Fun Frieda

It's feeling very fall-ish lately.

I view this with mixed emotions; on the one hand, my garden has barely had a chance - the tomatoes are still hanging greenly on their vines.

On the other hand, I really love fall weather. All the drizzle and half-light makes me want to sit in a cozy chair by a window with a mug of hot something.

Since I haven't posted here in quite a while, I'll try to bring you up to speed. Just days after school let out, we began an earnest search for a  Labrador Retriever puppy. My 9 year old son had been asking for one for almost a year and while initially I thought it would make a wonderful Christmas surprise, the fact that we left for a week of vacation a few days after the holiday made me give up that idea. Instead we decided to wait until summer when Ben (our son) would be home all day and able to fully appreciate the responsibility of taking care of "his" puppy. I hope he will think long and hard before asking for another gift that requires so much care and attention (thinking 8 years ahead to "car"...). After we had viewed 7 litters in as many days, we settled on a little chocolate brown male that Ben promptly christened Gage.

His name has grown with him and he now goes by the more formal title of 'Gager von Pupperdoodle.'

Today I took Gagers for a nice walk around our neighborhood. We live in a rural community outside city limits and most people have at least an acre of property, if not more. So I was kinda surprised to see how many folks were dumping their yard waste on empty lots and public park land. We have a compost heap that is the envy of many friends, family and acquaintances, and it requires little to no maintenance (until you are ready to use it in the garden...) so it really baffles me that anyone with property to spare would choose to haul their lawn clippings, garden detritus and leaves out of their own yards to dump elsewhere. I just don't get it, but maybe that's me.

I have been really delinquent with my etsy shop this summer. While items still occasionally sell, I haven't added anything new in months. I'd like to rectify that, but I'll be substitute teaching again this year so I have no idea when that might happen.

The up-side of all this is that I need to learn how to balance all these chairs, or juggle all of these balls, or any other circus-metaphor you can think of, and it sure sounds like opportunity is a-knockin' on my front door.

but for now...