Autumn Joy

Posted on October 18, 2017 by TJ

Today was an absolutely beautiful autumn day. The sun was shining and the sky was the shade of deep blue that only occurs in the autumn. The warm winds were 15 to 20 mph with gusts as high as 30 mph. The leaves flew off the trees like flocks of colorful birds.

The day was so beautiful that it was impossible not to feel a deep satisfying joy.

I dragged our stepladder down the hill and set it up next to my sign so I could reach the higher-up boards. I spent a happy hour or two outlining the yellow letters with orange paint pens. The orange looks good, but I don’t think it’s dark enough to be seen from a distance so I will probably re-outline the letters in red as soon as I can get to Joann’s Fabrics to buy a red paint pen.

After I finished working on the sign, I carried the stepladder back up the driveway. It was a lot harder carrying it up than it was carrying it down. I kept stopping to rest, and also to enjoy the wind blowing the leaves off the trees. I also couldn’t help noticing my shadow self carrying a shadowy ladder. I took a photo. I’ve always thought shadows were interesting. I have fond memories of making shadow creatures with my hands when I was a child. JJ and I used to take “night walks” when he was younger, and we had fun playing with our shadows that were formed by the street lights. I always remember an interesting short story I read years ago called The Shadows. It was written by George MacDonald, an author who lived 1824-1905. I like the interesting patterns formed by shadows, and sometimes I take pictures of them–like these, which I took over the last couple of months:

The shadow of our kitchen chair.

The shadow of the window blinds on the cactus.

Me going through the gate with my basket to gather eggs.

This afternoon and evening, in between my other tasks, I began working on a new crochet project. I’m experimenting with making small snowflake dreamcatchers/ornaments. I’ve never done it before, so I did some ripping out–mostly because I didn’t really understand the pattern I was using. I really think the designer left out a row in her instructions, and I didn’t quite understand how to double crochet around the metal ring. I found a different snowflake pattern and adapted it to fit in the 3 inch metal ring. I took a quick picture of it so you can see it. I’ll take better photos when I post it at my Etsy store. I’m quite proud of my efforts. I searched for and printed off other snowflake patterns to adapt as well.

I have a long list of projects I’d like to work on….including designing/adapting a crocheted shawl and learning to macrame. I learned how to make macrame pot hangers years ago in summer camp, but I have forgotten how–and there are so many more interesting techniques and patterns these days.