A little bit of sunshine on this gloomy, rainy day makes me smile.
~ Have a wonderful weekend!

Isn't she lovely?  I have wanted a nice Dutch Oven for a very long time, but always had a hard time justifying the price.  Most of my pans are older than all of my children so I finally bit the bullet and invested in a Staub dutch oven.  I love that it has self basting small spikes that keeps everything moist while cooking and I LOVE this saffron color!

I was going to share this recipe with you, but after making it last night, I won't.  I never realized how much fat is in short ribs.  So much so that I couldn't eat them.  blech!

Instead I will leave you with my friend Miriam's yummy braised recipe

Braised Chicken legs

8 Chicken Legs (she used thighs) I removed the skin
1T bacon fat or olive oil
Onion
garlic
White wine (1/2 c)
Chicken broth (1 can)
Salt, Pepper
Rosemary
Lemon thyme or lemon verbena

Sear the chicken with bacon fat or oil, remove the chicken from the pot then cook onions and
garlic for a few minutes. Deglaze the pot with white wine then add the broth, put the
chicken back in.  Add the seasoning and bring it all to a boil, then put the pot into a 350 degree oven for approximately an hour or until chicken is falling off the bone. 
Very yummy….enjoy!

You may be wondering why I didn't post yesterday?  I had planned on participating in Ten on Tuesday, but it was a big fail for me.  The topic was your ten favorite mysteries books/authors.  I read a lot of books, but not enough mysteries it would appear.  I read a lot of the TOT posts and am now going to add a few of those to my kindle.

On to today.  I have been working at cleaning up my UFO's because I have a few projects that I am itching to get started on, but I promised myself I would get my unfinished things finished.  The blue moon socks were last week and this week I have been plowing through my Leaving sweater.  I just have to finish up the sleeves, then I will move onto the dreaded seaming.  I don't know why I hate seaming so much, but I really do.  

Here's a close up of the sleeve pattern.  Isn't it pretty?

Yesterday we celebrated Ken's birthday.  Each year as the kids have gotten older he has struggled with his birthday.  He misses having them around all the time and getting older kind of bothers him, so he usually asks me not to do anything for his birthday.

This year however, I was determined to help him enjoy his birthday, so I rounded up the kids one by one to come home for the day, telling them all why….and home they all came.

It was nice to have the house full of their chatter and laughter.  (Miles and Ashley haven't changed at all…LOL).  It was also nice that Ken was able to watch football with them all….and of course there were lots of good things to eat like a Butternut/sage lasagna, cream pies and carrot cake…mmm.  I froze up the leftovers so that we wouldn't be tempted to pick at them in the fridge.

As you can see my family has grown.  My son and his fiance are getting married in January.  Stacey and her fiance are actually getting married next week…both weddings are exciting destination weddings.
I think I have a pretty nice looking group of kids!
Thanks guys for making Dad's day a happy one!!

I hope you get a chance to see the beautiful colors of fall this weekend.  Our colors are starting to fade up here, but it's still so lovely.  Have a wonderful weekend!!

Pattern:  Rimefrost
Yarn:  Woolen Rabbit Pearl
Colorway:  Blue Moon
Needles:  US 2.25

Whew….they're finished!  I LOVE, love, love how they came out, but these were not the easiest of socks to knit.  Anne's sock patterns usually have a very easy flow to them and I can usually toss aside the charts early on, but not so with this pair.  I had set these aside during the summer for some easy beach knitting, so I waited for the cooler temps and quiet days to get back at knitting these.  I'm so happy that I didn't toss them in the UFO pile!  Speaking of that pile, I am working on finishing a few things up including another challenging sock.

I am really pleased with how Pearl knit up……beauiful stitch definition and still soft.  Yay…I can't wait to wear them!

I spent Columbus day putting the summer's garden beds to rest.  As you can see from this picture that I had let it just keep growing, and growing and growing.

The month of August was a crazy busy and fairly stressful one with Woolen Rabbit demands and September was pretty much a bust for working in the garden because of back issues, so as you can see things are pretty darn over-grown, but not any more.  All of the beds, except for the herb bed have been emptied and turned over for winter's rest.  I did leave some carrots in to sweeten over the next few weeks though.

This year's garden had some high points and low points.  Tomatoes, peppers and corn really didn't do that well.  I had enough roma tomatoes to freeze a number of quarts of sauce, but my heirlooms did nothing…boo.  Broccoli on the other hand was the plant that kept giving and giving and giving.  We had amazing broccoli all summer and I collected another batch when I pulled the plants out.  Bush beans, lettuce, carrots and onions all did well too.  The herbs were amazing this year.  That bed is exploding right now with herbs to dry…and as you can see my marigolds were ginormous!

Remember earlier in the spring I did some companion planting.  I can honestly say that I don't think it made a whole lot of difference.  I didn't find that one thing did better than usual in the garden other than the broccoli, but the Rosemary didn't keep those pesky cabbage loopers away. 

Next year I will try a few different things.  Now that the kids are mostly grown there is not the same need to plant so much.  I really love strawberries, so I think I may try dedicating a bed for strawberry plants.  I will plant less tomato plants, but definitely a yellow tomato plant.  I discovered how much I really love them in a Caprese salad…mmm.

Every year when I face the task of putting the beds to rest I groan because it is a lot of work, but when it's finished those empty beds make me smile.  Another clean slate for next year…..

This week's ten on Tuesdays top is 10 things you did this weekend.
This is a good topic for me today as my weekend was pretty full. Full enough that this was the only picture I took all weekend…sheesh!

1.  Lot's of people watching (you learn so much about people by quietly observing)
2.  Spent time with my fiber sisters
3.  Spun up a braid of roving
4.  Wove a scarf (almost finished)
5.  Blueberry Crisp…mmmmm
6. Color inspiration from the Poultry Barn
7. Finished a round of Prednisone and I'm feeling a little more human again
8.  Enjoyed the amazing foliage on my trip into the fairgrounds every morning
9.  Shared Sunday afternoon with Ken at the fair….he's a great Woolen Rabbit helper
10. Enjoyed dinner with a good friend who lives too far away now.

There were a few other things that happened as well, but best one….all of the downstairs floors have been installed.  Ken did an amazing job, but I will save that for another post.

What did you do on your weekend?

Remember I mentioned that I might take a short trek around town to snap off some pictures?  Well it turned out that Tuesday was the only day this week that saw the sun shine for more than 10 minutes and those 10 minutes were only minutes here and there.  It's been a very dreary week with a lot of rain and clouds, which makes me feel a bit sad for all of the people who travel from near and far to see the amazing NH mountain foliage.  It's still so beautiful, but a little less enjoyable with the clouds and rain.

Tomorrow promises to be a beautiful day however and the scenery above is what I see each day when I walk out the door into my yard.  I am so fortunate to live in such a beautiful place, and for the last 22 years that I have been up here, each autumn season still even now continues to take my breath away.

….and as I walk out the door tomorrow to my car, it's off to the Fair I go. 
Have a great weekend!!

as
I am running into the house for a quick break.  The skein winders are
clacking away, labels are printing and the loom is strung for a
merino/silk scarf that I will share with you next week when it is
completed.

I hope that you have a wonderful day in your corner of the world ~