pouring the entire contents of my electric teakettle over them. Stir occasionally to keep the hot water leaf mixture well distributed, and after a few minutes, the leaves are all wilted and dark green.

Now I can mix them with eggs, cheese and (precooked) rice (from the emergency shelf) and the other ingredients to make a spinach rice bake. (rather like a crustless quiche, and a venerable side dish from a Sunset magazine back in the 60's, a family favorite, and something I like for breakfasts)

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beauty in the time of isolation:

Seems like a good year for persimmons... I've picked about 50# so far, and there are still lots of fruit on the tree. They will continue to ripen off the tree, and once fully orange but not yet soft, they will be peeled, sliced and run through the dehydrator. Bear in mind, that this tree did not get any extra water during the horrible heat wave this summer. I'm impressed!

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~ creativity challenge ~

Knitted elephant baby toy is done. Soft and squishy, with lots of parts that little hands will be able to clutch. As always, I opt for embroidered eyes rather than hard plastic safety eyes.

I found the pattern challenging to follow, but the end result acceptable, though my elephant doesn't really look like the one in the pattern illustration. (I find line drawn diagrams easier to understand than pretty color photos for assembly instructions, but apparently most folks feel otherwise) Not sure I stitched the ears on "correctly", or that the limbs are properly oriented, though I'm sure that for baby Liam none of that will matter.

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tie-dye top	sample leaf and stem	yard waste bin
2	knitted elephant	pruned Japanese maple	recycle bin
3	-	assemble OMAR	recycle bin
4	-	repaired door closer	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - I have this recipe:

Spinach Rice Bake

1 C cooked starch (rice, kasha, bulgar etc)
1 C shredded cheese
1 c cooked veg, chopped (usually spinach)
2 eggs
2 T melted butter
2 t chopped onion
⅓ C milk (or 1 T dry milk and ⅓ C water)
½ t Worcester sauce
½ t dried herbs (or such fresh herbs as seem pleasing)

10 x 6 baking dish, 350°F, 20 - 25 min

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine has a somewhat better day...

I much prefer to awaken from comparatively peaceful sleep (as opposed to Thursday nights anxiety nightmares) with a morning activity ahead that promises connection and creativity. I was not disappointed.

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beauty in the time of isolation:

sky mirror

※※※

so... it will be at least a week before my friends Rois and Chance will be back on this side of the pass, so meals will need to be prepared without a stovetop. A bit more of a challenge than I would have thought, despite having the wee tabletop oven, an electric teakettle, and a microwave. Most of what I cook is, if not entirely stovetop, has essential ingredients that are stovetop!

While I could just spend the week eating soup, cottage cheese, salad, and yogurt, I am thinking I could probably "cook" raw spinach by pouring boiling water over it, letting it sit for a few, and then draining it. This would allow me to make "spinach bake" which is a sort of crustless quiche that includes rice or some other grain and makes a kind of all-in-one food that can be cut up and microwaved for breakfasts. There's an emergency boil-in-bag packet of rice (in addition to all my packets of Indian food) and this would be a good use for it, or I could make up some bulgar, which only requires having boiling water poured over it and soaked for a while

※※※

~ creativity challenge ~

Beginning on a new kerchief, inspired by Alabama Chanin style. This is an experiment, not sure if this triangular shape and weight of textile will be suitable for the way I like to wear headwraps... I really want to try some new assorted decorative ways to cover my thinning hair, and in the winter, my head gets cold!

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tie-dye top	sample leaf and stem	yard waste bin
2	-	pruned Japanese maple	recycle bin
3	-	assemble OMAR	recycle bin
4	-	repaired door closer	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - This morning I had a chance to Zoom with some longtime online friends from Stitchers Guild, who I have never met IRL. (locations spanning 9 time zones) We were just getting started organising the Zoom a few weeks ago when the entire SG message board went down (and is still offline). It was so wonderful to get to see folks faces, and hear their voices, for the first time, and do a bit of show and tell, and sharing of technical knowledge. Once in a while, living in the modern world has treats.

snafu-d stove

in which our plucky heroine is feeling rather grouchy...

Woke up today all full of hope and excitement. I'd spent a good chunk of yesterday moving things around in the kitchen, to make it easier for the delivery people to remove old POS stove and install excellent new stove.

the old stove, missing the exploded oven door, with the adjacent space usually taken up by the bakers rack all empty

the other side of the kitchen, with some of the bakers rack contents piled in various spots. This is actually going to be a great opportunity for me to do some sorting out of what is kept on hand where in the kitchen, before simply putting it all back the way it was! I suspect that a fair amount of what was being stored in this prime kitchen real estate is best either stored elsewhere, or given away. The tools and supplies right to hand ought be those in daily use...

the initial arrival of the stove was great, smack dab in the center of the time allotment, and with a 20 minute phone warning of arrival.

