Happy Friday!!

Fall has descended upon The City of Medicine, aka The Bull City, aka Durham. We've had a couple of dreary, rainy days this past week, but it did warm the air a bit & seemed to refresh everything. We're having a sunny Friday with temps in the upper 50's but it's supposed to be cooooold tonight. Cold for us anyway. It's cold here when it gets down to 32 at night.

I've been getting out into the yard to clear up a couple of years of overgrown bushes, shrubs & trees. Yep, I cut down a couple of small trees that were lovingly planted by my resident squirrels. I have the hardest time getting my plants to grow even thought I nurture them & love them, but a squirrel can "plant" something & the son of a gun grows up to 10 feet in a few years. If I could only train them to plant what I wanted.

I actually sawed down the trees...with a miter saw. It's the only saw I have other than my jeweler's saw & I don't even want to think how many blades I would have broken trying that. BTW, I don't recommend using a miter saw for small trees...nope. Just go out & get yourself a bow saw. On a positive note, my neighbors just got themselves a fire pit. Whatever will they do for wood since they only have one pretty little tree in their yard?? Jungle woman to the rescue!!!! I can saw down the trees & give the little trunks to Lee for their fire pit. Now that's teamwork!! I also won't have to worry about cutting the trunks down to size so I can dispose of them. I have enough dried limbs in my backyard to keep them in wood until the new logs dry.

I really haven't done much as far as jewelry & metalsmithing. I've kinda lost my muse, but have started drawing again. I'm taking a free art course from Tam at Willowings & it's been great. It's a healing art class, so it's kind of hard to get through, but it's been good. Go check it out!! Maybe I'll post some of my work. OK..I will, but be gentle. It's my first whimsy girl.

I already see several things that I should have done differently, but it's my first one. Hopefully, I'll improve.

I'd love to practice more & maybe next year create a few whimsies that I can have made into Christmas cards. I have been making Christmas cards this year, so I'll post the ones that I've made. Not today, but next week.

I'm going to include a few pictures that I've taken over the last few months...because I like to look at pictures. Some of my favorite books have pictures.

Not a great photo, but a great car. 1961 Chrysler New Yorker. How awesome is this car??

I went to the Duke/Alabama football game a couple of months ago. Yep, Duke has a football team, not a great one, but a team nonetheless. Alabama also has a football team, but most everyone knows that, & for good reason. Alabama has a great team unsurpassed by their fans. The fans were great when it could have been a really miserable day for Duke fans. I don't think there was a Duke fan out there that didn't know that Alabama was going to take the game, but the Bama fans made the losing less painful. The Alabama fans made me an Alabama fan. Still a little confused about the whole "Roll Tide" thing, but that's ok. Here are a few of the wonderful people that we met.

Just a shot of some of my friends. Aren't they purdy??? I have attractive friends.

Here's Joe

And just because I like fire:

Just a friendly bonfire, not to be confused with arson.

I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend. I'm going to try to be a little more present from now on. I just took a little time out...besides, I gotta get a new blog header because my hydrangeas don't look like that anymore. I at least need to get back to the season.

Pam

((hugs & warm blankies))