Fall colors

Everyone, it seems, is talking about (and posting pictures of) fall  colors. It's that time of year, when everything begins to fire up, so to speak, in flames of red and orange. I was expecting a huge storm this morning, but it looks as if it's heading to California and Oregon first, before it hits Washington on Friday. Every day the forecast changes quite a lot.

Yesterday, thinking that all the leaves will be off the trees from the windstorm and with things not looking all that good in rain, I headed out with my trusty camera and took pictures of some of the most beautiful sights I could find. And oh yes, I made two wonderful purchases at last Saturday's Farmers' Market that I haven't yet shared with my blogging friends, so I'm adding a couple pictures of them in too. These gourds were two for a dollar, and I just couldn't resist their shapes. These two look like they are dancing together, to me at least, and the fall colors through the window behind them also show a distinct change of season. (Click any picture to enlarge.)

Saturday was very cold. In fact, we set a record cold temperature for the date. It was in the 30s during the day and, although the sun was shining, it felt really frigid. I wandered over to Northstar Wool Designs, a table with wonderful hats, most of them felted. (If you don't know what this means, you make something in wool and then boil it, which makes it have a completely different texture and size.) My first experience with felting was when I knit myself a wonderful wool sweater and then took it on a cross-country ski trip. Since I was sweating quite heavily, by the time I got home my sweater was felted under the arms and on the back under my pack. Quite ruined for anything but skiing. But on Saturday, I tried on a beautiful hat and I couldn't make myself take it off. Kim Brooke, the artist, says she only uses merlino wool, which is why the hat is so soft and non-scratchy. I'll use it all through the upcoming winter.

So far, my new Snow Leopard OS is behaving, once we found out that it would freeze when getting ready to go into screen saver mode (something didn't get pushed forward), and now I'm noticing a distinctly faster iMac. Now that we've found the problem, I'm happy we decided to upgrade to this new OS. I'd love to hear what others think of it.

And then, of course, there's the "other" fall colors. I couldn't resist adding one more picture of my leg as of today, in all its glory of color from my fall last Thursday. I will not be hiking tomorrow, because my leg is still recovering, and I'm still icing and elevating, both of which are hard to do when you're on a trek. Next week, I hope.

:-)