Pumpkin Season!

It's the second half of September, and that means crochet pumpkins for the store window!

These are the two I did yesterday:

The pattern is the crochet version of the Spice Pumpkins, free on Ravelry.

The dangers of working at a yarn store

Posted without further comment:

Halfway there....

I think I'm over the halfway mark on Red Skies at night:

Love the way it looks, have yet to get through either of the transition rows smoothly.

Saturday Night

Knitting & NASCAR. A nice way to end the summer.

Mount Vernon mini-sampler done!

One down, two to go!

Playing Tourist at Home

Today, husband & I went to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's property on the Potomac River.

I went for the Bicentennial (yes, 40 years ago). BOY has it changed!! 

George Washington's View

First - paved parking lots. Then, past the Mount Vernon Inn and shops, there's a huge theater & education complex. All the outbuildings are restored & have living history actors. 

Automatic milkshake machines!

All the fields have livestock (I forgot to get a photo of the sheep, darnit). 

All the gardens have stuff. And there are a LOT of gardens. The botanical garden, the experimental garden (George was quite scientific about finding crops that would thrive on his land). The fruit and veg gardens. And those are the ones near the main house!

I found the pumpkins!

There's a trail through the forest with educational stops. Hear the bird calls George never heard! See the tracks of the local wildlife in his day! Guess the name of his dog!

Down by the river, The seawall was raised, so the marshy bits near the water are more living history and crops examples. There was a boatwright actually making a boat with period methods. The tobacco barn - they'd actually grown a saleable amount of tobacco (probably can't sell it; modern strains have way more nicotine). There were all the different types of fences, how they were made, and what they were used for.

A wild Husbeast appears!

There's even a pier and a boat tour now!!

Yes, there are 20+ Ingress missions. I did the 18 to get the banner - not well-created, IMO.

7.37 miles walked, which is still a lot for me. Really interesting stuff!!

Today, I saw stuff

Critters!

Memorials!

A restaraunt I thought had vanished forever!

Historic homes I haven't seen for decades!

(Gunston Hall, home of George Mason)

I also walked a LOT. 

PS, UMW has 53 portals with another half-dozen or so reachable from the grounds.

Things started...

Another entrelac hat. The stockinette beanie was not working, so I unraveled it.

A Red Skies at Night scarf from my ball of Island Yarn Rivulet in Huntsman:

Things finished:

Yeah.