I love the way the ornamental grasses at the library look against a blue sky with puffy white clouds. It’s such a pretty sight and so perfectly fall.

Have a great weekend!

Back at the beginning of the summer I went to a lovely dinner party at the home of our friends the Horans. Dale had to work with the band that night so he was only able to be there for drinks and appetizers but I spent the evening with our friends. We had a wonderful meal on their deck and then we retired to their back yard where they had a fire in their fire pit. It was a beautiful night and we relaxed, drank wine, chatted, and gazed at the crackling fire.

I came home all fired up (get it? fired up? heh) about that fire pit and urged Dale to build one for us. He was agreeable to the idea so we started to plan. We selected a location on the side of our house, a part of the yard we rarely use other than for horseshoes. You may recall that we had removed a large maple tree from this area last summer and we’ve been struggling to grow grass their ever since. It was not a difficult decision to give up on the grass and repurpose the area for our new fire feature.

We considered simply purchasing a stainless steel fire pit like our friends have but we’ve heard they rust and need to be replaced frequently. They are also not inexpensive so we decided building our own would be smarter and more economical. We looked at pictures of fire pits online and I find a few that I liked pretty quickly. We decided to go with a square rather than a circle. I thought it was more aesthetically pleasing, almost like a chimney at ground level. I also figured it would be easier. It turned out to be cheaper, too, since we didn’t need to use curved pavers.

On a Friday back in August I sort of, errr, pushed Dale into making it happen. I had invited friends over for dinner and told Dale they expected to have a fire in our new fire pit that night. We went off to Lowe’s and we bought cement blocks and rectangular pavers and crushed stone. It was only about $75 and we headed home, eager to start.

We found our center point and spray painted a circle in the grass to mark where we needed to shovel out the dirt. We enlisted help from Patrick, our grandson, Joe, a friend of Hannah’s, and Eryk, a friend of Jessica’s. The guys dug and dug and then started to put the cement blocks in place.

They soon discovered, however, that a large root from the tree was in the way. So they dug and dug and dug and tried to get that root up. It was stubborn and large and it did not want to move.

Dale eventually got his chain saw and began hacking away at the thing. In the ground. There was dirt everywhere and still that root would not budge. Finally, after nearly 2 hours, the root gave way.

There were hollers and whoops of cheer and I made the guys pose for a photo.

Once that root was gone it was pretty quick work to put down the rest of the cement blocks. We used full size ones and half size ones to get the depth that we wanted. The rectangular pavers then went around the top and added some visual appeal with their texture and placement. We haven’t cemented everything in place yet as we want to make sure the ground doesn’t settle and require us to re-level the area. We’ve also surrounded the fire pit with pea stone although I don’t have a photo of that. Probably because, even though we’ve gone back and bought more and more bags of the stone, we still don’t have enough. What can I say? My geometry skills suck.

In the meantime, though, we have enjoyed several fires already. It’s so relaxing to go out there in the evening and just talk with friends, share some food and drink, and watch the fire. It’s like going camping but with all the comforts of home.

And that’s my story of a DIY fire pit. For 7-8 hours of labor and $150 in materials we’ve got ourselves a pretty cool spot in our yard now.

And we just won’t talk about the cost of that new chainsaw blade.

My September socks are finished.

I started these during our Cape Cod vacation. I wanted beach knitting that was simple so that I could enjoy looking around, so that I could drop them in my bag to go play in the water, and so that I could drink beer and not worry about making a mistake. Naturally I used my picot edge sock pattern.

While knitting them on the beach one afternoon my dear friend Doreen admired them. She exclaimed over the softness of the yarn.  She admired the beautiful colors. And she contemplated the incredible feeling of warmth that must come when wearing a pair of hand knit wool socks.

I don’t think she was fishing for me to give them to her.

So of course that’s just what I have done.

Sometimes the topics for our weekly Ten on Tuesday meme come easily, sometimes I have to really think hard to come up with something. Sometimes the topics are well received and fun to write and sometimes coming up with a list of 10 things is like pulling teeth. I think this one will be a winner but I’ve been wrong before. Nevertheless, everyone should be able to get on board with 10 Things You Do Every Day because, well, we all do stuff every day.

