Happy Halloween!!

Teddy and his Mom and Dad carved 3 great pumpkins for the front hall last night. Looks pretty spooky to me, and when I came down the stairs for breakfast this morning, the hall was draped in cobwebs.  Guess who was so excited about his handiwork??  
Tonight will be full of fun in the neighborhood, and Farmer Squirrel will make his last appearance of this season. 
Hope there is lots of fun in your day, too........Peace!

Beautiful Hanover Cemetery, where most of my immediate ancestors now rest.  Always aglow this time of year. 

 

 

 

Freaky Friday

There is a squirrel making frequent appearances around here.  Everytime I turn around, he is on my space.

In the kitchen last night

With a date, Emma, the Lady Bug, last night out on the town in Buzzards Bay.

   I am suspecting that there will be many other appearances before we reach the end of Halloween.

Baking has kept me very busy the past few days, as we prepare for a festival at the Hoxie Center for the Arts on Saturday.  So far we have many, many dozens of Molasses cookies, Pumpkin/cranberry/ginger muffins, and tomorrow there will be brownies and cranberry orange muffins making delicious aromas.  Teddy will be helping out at the festival by teaching his signature arm knitting method.

Reports will be forthcoming.......

Freaky fun and peace to you all!!

Family; Squirrel Farmers

On the morning of Wednesday, October 26, my sister, Eleanor and husband, Steve Haskell, along with their son, John, will appear on the TODAY Show to share their story of heroin addiction which affected John. It is a very profound story and one that needs to be shared to help stop this horrible epidemic. I believe Jenna Bush is doing the interview. Feel free to share this with anyone you know who may be interested.

Fall is really in the air here today....very cool but the sun is warming and beautiful.  After an early morning of wondering whether Teddy would go to school, or not, he was off and running as soon as his Mom went to work. I think I detected a bit of drama!  He has had a little cold for a week.
No calls from the school so I guess he is getting through the day just fine.  With Halloween rapidly approaching, it was time for me to get all the ingredients for his "Farmer Squirrel" costume together.  It is very cute with a full squirrel head mask, and he will wear denim overalls, a red plaid shirt and a goodly supply of acorns in the pockets.  This morning I attached his grey fluffy tail.  He will need wear it to an event tomorrow and Thursday evening, and then on Halloween. Pictures forthcoming.   

Once that work was complete, I was on to attaching borders to a small quilt in process
 In between, I have been enjoying emails with daughter, Anne from FL.  She has been making some major changes in her life and I am beyond excited and proud of her latest endeavors. She's making her first ever creative project, and doing a great job preparing and pursuing all the details. When it is complete, I will be writing about it here, but for now, it needs to remain a surprise!  To say I have been urging her to create for years, years and more years, would be an understatement.  She's also reading again and we enjoy sharing our books and critiques.  Currently she is reading a series of 3 books by Susan Branch and loving the delightful illustrations and different style.  I loved those books so much and had to share the bounty.

Time to get back to my creative work, and also some baking research. I have to produce quite a few things for 2 upcoming bake sales, and am cruising about for some new ideas.  One will be this Saturday at our local Art Center and the other will be a sale held on election day to benefit the PTA at Teddy's school.  Any ideas are welcome!

PEACE

I thought you might like to see this beautiful quilt made by my sister, Margaret. Oh yes, it is adorned by my beautiful niece, Chico, owned by Margaret's daughter, Ellie and her wonderful partner, Andrea.  All the leaves and vines on this work of art were hand appliqued by Margaret. 

Trucks!

Nana and Teddy arriving at the MJT Cape Cod Truck Show at the Cape Cod Fairgrounds in E. Falmouth yesterday.  It was a beautiful day and not only was the number of trucks amazing, but the crowd was huge.

Acres of trucks and people to ogle them over and over again.

Part of the Canal Fuel fleet in full spiff for the big day. My son, Jason is one of their drivers, and is frequently seen driving the big tractor on the far right. Last year Jason entered another of the trucks he drives but this year he was working, so missed the show.