At that point things began to go south. While the nice delivery people were entirely willing to hook up the stove, the "universal" gas line flex tube is not all that "universal" and what appear to be adapters, aren't. This was the additional part that Lowes customer service insisted was necessary and the only one that they sell. A steel flex line is definitely necessary, but them telling me it adapts to different sizes of line valves was false.

Next, the power cord on the stove turned out to not be 6ft long as I'd been told by Frigidaire customer service, but only 4ft long. Considering how much time I've spent online trying to get that information prior to purchasing the stove, I was not happy at all. A six foot cord would easily reach the outlet. A four foot cord, not at all. I spent another several hours trying to access a human person at Frigidaire customer service to find out whether it was possible, say, to buy a longer cord. (and why pray tell I had been given incorrect information earlier?!?) Apparently not, and no one could tell me anything at all.

(I understand that customer service is an awful job, that pays badly, and that the people I am talking to are working from home, and know nothing at all about the products that people are calling them about. Still, that is most frustrating as a customer with legitimate questions not answerable by just looking at the website!)

Lovely stove, still not hooked up.

Five burners: 17,000 BTU (power burner), 5000 BTU (simmer burner), 2@ 9500 BTU (medium burner), 14,000 BTU (high burner)

While waiting on hold, I began reading the installation manual, where there was an entire section of one page about hooking up the electrical cord (Ummm it is a grounded plug, how hard is it to just make sure to plug it into a grounded outlet?) that talked about using an extension cord. So apparently people try and do that, which hadn't occurred to me. It should have, since I ran both my fridge and my chest freezer on extension cords for a number of years when I first moved here.

The best safe way is to make sure that the extension cord is both grounded and suitably rated for the necessary power draw. I was able to get a heavy duty 3 ft extension cord at the local hardware store so at least that problem is solved. The long bike ride to and from the hardware store did help my mental health somewhat, and fortunately I have a fair amount of pre-made meals in the freezer that only need thawed and microwaved (homemade soup, stuffed cabbage, teriyaki chicken) and between the micro and convection oven I will manage. But I am still annoyed at being lied to by both Lowes customer services and Frigidaire customer services.

Fingers crossed that my friend Chance will be able to do the installation. Waiting to hear back from him

※※※

Tomorrow I go to the hospital diagnostics for an ultrasound of my middle, to try and discover what is causing the bulge in my navel.. So, early dinner and no breakfast tomorrow. Best likely option is an umbilical hernia, which will mean surgery. I am purposefully not thinking about various worse possible options.

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tie-dye top	sample leaf and stem	yard waste bin
2	-	pruned Japanese maple	recycle bin
3	-	assemble OMAR	recycle bin
4	-	repaired door closer	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - my new stove is in the building, long awaited and courtesy of the kindness of friends.

tired of telephone time

in which our plucky heroine gets tangled in first world problems...

The number of hours I have spent on hold, and being shunted from pillar to post in various departments of various facilities in the last week are far too many for what should be simple questions about medical and household appointments and issues.
When I got to the drug store this morning for my booster shot appointment, I was turned away once they checked my vaccination records (my exact 6 month date is the 17th and not the 13th, despite my having given that information to the person making the appointments last week. So frustrating, and a waste of time in both directions. Fortunately I was told that I could just come back on Sunday, since they already have my information form filled out, and I don't need to try and make a new appointment!

Now I am back on phone hold trying to get information from Lowes about getting the new stove hooked up when it is delivered. The delivery and taking away the wretched old stove is scheduled for tomorrow, and I have been trying for several days now to get any information about the "attach new stove to gas line" part of the process.

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beauty in the time of isolation:
 

it's autumn
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The weighted stormdoor closer I created for the front door needed some adjustments, and moving the lowest screw eye allowed the door to open fully, which will be important tomorrow when the stove is delivered. The cord length between the door and the weight also needed adjusted. All in all it is a clever hack, and bears repeating on the back door stormdoor.

At Ikea I was able to pick up a small OMAR storage shelf, suitable for holding the convection oven and the microwave; moving them off the countertop should allow for more working space in the kitchen, from next to the stove, and next to the sink.