1. Brush my teeth. Pretty much as soon as my feet hit the floor because I abhor morning breath.
2. Drink coffee. Usually it’s only 2 cups for me but it’s occasionally more. And I definitely do this every day.
3. Raise the shades in the bedroom. I’m approaching this in chronological order, can you tell?
4.  Read email, check Facebook, check Google Reader. Truly, this is as essential as coffee.
5. Watch TV. I always watch the news in the morning, I dvr The View every day, and our evenings are quite often spent watching our favorite shows.
6. Eat. I try and make healthy choices, I try to watch my portion size, and I try to stop eating when I’m full. It’s a struggle, though, because I love to eat delicious food.
7. Take at least one photo. I’m 3/4 of the way through my second year of Project 365. Taking a daily photo is pretty routine at this point.
8. Use my iPhone. I don’t necessarily make a call every day but there’s usually texting, or checking Toodledo, of Facebook, or one of the many other apps that makes me refer to my iPhone as my precious.
9. Knit. Yes, every day unless I’m too sick and even then I’m likely to at least hold my knitting needles in my lap.
10. Sleep. Sometimes getting into my bed at night and snuggling up next to Dale is the best part of my day.

It’s been quite some time since I have sat down at my sewing machine and quilted anything. Probably years, in fact. A couple of weeks ago, though, I spent a day visiting a couple of local quilt shops with my friends Lois and Blogless Sharon. Turns out, that was all I needed to kick-start my quilting mojo.

I bought this adorable little cupcake potholder kit and I’ve already made it. It didn’t take long, maybe just under 2 hours, and it’s pretty cute. I had to find my supplies and it took a while to remember how to use my walking foot but once I got going I found that I really enjoyed myself.

It’s going off in a care package to Hannah this week and I’m already working on my next quilting project. Remember this jelly roll?

Those strips have now been sewn into a quilt top and I got a beautiful dark blue bali print to use for the borders, backing and binding.

I’m still a fervent knitter and occasional spinner but it sure feels good to quilt again.

I couldn’t resist another shot of the beautiful flowers my friend Wendy gave me for my birthday. They are colorful and festive and they make me smile when I look at them.

Have an awesome weekend and SMILE!

Thank you all so much for the plethora of comments yesterday! Between all of your comments, the posts on my Facebook wall, the cards I got in the mail, and the people who yelled “Happy Birthday” when I went for a walk in the afternoon, I was most definitely feeling the birthday love. And I’m glad you all enjoyed Dale’s post, too. I think he does a pretty good job with the annual birthday blog post. Did you notice how he ended the post with a comment about hurricanes? I was so pleased with that as it makes a perfect segue to today’s post.

I have written about my connection with hurricanes before. It was a while ago, though, and many of you didn’t read my blog back then so I’m going to reprint a portion of that post. The date was August 15, 2005.

The hands-down worst hurricane to hit New England was on September 21, 1938 – this was before hurricanes were named, by the way, but September 21st, for those of you paying attention, wound up being my birthday some 27 years after this hurricane.

Another storm that has gone down in history was Hurricane Carol, which arrived on August 31, 1954. My oldest brother was just 3 months old when this storm hit and my mother was in Falmouth, Massachusetts. She remembers looking out the front door and seeing the ocean coming up the road – and they were about 2 miles from the beach.

As an aside, there was another Hurricane Carol in 1965, which just happens to be the year I was born. They didn’t keep official hurricane name lists at that time, and that’s why the name was used again. However, once the formal lists were introduced the name “Carol” was retired due to the destruction in 1954, and it will never be used for a hurricane again.

So. Anyone making the connection? The two most severe hurricanes in New England? One sharing my birthday? And one sharing my name? Twice, including the year I was born? It explains a bit about my personality, I think. Just ask my family. Most of the time, they live in the eye of the storm where all is calm and peaceful. But then the spiral bands surrounding the eye take hold and suck them into the cyclone where things are not quite so, ummm, pleasant.

