To mid October

Fall colors have arrived.

I am wandering around enamored of trees. 

The extra darkness and cold are kicking my anxiety up pretty hard but I'm holding steady so far.

I'm still working on inktober and still loving it.

We had a nice clean up weekend in which we burned a few chopped up bushes and some document shredder sorts of papers.

I tried Vietnamese tacos for the first time. There is a farmers market at my work on Tuesdays. At this farmers market there is a food truck called Pham Vietnameese. There is a fair amount of veggie food. I found the tacos to be surprisingly sweet and not as spicy as expected but over all enjoyable.

I'm putting pegs and hooks on my pegboard some more. everything is at the very bottom because i cant reach anything else. This is mostly because my work bench is in fact a dining room table and they are hard to reach beyond and above.

Things are better and better for the wood working though.

I got this great cheese that Kathyn introduced me to. Its called mimolette and Wegmans did the best display of it.

In an effort to get Megan to eat more vegetables I am trying a lot of new recipes. Here are puff pastry broccoli and cheese things.

Its gotten cold and we are in full hot tub season.

Oh how I love hot tub season.

That feeling of freezing your feet as you run out only to boil them is extraordinary.

Kiernan is actually getting in to the hot tub some this year.

He is so sensitive to heat that it amazes me each time I see him in there.

We have been playing a lot of Minecraft and watching all the Horrible Histories. Plus he bought a Dr. Who book at the book fair so we are watching the series again. He wasn't quite there for it last time we tried but this time it seems to be sticking.

We are still on the 9th Doctor.

We shall see.

I made a clone recipe of Panera's Autumn Squash soup.

It turned out perfectly but was really weird to make. It had pumpkin and butternut squash and onion stewed in cider then stock and cream cheese and spices.

Very good.

I took Megan out to eat at IHOP and they had a special Adams Family menu.

This is Morticias Haunted Hot Chocolate.

She loved it and went on a days long Adams Family jag in which i braided her hair and called her Wednesday. 

 I've strung orange lights over her bed and am helping her in all her baby goth fantasies. I will be getting some black hair dye for her in a few weeks if she is still in the mood.

I made a great Thai spicy vinegar sauce from all of our leftover chilies.

Also I got jalapeno poppers and made strawberry chili flake sauce for dipping.

They used to serve it that way at my much missed Hard Times Cafe.

It's a great combination.

David and I got a day off when the kids had school. We hardly knew what to do with ourselves.

For Christmas/Birthday last year he had promised me a fancy date so we took the whole day to dress up and do beautiful things

Have you ever seen a more dashing man?

You have not.

We went to Le Pain Quotidian.

It was a major disappointment.

I had a hot chocolate there years ago that made me swoon. They brought me melted chocolate and a small picture of milk/cream and a bowl and whist . I mixed my own perfect and warm hot chocolate and the experience of doing so plus the ability to control the sweetness had me singing their praises for years.

This time after waiting for nearly half an hour I was brought a tepid paper-cup full of un-chocolaty hot chocolate.

They completely forgot my pastry and after another 15 minutes brought over my I'm-sure-it-didn't-take-45-minutes-to-make-this avocado toast.

Our meter nearly ran out.

The food was ok.

I really enjoyed watching David in all his fanciness.

Then we left for the gardens. You can tell I designed this date cause it was a garden sandwiched between foods.

The gardens were The Bishops Gardens at the Washington National Cathedral. We hadn't been to the cathedral since the earthquake damaged it and didn't know they charged admission now. I was happy to pay it. They deserve some money for maintenance and repair for all that beauty. 

This is not one of the churches that I feel particularly pious in but it still fills me with awe.

They are doing a fun thing to raise money for repairs. They are building a scale model Lego copy of the cathedral in which donors can buy a Lego brick for 2 dollars to contribute to both the repair fund and the build. They said they are using regular pack Lego's plus some Harry Potter set pieces.

The inner courtyard garden is one I had never seen. It felt very medieval.

This wisteria covered tower convinced me to go back again in the late spring. I would love to smell the flowers and see all that purple.

The Norman gate.

A fetching man strolling away next to non deer eaten hosta.

Waaa! My hosta have been decimated this year.

Stupid deer!

This little garden of medicinal and edible herbs is something that I think I would like to recreate. It looks like a ton of work but it was so beautiful and fragrant and historical and peaceful. It was basically all things that I love.

Every once in a while I wold look up from the flowers and be shocked to see a Gothic building right there.

So cool.

There was a good sized pollinator garden that was dense with bees and butterflies and I sat for a bit and listened to how gardens should sound and how in my memory they do sound.

It was sad and sweet.

This view of the Catherine Wheel fountain!

Understand that nearly all these historical looking things are actually historical things. This is a 15th C french bas relief.

Oh man.

Gen-X and not millennial enough to know how to work my phone here.

I wanted a picture of us in our fancy clothes.

It didn't work perfectly.

That's video mode. Oops.

Oh well.

We lost some time on this date because I had a dentist visit in the morning so we didn't get to our big fancy meal.

I was bummed but we are going to try for round 2 sometime soon.

It was time to go pick up our Girl Scout.

There is beauty even in parking lots for pick up.

Bear it in mind.

We also had the book fair this week.

My drive home is beautiful too.

It goes back and forth between looking like Tuscany with farms and hills and then into the deciduous forest of Maryland. I spend most of my drive to work singing new songs that I am learning and my drive home from work talking to my sister Jessica or sometimes the lovely grandma Mary.

On my work walks I have been grabbing leaves to admire at my desk.

I took this one at lunch today.

The place that I work is pretty ugly.

I find it hard sometimes to be in a place that is all pipes and concrete and windowless military and government slabs.

It feels a little cruel in a weird way. I work next to mountains but mostly I see dirty brick and potholes. Then at lunch time I walk outside and find something like this and my shoulders move back down from their hunch and I feel so happy.

So far so good.

If you want to order anything from Megans Girl Scout fundraiser click here.