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After chatting online with Raven about Scythian scroll ideas, it also occurred to me that I might do a Scythian themed calendar for 2022, with various artifacts and textile patterns... could be really a fun challenge, as well as reminding me to believe that there will continue to be a future.

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tie-dye top	sample leaf and stem	yard waste bin
2	-	pruned Japanese maple	recycle bin
3	-	assemble OMAR	-
4	-	repaired door closer	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - my friend Wanda was so very kind to give me a ride to the various errands I needed to do today, and offered to give me a ride again later on, to deal with the bits that were SNAFU'd today

transmogrification

in which our plucky heroine does a happy dance in the health and beauty aisle...

It was warm enough to ride my bike today. I stopped at the big straight grocery store to get some matches, since neither the local stores or the local drug store had any! The big supermarket only had the tiny boxes, and no big boxes of kitchen matches at all. And no canning jar lids (I always check). I then went to my local New Seasons to share my completed project with my friend who gave me the shirt:

~ creativity challenge ~

My friend Aeolus gifted me with a gorgeous tie dye tee shirt, which I decided to turn into a long sleeve knit top. The project took about a week+ of somewhat obsessive spare time hand stitchery to complete.

The front and back of the original tee shirt were transfomed into the long sleeves, with pieces of the front and back fitted into the neckline spaces, (photo shows the original vee neckline at the bottom edge, filled with assorted jersey pieces prior to hand stitching) so as to be large enough for the sleeve pattern pieces. The neckline binding, removed from the shirt, was just enough to bind the cuff edges of the new sleeves...

The body of the new transmogrified shirt was made from teal cotton lycra jersey. My plan was to use the rest of the tiedye jersey to decorate the neckline area to create a more gradual transition between the colorful sleeves and the plain teal fabric. I used more scraps to bind the neckline edge, and the bits of jersey from cutting away the sleeves was pulled into cordage to create the stems and vines. Aside from serging the body of the shirt, all the piecing and applique work is done with hand stitching, as was the fill on the ends of the sleeves (former neckline)

>

stitched a tiny sample to make sure that my idea for leafy vines was going to turn out the way I imagined

The completed front, designed to fit nicely in the neckline of my everyday pinafore

There were enough leftover pieces of colorful jersey that I added some leafy vines to the center back

I had to go show my finished transmogrification to my friend who created the beautiful and colorful dye job. They were quite delighted, and suggested that we might have to collaborate again sometime in the future!

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Tiedye top	sample leaf and stem	yard waste bin
2	-	pruned Japanese maple	recycle bin
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - possible movement forward on one of the many Aged Parent issues. We are trying to arrange for a cleaning service to do regular housekeeping for them, and if they agree to it*, that will definitely improve their quality of life...

* the big issue is that they really do not want "strangers" in their home, a challenge that has become much worse because of aging, the gorram pandemic, and my mothers dementia. There are no easy answers, since my father is still of quite sound mind, although becoming more frail as the years go on...

lumps and bumps, inside and out

in which our plucky heroine attempts smoothification...

I've been pruning bits here and there off the various yard trees. A branch of the persimmon broke, as the fruit had become too heavy for it to hold, I suspect that the rain has made the fruit more weighty than usual. Not really fully colored yet, and there are still a LOT of them on the tree. Trimming off some of the lowest branches on the Japanese maple, as it goes down to the ground on one side, and would look more balanced if it was an even-ish height as well as being easier to mow around. The apple tree in the back yard still needs to have both water sprouts removed and have the upper branches cut back to "reachable", but that can wait.

The cyst on the back of my hand has enlarged noticeably, and is starting to interfere with the movement of my hand and wrist. I have an appointment tomorrow to see my primary care doctor, as I am not sure what the next step to deal with it will be.

The new stove is on order, to hopefully be delivered and installed on Thursday next. It seemed a good idea to go ahead with that project, while there are still stoves to be had. Many of the stores I looked at had much of their appliances listed as "out of stock", and with the disruption in the transportation sphere, as well as the manufacturing and the raw materials sphere, it felt a bit prudent to stop dithering and push the add to cart button. I will be relived when it does finally appear, and is working; until then I continue to fret over possible difficulties. It will be lovely this winter to have more than two burners, and a real oven.

I have noticed that my anxiety is getting stronger in all sorts of directions, from aspects of my household, my bodily and mental health, and of course the larger bright world. Perhaps tomorrow I will take two bike rides, in the hope that more physical movement will help. 

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beauty in the time of isolation:

every autumn, when these lovely white and pink cyclamen bloom, I think fondly of my friend Kateryne Hindscroft, who sent the starts as a housewarming gift!

