It is fully winter now in Lansing. We awoke Monday to several inches of wet, heavy snow. One tree near our house lost a branch because of the weight. It was white on the ground and the sky was white from corner to corner.

In the morning it did not snow much, but things got pretty nasty just as people were going home from work. I had a list of errands to run and only accomplished two. Just stopping at a red light and then trying to start again without sliding sideways, was a big effort. Home was the reasonable choice.

Of course, kids were building snowmen and throwing snowballs in our neighborhood. I did not get any photos of that, unfortunately. It was great that someone could enjoy the weather!

Monday morning I knit with the 3rd graders, again. They are so excited to knit! At this point every child has learned, each child has his/her own needles and yarn, and they are very happy about it. Some of the kids are truly amazing. I have two girls and a boy who picked it up so quickly, even faster than some adults catch on.

The personalities are so fun in this room. One boy loves the idea of knitting and can do it properly when I watch, but he is doing all sorts of creative things on that needle when I walk away. He started with 9 stitches and now he probably has 30, even with much help. He likes asking for help, so this is no problem, at least not to the child.

Another couple of the kids are in a big hurry as if it is a race. Some are so strong they pull their hands apart when working, which makes huge loops and see-through fabric. It’s still knitting, so I’m good with it. All are delighted to be part of the magic of making fabric with yarn and “sticks.”

Since this classroom is quite international, some of the kids have not seen snow like this before. They are enjoying that part, too.

So here I present to you, two photos I took this morning from the front yard of the school. Make special notice of the bright colors of ordinary things, really popping out. In one there are red fire hydrants, the other yellow gates. The yellow is a bit hard to see in this small version. (You can click on these snow photos today, and it will take you to a larger version on my Flickr page.)

You should have seen how bright the orange construction signs looked on the way home! All color becomes bigger than life when the sky and ground are fully white. Of course, a photo cannot capture the immediate surprise and color of these things in real life. Even a street sign can appear electric green on a snowy day, where we might never notice it in midsummer.

I am prepared to take it one moment at a time… I will make a point of noticing small colorful bits and other small comforts (such as the hot water bottle currently warming my feet). If I need a blue sky, I will need to wait another week. Check out our weather as predicted through Friday Night:

I get the hint. Looking for small delightful things will be the order of the day, and the next day, and the next!

Where do you find surprises, color or otherwise, in your life? Is it a garnish on a restaurant plate? Berries on a bush covered with snow? A child’s laugh in the next room? Remember, any comment this week is one more entry in my Blogiversary contest, so don’t be shy!

The kids across the street were contemplating a snowman today. The snow sticks well but it is not really deep. It’s just above freezing, and this morning the snow came down so quickly you could barely see.

When I came home, the main streets were fine and so was the one in front of our house. However, the side street that our driveway faces, is only 2 blocks long and does not get any traffic or attention. I slid right past the driveway and had to back up to get in properly! Whoops.

It’s not a good day for postal mail carriers (in my area they walk from house to house) or bicycle commuters. The kids maybe make up for that a bit. They are so pleased!

It’s 2 weeks past Halloween and I forgot… I have a photo of a friend, Stuart, peeking out of the bat he built in his yard. Notice that where he peeks out of the mouth, he is higher than part of the roof of his house (house is on left). Cool, huh?

Creativity comes in many flavors. This guy is creative in many ways, but perhaps Halloween is his biggest thing. It looks like it from this photo, anyway.

Wow. I had a day where I had only one appointment, teaching kids from 9:15 to 10am. Then I had nobody waiting for me. I had big plans, was sure I would cross many things off my to-do list.

What did I do? I came home and found myself unable to get warm even with a sweater and the furnace set for 72F. I sat on the couch with three blankets and a heavy wool sweater on top of me, and I slept. Like a baby. Like there was no tomorrow.

When I woke up, I did actually finish one thing on the to-do list, which was to finish a pair of legwarmers so that I can have a photo shoot next Wednesday for my upcoming pattern.

