Oct 2023

October has returned and with it the glory of Inktober.

I will put a few of my favorite sketches here.

Some of my favorite daily prompts were "spiders" and "dream".

Piano class is still going. I am getting more into playing with both hands. Slow and steady in this case.

We got the last CSA box of the year. I hope they have other options next year. The once a month pick up was not enough to feel the fun of the venture.

They were always  good but it was too infrequent.

David and I went on a fun fall date and saw some of the beautiful sites in Frederick. Plus we ate well.

I'm so glad I married him :)

Megan decided that she wanted to be a redhead.

My dough starter went crazy.

Grandma Mary and her best friend Jan went to Arizona and sent us some great pictures.

I drew a good mummy wrap.

The garden gave us some terribly hot peppers and I drew those as well.

It got cold enough at night that I brought my plants in.

I got my dough under control.

The bread was so pretty.

Meg looks great with red.

We went to the apple orchard and pumpkin place.

I went Halloween happy and put up all sorts of decorations.

Megan loves Halloween and she asked me to take down the bin. Then she took out one thing and lost interest.

I really got into it.

My favorite was the mantle place. I have these 3D printed horse skulls that I am using for a project and they go really well with some sticks from the yard.

I very much want to go to Arizona now.

It was grandma Mary's birthday and I got her some fancy orthotic flip flops that I love and she also loved.

Good stuff.

I started putting together pretty leaves and made a few St. Bridit's crosses

Kiernan has been taking guitar this semester. Here he is playing my grandfather Rumford's old guitar. Great stuff!

This is the sunrise I see after dropping him off.

High School starts way too early y'all 

We are making a series of videos at my work to explain what we do. I have been taking lots of pictures and videos and its been lots of fun.

The nights are dark early now so I put a timer out in the yard to turn on some bat and ghost projectors.

Plus this excellent jack-o-lantern light.

For her 12 birthday this year Megan got a trip.

Nana decided while we were in Spain this summer that Megan should have a trip like Kiernan did. She found some incredibly affordable tickets to Iceland and took Megan there for a weekend.

Megan had never been out of the country or even on an airplane.

I, flight lover that I am (i hate flying), was very nervous on her behalf.

She was fine.

They flew overnight. They left Thursday night and checked into their hotel Friday morning early.

Then they spent all Friday touring the Golden Circle with a tour guide named Balder Balderson.

Megan loved Iceland.

She said her favorite part was that you would go along city-city-city, wilderness, with no transition whatsoever.

They were very tired after that and spent Saturday relaxing at the hotel and then flew back on Sunday.

I got a cool new outfit and scarf, both of them with peacock feathers on.

I love peacock feathers.

I went back to blacksmithing after a summer off.

I made an s-hook for a chain I'm working on.

When I got home with my S-hook I took Halloween photos and this fetching one of Pax.

Here is the chain so far. It is hanging from the tripod I made at my first blacksmithing project. I did that in summer camp when I was around Kiernan's age.

The caldron is from my Dad and Mary and eventually I will finish the chain and put dry ice in there for spooky smoke.

We went to the airport and gathered a very sleepy and accomplished Megan.

She was home in time for important pumpkin carving.

Here is mine.

My creepy drawing for the scratchy prompt.

I made a nice Thai soup.

They are building a road behind our house. I am very unhappy about that.

I got 6 American Hollys for a security screen and fence.

Megan got her birthday presents and tiramisu.

I got new glasses. They were so cheap. and they fit well and I am pleased.

my last pair cost almost 400 bucks. This time I asked the eye doctor to just give me the prescription.

Then I went to Zenni.

David has some uncomfortable doctors appointments come up so I decided to do all of mine too. I am terrible for avoiding the entire medical apparatus.

When working myself up to medical things I do easiest first. So I went to get my eyes checked.

After that I went for a mammogram.

That came back abnormal. I wasn't too concerned until they called me back several times to urge me to come back...

It turned out to be fine. I went through the ringer for a bit there though.

I scheduled foot surgery because my heels hurt all the time now. I scheduled a new patients visit to the office my regular doctor moved to. I scheduled a physical. Too much adventure.

A much nicer adventure was this hike I took with my cousin around Cunningham Falls.

My feet hurt but It was beautiful

Here is a lovely picture of Kiernan with a pumpkin that has 3 faces.

For Halloween I wore a skeleton body suit and a goth dress.

The kids went out trick or treating without us. They did a Monty Python bring out your dead thing with Kiernan pulling a wagon and Megan being a plague victim.

Opa's birthday is on the 31st so while the kids went to gather candy we went to the Bavarian Inn and had a birthday dinner.

He is a charmer!

A happy Halloween for all.