Fall Sky

A Dress

From the thrift store.  I think it's a Target brand (Merona).  I love how it looks so 30'sish, and the print is so cute, though you can't see it here.  The dress is covered in rows of little white dots, some solid, some more like donuts - with holes in their middles!

A Storm

    Yesterday morning it was dark and windy outside.  Not North Dakota windy, but by the time Beth and I got to philosophy class, we were hearing about tornado warnings in neighboring counties.  About five minutes into class, the campus police came and told us to stay in our basement classroom, because we were under a tornado warning.  Two minutes later there was a knock on the door and about forty students and teachers piled into our room. 

     

     Our professor joked half-seriously at first about continuing the lecture, but as more and more people came in and he realized it would be impossible to teach, he just leaned against his podium, looking more and more depressed (he really likes philosophy).

     Forty five long minutes later the weather service lifted the warning, and the people filed out.  We sat there, wondering whether or not our professor would lecture in the remaining half-hour of class period.  

     "Back to Sartre," he said.

     We must have all groaned, because I think he was serious, but he quickly asked what we'd prefer to do.  I don't think a single person requested that we stay.  Sartre was crazy, you see, and his writing evidences that.

     I like storms.  Ordinarily I like school too, but of all the classes for the tornado warning to disrupt, this was the one!  

  

"Song Food"

Isn't this just the sweetest bird food tin you've ever seen?  Come to think of it, I believe it is the only bird food tin I have ever seen.  They don't make things like they used to.  That bird just makes me smile!

Jenny Wren

One down, six to go.  Opinions on Ms. Wren's color? Should I outline the next bird in black (like Ms. Wren) or in its actual feather color?

P.S. There were actual bird specimens in our botany room today (don't ask me why)! The pigeon had seen better days, but the seagull and blackbird were really neat.

The Finished Terrarium

The humidifier is now home to a tiny little peperonica plant.  Even though it sits in part of my room that stays fairly dark in the morning, there's almost always a little condensation on the inside of the glass.  

An Autumn Weekend

Just us, at a state park.  Every last one of us has been extremely busy lately, and this quiet getaway was a welcome relief.  It has only rained once here since the early August, so the leaved weren't very colorful, but the air was cool and crisp, there were plenty of acorns to throw at each other, the sky was clear and blue, and it was just a little breezy.   

We read.

We went to the Nature Center.

We went inside a watery cave.

One of us caught a frog.

And we visited a lake for an hour before the sun went down.

Fall Proceedings

What an autumn we've had so far! Acorns galore (I can't tell you how much I enjoy stomping on them), freshly-pressed cider, keeping busy with school, and today, a visit to an old mill and a lake! Because every single one of us has been wildly busy these last few months, we set aside this weekend to be strictly family time. Pictures tomorrow...

Curious Kitten

     An orange-striped kitten was roaming around the neighborhood a few weeks ago. A little neighbor girl rescued him from a creek and brought him home - but he's too curious to stay there! He was fascinated with Dixie, my hoe, and anything else that moves! He has a wimpy side too - we had to rescue him from our trees twice.

Potential

Tomorrow, this jar will become a terrarium.  It is part of school, really!  We are making terrariums in botany class, in between stages of a lengthy lab.  

I found the jar at the antique mall.  Once upon a time it was used to water chickens - you can see the "water level" marks near the top. Hmm... an antique glass container, with a chippy black lid, once used on a local farm to water chickens, and would make a perfect little terrarium.  Yup, I'll take it!



EDIT:  Further research leads me to believe that the person at the antique store did not quite know the real use of this jar.  It did come from a local farm, but it's a humidifier jar, not a chicken-waterer.  Definitely less interesting, but still, a good terrarium.   And glass.  And a container with a chippy lid!

Starting to Turn

The leaves on our front tree are starting to turn from green to yellow to brown!  It's been decided cooler here, too, and I can officially say that it's Autumn!

Happy Fall!  Go wear a sweater and drink something warm.

Evening Roses

I love them.  They just bloom and bloom all summer and late into the fall.