I did a load of laundry and a dishwasher load. I put away a few things, but nothing like the wholesale house-cleaning job I had imagined. The desk is still piled high, but it needs to wait another day or two.

A Hot Date at the Grocery Store

Then Brian and I went to the grocery store, bought food, cooked together in the kitchen, ate dinner. I cleaned up a few more random things, again not the major cleaning I thought I’d do.

Actually, I figured out that the thick allergy-free frosting/glaze I’d made for my birthday cake, might be really good heated up as hot fudge over ice cream. So I made some allergy-free cake and we had a dessert I could not eat for the last 5 years.

I’m so happy to have dairy back in my life, and that there is an ice cream devoid of other ingredients that cause me trouble. Stonyfield Farms Organic ice cream is my best friend when I want a real treat! (No eggs, no xanthan gum. It does have guar gum and carob bean gum, but I tolerate those just fine. All their products are certified Kosher, and many are certified gluten-free. What a quality company!)

After Dinner, More Rest

I picked up the house a little more. Then I crashed again, on the couch. I am not a couch potato, we don’t have a TV that is viewable or a VCR or cable. I tend to work even when I’m on the couch with a laptop. But this grrl was wiped out.

I have a very public life. I’m at the front of a classroom or on a stage most days. I love my life, but sometimes one must get off stage and just rest. I wore a brown/black sweater (wool and alpaca and 2% yak, of all things) which is warm but not at all ColorJoy, wrapped up in as much wool as I could, and stayed home for the most part. I even skipped a very fine concert so that I could just let myself rest. Downtime, what a thought!

But Nothing Lasts, and this is Good as Well

Tomorrow is a big day. I teach a group of folks Polymer Clay Gifts at Threadbear for 4 hours, and then I sing at Altu’s. I’m having no regrets about the rest. I guess I regret that the house still needs attention, but there is always Sunday. I only work 2 hours on Sunday.

Oh… the photos? The second one is “Polymer Clay Gifts” class projects.

The first one has a story… about 3 blocks from Rae’s shop, between my house and my work there, I often drive past a house with these wonderful rainbow flower pots. The other day I stopped, rolled down my window and took a photo out the passenger side.

A couple came out to figure out why I was stopping in front of their house. I just called out through my open window “I just love your flower pots, I’m taking a picture.” She was pleased, and invited me to come back again in the summer when she has white flowers in the pots. I made someone smile, after she had made me smile. Cool!

In Lansing, Michigan, USA, we had a gorgeous, perfect summer. It seemed to only rain at night, and the days were lovely and seemed to last forever. I loved every minute.

I am not a cold-weather grrl. However, the colors of autumn placate me as the temperatures drop. We had beautiful colors this year, and since we have not yet had a very hard frost, some of the trees are still full of crimson or burgundy leaves.

Last Tuesday (election day, to jog your mind about the weather in your area), it was really quite beautiful here in spite of the month being November. I went out in the yard and took photos of two myrtle flowers, two violets, one dandelion, two impatiens plants and several petunias (which were drooping but still showed color).

Last Sunday, we got snow. It was wet and warm as snow goes, but we got enough that it stuck overnight. What a change in less than a week!

Right now we do not have snow, it is above freezing during the day, but we are not going back to violets until March, I’d bet. Here are some photos to give you a smile. Notice the brown leaves in the grass next to the flowers… it is definitely autumn here in spite of the flowers’ insistence otherwise!

A few weeks ago we had frost. I had to cut the herbs in the garden, though I was not really ready for them. Then I pulled the smallest tomato plant inside and picked all the rest of the tomatoes, green, from the larger tomato plants outside. (The photo at right shows parsley at top, sad little basil bottom left, sage bottom right.)

I had spent several nights before that time, covering the tomato plants each night with a sheet. Brian would take it off in the morning on the way to work. this was fine when there was slight chance of patchy frost (the plants are up 4 steps on a landing, which is good for avoiding frost). At some point, though, it will frost solidly and one must give in to reality.

