ALPACAS AND ATHLETES

Over the weekend we had the privilege of attending two fun fall festivals. The Alpaca Festival at Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farm in Preston and Summer Send Off in Cambridge. This year, the Summer Send Off street party coincided with the Ironman Maryland competition. By 7pm on Saturday the athletes were on the last leg of the competition and spectators could cheer them on while enjoying live music, adult beverages, and great street food. 
Let's look at some pics...

Two crias were born in the two days prior to the festival. They are impossibly cute.

My next truck.

Want so many things in the Farm Shop...

Bought this spinner from art welder, Paul Hays.

We felt like such slackers when we realized some of the athletes in Ironman had about twenty years on us. Seriously, this was taken around 7pm, these people had been biking, swimming, and running since 6am. Wow.
I'm also still playing around with spooky Halloween photos. Do you love old dolls, or find them creepy? I find them a little creepy, so....BOO!

Also taking on the Herculean task of cleaning up my workroom, but keep getting distracted by projects...cut my favorite old tattered quilt into manageable sized pieces to reduce the bulk and started this...don't know where it's going but I had to start something because I am so in love with these fabrics.

Even, or maybe especially, the falling apart bits make my heart sing.
Hope you're working on something that makes your heart sing or you're having good fall fun of one sort or another. Lest you think it's all fun and games, I took a cat to the vet yesterday. Good times. XO.

PIRATE TALK AND PUMPKINS

It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day me hearties, so of course Nigel had to mark the occasion with a little dress-up. You know how he is.

I really like his expression in this next pick, but it was a total fail on the part of me, his dresser. Note the errant earring and the strap of the eye patch going the wrong way. I plead sleep deprivation, my DH was away this week and I never sleep well when he's not here. Not that I didn't have hairy legs in my bed, but they were the four-legged kind. Nice, but not quite the same.

I like a holiday that requires no special food or gift-giving, just a few words of prate-speak and you're good to go. Silly, simple fun.

He's a good and patient boy, my Nigel.
As the Autumn Equinox approaches, I am making ready for winter. Picked up a load of hay for Abby, which was a bit of poor planning on my part. With Mike away, there was only Fitz to help me unload, and his skills are more supervisory in nature than paws on, except in the area of rodent control. The Catman excels in that area.

Treated myself to a stop at TJ Farms for pumpkins and tomatoes. It's on the way and the time for tasty tomatoes is fast drawing to a close. I may have over pumpkin-ed. The farmer was just bringing in a load of gourds and we had a good laugh about the white one. He had no idea what it was called and had never seen one like it. Anyone?

I played around with them, creating some spooky Halloween vignettes, with mixed results. I have a special fondness for the tiny white ones.

Hope you have some autumnal fun planned for the weekend. I'm going to the Alpaca Festival at Outstanding Dreams Farm. There's a brand new cria, born this week, and lots of new alpaca wool items in the shop. Expect to take plenty of pics.
So that's it, except to say, "Ahhrr...ye scurvy land lubbing bilge rats," and now you've heard the whole of my pirate vocabulary. XO.