Deep Breath

In an effort be avoid becoming the Amazing Expanding Aunt Elaineous, I have been making more of an effort to spend more of my days out and about.  Really there is no excuse not to, West Marin is full of knock your socks off views and mild weather. I am really blessed to have to opportunity to live in such a beautiful part of the country.  And so I would like to invite you to join me for a stroll and share some of the lovely sights around my home.

The Japanese Maples in the yard are just starting to look a little fall-like.  They are such lovely elegant trees I can't help but stop right outside my door and snap a shot of one.

I make it almost to the gate and had to stop again to drink in the cheerful color of the fuchsias. 

And at last I make it out the gate.  Our street is lined with huge California Cypress trees and a healthy smattering of eucalyptus trees on the other side.  I remember as a kid when we visited California on vacation from Virginia, and just being constantly amazed by how humongous the trees here are.

Pause to breathe.  The air smells so clean after the first rain in months.

  

These are the darling sheep that live just up the road.  They are funny creatures and very noisy, yelling "Baaaah!" at all the passerby.  Many of the neighbors pick apples off the tree directly across the street and toss them over the fence, resulting in them rushing over to greet me as I pass.  They get very disgruntled when I fail to produce any apples though.  If you look very carefully at the photo above you might be able to find the grey heron who has recently taken up residency in their field. 

Just a bit further up the road is a very sweet, elderly horse named Rocky.  He also is very social, probably due to a great many apples fed to him over the fence.  He will settle for some nose nuzzles and neck pats though.

One of my most frequent walks is around a little circular road right nearby.  Our neighborhood is up on a big plateau over looking the Tomales Bay.  Behind those big mountainous hills to the west is the Pacific, usually an hour or two before sundown the wind kicks up and blows the clouds and the cold air in off the big water, but this particular evening was mellow and pleasant.

Deep breaths.  Aaaaaahhhhhh.

 By the driveway there are two sweet bunny benches.  Currently they appear to be nibbling on the pumpkins I picked up at the supermarket for C and myself to carve closer to Halloween.

 And then I look up...

... and the big lone cypress behind the house is catching the last rays of the day as they disappear behind the hills.

Beginning in the Middle

In the past two years I have been aunted (it's like being knighted only more fun) three times by both my own siblings and my almost-sister-in-law with three gorgeously adorable baby girls.  I myself have yet to Settle Down and Start a Family with my long term serious Significant Other. My time is probably not too many years off, however I have vicariously found a good deal of homey enjoyment out of crafting and generally doting on my nieces.  The two nieces from my own siblings, Sweet B (20 months) and Darling N(1.5 months!), live at long distance and so I must keep connected through the miracle of the Internet and crafting fun things which I put lots of time and love into.

I have actually just yesterday finished N's baby blanket. It feels a little anti-climactic to have a Tah-Da in the very first post, but I would like to share what I have been working on with you if you will bear with me. I know the journey is a big part of the fun, but I am enormously excited about my first ever ripple blanket, so I will contain myself a bit and only post a few pictures.

Here I will allow myself a very small Tah-Da! It is made mostly from Lily's Sugar n' Cream 100% Cotton yarn and a little from other cotton yarn of the same size I happened to have lying around and am not entirely sure what brand.  The pattern is from lovely Lucy at Attic24 and is called the Neat Ripple.  No tape measure handy, but it's about 3.5 feet by 5 feet.

I am working on a few cute critters to send her way as well, and with any luck I will actually get the package together and mailed before I go to see them at Christmas Time.

Now I will confess that I have had a few false starts with blogs over the years, and would very much like to keep this one going.  So I will just have to save more fun things for a later posts.  Which there will be in plenty.