When I tried to think of how to express my current state of being, mid-October ills seems to be the closest fit. Is it allergies, or is it illness? Is it the state of the world in general, or just a series of things I don’t want to do? I didn’t realize so much of adult life would be a mental bargaining in the form of “if I just get through this event, that event, and the next thing, then I can relax and enjoy life.” But there’s a never ending number of new events or things that get in the way between now and the time when I can relax and enjoy life. I need to get my flu vaccine and COVID booster, but I know you can’t get them if you think you might be ill. And right now, the mid-October ills are dominating my life.

I have put together a few more moss terrariums, mostly as holding jars for moss I’m propagating. It’s just a matter of keeping it all healthy and alive now. I do wonder what will happen when it gets quite cold in my art space. I know the moss survives outside in the winter.

Shelter Feline Update

At work, Cass has moved into my office. In fact, everything at work is a bit of a topsy-turvy mess now. We had the lower drive paved. All of the cats have gone on a urinary rampage, causing us to move some of them to other locations (including my office). Kittens are moving onto the floor, and new kittens are coming up. Pi is still here and doing fine enough.

He’s cute, but he’s a mess. He sheds more than any other cat I’ve known. He insists on sharing my lunch. He’s so desperate for attention after a night alone, he’s frantic for the first half hour I’m at work. But he hasn’t destroyed anything yet. And sometimes, when he’s curled up napping in the bed next to my keyboard, I can’t help but reach out and pet him. I had to do a BIG cleaning on my office, and it is now more cleared out than just about since I took the job 14 years ago. It’s my office, but it’s Cass’ new home.

Art Projects

I started a little Etsy thing, as I spend a good deal of time crocheting in the evenings. Might be nice to have the cost of the yarn returned to me. We’ve done no cat adoptions, so I don’t need to make cat blankets, and right now I’m caught up on lap blanket projects. So I’m currently making dish cloths and decorative pumpkins. I still have the embroidery hoop art, birdhouses, reusable paper towels, painted quilt squares and book nooks on my list of things to do. We’ve been cleaning up stuff around the house and moving things to proper locations, and unfortunately quite a bit of it has temporarily ended up in my art space. Hopefully sometime soon I’ll have time to work on straightening it out.

Weather

It’s more than time to put the gardens to bed, and then there’s that rock garden that I didn’t get to this summer. It has turned cold and we might even have some snow next week. I will try to bring in the hose this weekend, and I did pull the bubbler for the tiny water feature. As always, I wish I was doing something fun to celebrate Halloween but I don’t have the time or ambition. And I’m even, dare I say it, starting to get more in the mood for the winter holidays. I know they will be here before we know it.