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Almost all the way finished with my recombinant tiedye knit top, all the vivid vining foliage appliques are stitched in place and all that remains is to complete stitching the hemline! It is so very colorful compared to most all of my clothing, and will be a promise to self that there may someday be festive occasions again...

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~ creativity challenge ~

three days of Scribetober prompts combined into one image, or "I can start to catch up!"... (next up is "spirit" and "free choice")

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Managed to get a tiny bit of decluttering done in the sewing room. Discarded several bags full of paper recycling, and consolidated two large boxes of notions  (twill and bias tape, zippers, etc) into one smaller box. I have no good way of storing fabric scraps, yet, either. My goal is to have the futon couch empty of everything except bedding. Might require my dumping fabric scraps into paper sacks yet again, or just throwing them away.

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Tiedye top	sample leaf and stem	yard waste bin
2	-	pruned Japanese maple	recycle bin
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - had a good long chat with Mr Dawson yesterday evening. Found my long lost pattern for cloth hosen, for my medieval and Viking Age clothes. And found the blade for my stick blender, (which would have been super annoying to replace.)

Monday miscellany

in which our plucky heroine misses reading news about her friends...

Facebook has been down (almost worldwide) since early this morning, and I never notice how often I check in online until it isn't there any more! Fortunately I was able to log in briefly prior to that, when I first woke up, and saw that young Heather and her husband were safely made parents of their infant son, born in the wee small hours today... Happy birth day Liam!

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beauty in the time of isolation:

Almandine, pleased to find California poppies, which match her holiday pinafore! 

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Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?
※※※

I did not carelessly eat the ham purchased yesterday. Why are more manufacturers adding cherry powder to their products? (rhetorical question). I was able to return it to the store (unopened, of course) and get credit towards my purchase. I really ought to just forget about buying any processed foods at all, but I was so craving a ham and cheese sandwich!

※※※

I am looking into all the variables that can affect the installation of a new stove. Forgot that even modern gas stoves need an electrical hookup as well, because electronic ignition. After about an hour on hold to various places, was able to determine that yes the power cord is included, and that it is six feet long, so will reach to the outlet. Whew! I loathe phone answering message trees particularly the ones with robots attached. At least we do not have to have electrical work done too!

※※※

October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	sample leaf and stem	-
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - a safe birth, a healthy baby...

Sunday stitchery

in which our plucky heroine takes a slow sewing break...

Still stressed about Aged Parents stuff, indeed just found out some more troubling information today that us siblings will be trying to deal with. My back still hurting, though riding my bike seems the only thing that lets me move with minimal pain. I'm still trying to commit to ordering a new stove, and cogitating on why I find it so very difficult to make that kind of "push the button on purchase" choice. If all goes well, my hope is to finally have a new and functional stove by wintertime.

※※※

~ creativity challenge ~

Having stitched together the shirt, I've now chalked in the design for couching and applique across the center front panel. My thought is that using the remaining tiedye fabric would blend the vivid and beautiful colors more evenly around the neckline as a smooth transition, as well as use up as much of the gorgeous dyework my friend Aeolus created as possible. I will likely also add some leafy vines across the center back panel as well

decided that stitching up a sample leaf before diving in to the entire shirt would be a good idea, to test out how the interaction between the various parts (jersey cords couched in place, and jersey leaf shapes whip stitched in place) would best be handled... I am very glad to see that careful stitches will yield a result similar to what I envisioned at first thought!

※※※

~ creativity challenge ~

Day 7 of the 30 day challenge, day 2 of Scribetober ("knot"). Today is day 3 ("vessel") and I didn't manage to draw when I first got up, so will take some time after cooking dinner, instead. Not sure how "creative" this is, but even with George Bain, I find doing any kind of Celtic knotwork really hard.

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beauty in the time of isolation:

look at these beautiful tiny eggplants, which were a successful grow on the front porch, and are about to become part of dinner!

※※※

October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	sample leaf and stem	-
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - we have had some really lovely autumnal afternoons, riding my bike is the least painful activity, and I have been enjoying that option. It always makes me feel young, in a good way!

Drawing and doodling

in which our plucky heroine toddles along...

Going to do the Scribetober challenge all this month, and extend my 30 day challenge further.

※※※

~ creativity challenge ~

Scribetober day 1 - the prompt was "snails" and the rabbits for my friend Edward who always says "rabbit rabbit rabbit" first thing on the first day of each month...

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October SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	-	-
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - homeostasis... the body wants to heal, even when it struggles to do so