Hurricanes have followed me my whole life is all I’m saying.

See that aside up there about the other Hurricane Carol? The one in 1965? Well, guess what caught my eye when I took a picture of the front page of the paper from the day I was born.

I told you I had a connection with hurricanes.

Hey Everybody,
Today’s post is written by my darling husband, Dale. Enjoy!
Carole

What is it with all those songs about turning sixteen? 16 Candles, You’re 16, Happy Birthday Sweet 16, Sweet Little 16. What about the rest of your years?

Sure, 16 is a big year to celebrate your transition between childhood and adulthood but I don’t think the year 16 should have a lock on songs about age. I just don’t think that any one birthday, even the 16th one, should take precedence over the rest. Every birthday should be monumental. Every birthday is important. Every birthday is the end of another year with family and friends, another year of living and loving, another year of making a difference, of dreaming and hoping and just being alive.

This is why I look forward to birthday celebrations with Carole. She gets it. She gets that birthdays are important. She gets that they are a time to reflect and a time to look forward and (probably the part she likes best of all) a time to celebrate. You probably know, if you read this blog regularly, that I celebrated a “monumental” birthday earlier this summer. Believe me when I tell you that Carole went above and beyond by throwing me a monstrous birthday bash. Why? Because she gets it.

Birthdays aren’t just about the ones that have special status like “sweet sixteen” or “21 and legal” or “over the hill.” Every birthday is important because each one celebrates the end of a special year and the start of a new one. Carole celebrates everyone’s birthday within her circle of friends and family so on this day I am asking all of her friends to make her birthday today a special one by simply sending her a birthday wish.

For my part, I’ve decided to steal one of those sixteen songs and rewrite the lyrics, with apologies to Johnny Burnette, just to show that every birthday really should have it’s own song.

You come on like a dream
Peaches and cream
Lips like strawberry wine
You’re not sixteen
But you’re still beautiful
And you’re mine!

I definitely like that last line the best! So Happy Birthday darling, let’s make it a good one because remember, (don’t look now but I’m about to quote another song) you still rock me like a hurricane!

I’ve got birthdays on the brain this week and our list topic definitely reflects that. Let’s share 10 Headlines from the Year I Was Born! It was 1965 and here’s what was in the newspaper:

Yes, I have the local newspaper from the day I was born. My mom was a saver.

1. Malcolm X Assassinated in Harlem.
2. President Lyndon B. Johnson Announces Program to Create Medicare.
3. Power Blackout in Canada and New York Affects Over 30 Million People.
4. US Forces Authorized to Fight in Vietnam.
5. 25,000 March on Washington to Protest War.
6. Voting Rights Act Becomes Law.
7. Watts Ghetto Riots Leave 34 Dead.
8. Sir Winston Churchill Dead.
9. Supreme Court Strikes Down Compulsory Anti-Birth Control Laws.
10. Soviet Cosmonaut Leonov First Man to Float in Space.

My wonderful friend Blogless Sharon is a lover of animals. Over the years she has had a plethora of furry creatures come in and out of her life and she’s a sucker for a charity case or an animal in need of rescue.

She has sheep and alpacas, cows and pigs and chickens, dogs and cats, and bunnies.

Most recently, she rescued a pair of goats named Millie and Molly. I have no idea which one this is but they are both beautiful and sweet. And they are cashmere. Ahem.

Last year she rescued some alpacas and added to her little herd. Turns out that 2 of the females she rescued were pregnant but Sharon didn’t know. You know that tv show I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant? It’s like that only with alpacas. Anyway, because no one knew these poor girls were pregnant they didn’t get the proper care and sadly, one of the baby alpacas died almost immediately.

This other one, though, despite her problems, continues to cling to life. Her name is Snuffles and she’s very sweet and tiny. She’s got some issues but we are cautiously hopeful.

The rest of the alpacas are beautiful and thriving and so well cared for now that they live with Sharon.

They have beautiful eyes.

And funny expressions like this one. I call it Who YOU Lookin’ At?

They also have very beautiful fleece which I’m hoping one day Sharon will have so much of that she’s forced to share.

Just sayin’.