And just like that, blue skies and warm sunny weather returned.
Today was the last sunny day before the next cold front; sadly these flower are in their last bloom for the year. I plan to plant the snapdragons into the gardens in the back yard this coming week and the geraniums will be coming in to live with the cats over the winter.
Huge flocks of geese now fly over my house each dusk. Squirrels chase each other down the back fence and over my roof; one got caught in a downspout of the rain gutter yesterday, setting off a panic with the cats. The last leaves are still sailing past my windows, but in my yard my trees are bare. Even though the flowers are confused, fall is now hard upon us.
Knitting
I’m still knitting hats like crazy for the Kaiser infusion centers. Yesterday I finished weaving in all the ends, took some pictures, and bagged each hat up with a little note telling the new owner about Frayed Knot, the group that I joined that handles the donations. Tomorrow I will drive them to the drop off location.
So far I’ve produced 4 Barley Light hats using MCN yarn, 2 Deco Beanies with superwash merino in DK weight, and three Anrheg hats using single ply merino wool. All the yarn came right out of the stash, and I have to say that it is kind of exciting to dig around and pull out yarns that have been languishing in there waiting for their purpose to arrive. All of these yarns were loved when I bought them, but somehow never used. Now their time to shine has arrived and I am on fire to produce as many as I can to help the group meet its goal (600 hats) this year.
Books
I was up into the wee hours of the morning finishing The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penney. I was a little worried that it had a topic that hit too close to home for me, but it was handled so well that I really came to love the book, and the eclectic cast of characters, as the chapters flew by. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I think that it is okay to say that this book drew heavily on the Covid pandemic (which is still going on and not ended as the book supposes) and created a character that argues, persuasively, that in a world that is limited in resources it is a duty for those who are a burden to society to submit to mandatory euthanasia. Um… wow. Pretty outrageous, don’t you think, but I can almost see it happening. There were hints of this in the worst of the surge last year before we had a vaccine when I heard people dismissively argue that the people who were dying from Covid were all old or had a comorbidity that contributed to their death. It was almost like… hey, they were going to die anyway, right? Why should this affect me? There were people who seemed to believe that healthy people should not be inconvenienced in any way to protect the vulnerable. There were policies enacted by leaders in positions of power that were designed to magnify the outbreak in an effort to reach herd immunity with little or no considerations for the vulnerable…
You know, if you think about it too much it is depressing. Enough of that. On to the book!
So, since this is a murder mystery, there is a murder that is associated with the charismatic individual who making this argument and who is heading up the movement. And the murder happens in Three Pines, of course. And there are a plethora of candidates that bring an array of social messages to the situation, and memorable richness to the story. Chief Inspector Gamache is on the case with his team from the Sûreté du Québec, his highly gifted neighbors, and some distinguished visitors. And a duck.
I really am glad I read it.
Yarn, Books & Roses 