A Tasha truck that is used to haul propane gas.  All their trucks are always spotless and gleaming when you see them on the road. The show is a memorial for the founder of the company, Michael J Tasha, who passed away at a young age, about 3 years ago.  He was a great friend of the Cape Cod community, thus this show to honor his memory and pride in his trucks. All proceeds from the show go to ALS research.

Big trucks of every size and purpose filled the fairgrounds, and their loud horns filled the air, I might add!

Huge wreckers were showing off their talents.

Teddy was in all his glory, and had the most fun hanging out in the drivers seat of this beautiful truck, which is driven by Jason's good friend, Jake.  He blew the horn and dreamed some dreams in that seat. Lou hung out there with him for a long time while I circled around with a few friends and daughter Sara, compete with granddaughter, Samantha.

Big truck fun!

The trailer on "Teddy's" truck, all agleam just as the cab.  Jake does all the work to keep this truck shining, and it is in full use everyday, hauling sand, gravel and rocks.

Here's Samantha, going on 10 years old now, her face freshly painted with a spider and a bat! She is the image of me at that age.

One last shot of the happy boy.  

We had such a fun day and look forward to next year's show.  Today I pick Teddy up at school and we go to swimming lessons.  In between I am working on a quilt, grocery shopping and planning a week of baking for bake sale items to bring to a neighborhood October Fest on Saturday. We will all be there!

PEACE!

Weekend Preview

Sitting with my morning iced tea and getting reading to launch the weekend, a very full one at that, but it includes some very fun things.  Later this morning, with several friends, I will be attending the annual show of the Plymouth County Quilt Guild. It is always so interesting to see what other quilters are creating, and I never fail to come away uninspired from a show.  I am also on the hunt for a certain, very elusive fabric. Believe it or not, I cannot seem to find a very pure white fabric that I need to use as a border. Hoping  a vendor at this show will have just what I need. Seems like it should be easy enough to find! 

After the quilt show, I will be on my way to see LM and Ms G.  I understand there will be a special dinner created in my honor.

Sunday morning will find us preparing to attend the 2nd annual MJT Cape Cod Truck Show.  Sounds like it might be an unusual event for me, but it is really a fun and interesting time with trucks of all sizes, shapes, and utilities, to be seen at their shiny best.  We love the antiques, as well as food trucks and exhibits.  Teddy will be coming along with us, and we will meet other family and friends at the fairgrounds.

A scene from last year's Truck show!

Teddy and I are off to investigate why every crow in the neighborhood is cawing, clacking, and in a general sense of uproar.  My bet is it is a hawk.

PEACE

VICTORY

Wherever I am, I feel the need to be in nature in all its glory. This inner city garden is a part of the Senior living community where my sister, Margaret, lives in Waterloo Ontario. The last two weeks in August found me visiting there once again, and I enjoyed many early morning walks in these lovely spaces.  These plots of beauty are filled with fruit, veggies, many forms of garden art, and of course, beautiful flowers!  It was fun to form a mental picture of what the tenders of these plots might look like, based on what was growing in their space.

Aside, from my lovely trip to Canada, one might wonder where I have been, and I apologize to my regular readers for the long absence.  The world of technology got way ahead of me (not a tough task), and the update to a new computer, coupled with the move to Windows 10 and life in general, put a halt to Ms Graysea for awhile.  The technology has been slightly tamed, and now I am hoping to be back without too many interruptions.

I'm looking forward to filling you in on the wonderful world of being a full-time, live-in Nana with my dear, Teddy. Although, it was a very uncomfortably hot and steamy summer here, it was filled with lots of camps, and family fun, as well as my precious time with LM and Ms G on the weekends.
I must tell you, though, that Ms G is reaching the end of her years, and catches us with wistful faces as we make the most of each day we have with our precious girl.  She is still quite active and doing her usual crazy cat things, but she has that senior cat look, and seems to forget she has eaten as soon as she has consumed a healthy helping. All her life she ate dry food only and had no interest in people food, EXCEPT for BACON!  Now she has added wet food to the dry and is mad about people food in any form, as long as we are eating it, too. Pretty crazy!

It is nice to be back here but time to go. The school bus run is nigh, and I have the gym calling to me.

I'll be back.

PEACE