Here are the results of my harvest. There are still maybe 6 fruits on the indoor plant. I think it has decided to stop growing, anyway… it must know that November has arrived even though it’s indoors and warm enough.

Previous to this harvest moment, we got merely three red tomatoes all summer. We just got no fruit! So to have this many fruits at the same time, was crazy luck.

I really think that the tomatoes sense a chill in early Septmber and instantly put out as many flowers as they can. I have noticed this now, for several years in a row. It must be a survival instinct for them to do that, make seeds to procreate before it’s too late. Or so goes my theory…

For the record, the tomatoes on the windowsill have been slowly turning red one at a time. We have had about 5 turn red so far, and we have eaten 3 of them. A few look like they may still turn, I may share a few photos later with those. (And the indoor plant? One almost-red large fruit and a bunch of green ones not doing anything.)

I just went outside in a sleeveless dress, barefoot, and swept all the fall leaves off the back steps. It is 68F (room temp) and the sun has been shining for more than its usual 10 seconds at a time. Someone is mowing the lawn.

I’ve been dyeing yarn, now I’m shifting gears so we can sing tonight in Pontiac. All is right with the world.

Tuesday night it got below freezing here, in Lansing, Michigan, USA. I brought in the smallest tomato plant and covered the other two. I think they are shocked enough to stop growing anyway, and I will have to give up on the smaller fruits. There are some that are large enough they will probably ripen on a south windowsill, and I will give that a try.

I don’t like cold weather. I’m a summer girl through and through. Actually, it’s not summer as much as heat that I crave, because spring and autumn are equally beautiful (though full of allergy problems for me). I like how they look, but not how they feel. I’m not warm until it hits 80F, and am happiest at 84 or 85 (that would be 26 - 29C for those outside the US).

But I try to find joys in the simple things. Life is full of small things; big stuff is a rarity. So the quality of anyone’s life, if you ask me, is paying attention and really appreciating the small stuff.

If you have read this blog a while, you know I have food allergies. For some reason, they are sort of a moving target, they change over the years.

I could not have dairy products for 5 years. Then last March I got re-tested and I could take dairy again, as long as it’s not aged/fermented like yogurt or cheese. Milk is fine, and so is whipped cream if I whip it myself (the canned “real” stuff is full of additives that I don’t tolerate well).

This means that I have been able to eat certain ice creams (Stonyfield Farms, no egg or xanthan gum) this year, which was really a joy for me. And now that it is getting cold? Hot chocolate. I got some powdered cocoa mix from Green and Black’s Organic chocolate company, at the local health food store. It cost just short of $6 for one can, which looks like it will give me 7 or 8 mugs of hot chocolate. I’ve already had five in the last week.

And I bought myself some organic heavy whipping cream. I put some in a tall jar and whipped it with my little stick blender with the whipping attachment. It was really easy… whip cream, add sugar, whip a little more. I remembered it being more difficult as a child. Very cool!

So here it is in its glory. Made by me, for me, as comfort. It worked.

Can I possibly be caught up on my photos? I think I am. How refreshing!

Saturday I took a half hour out of my day and detoured through the Mt. Hope Cemetery. I think this is my favorite place in Lansing in the autumn.

It is just across Aurelius Road from the Fenner Arboretum which I also like… but I think I like Fenner better in the spring (I like the noisy frogs in the stream) and Mt. Hope better in the autumn. I don’t know why, but since when do preferences need to make sense?

Lansing is a city which is pretty much flat. We have little inclines here and there, but unless you are from the plains of Southeastern Minnesota where my parents were raised, this town looks dead flat.

But for some reason, there are a few areas in the Lansing area that are hilly and also are cemeteries. Maybe they chose hilly spots that were not good farmland back in the day, who knows? But I swear the hills stop the minute you get out of the cemetery grounds.

And yet there is one drop that is several stories high between the edge of the cemetery and the golf course next door. Just in the last few weeks, they have opened up an extension of the River Trail at the bottom of that drop, between the two municipal properties (golf course and cemetery). I got a good photo of some bicyclists down there to show the distance.

I love the hills, the trees, the old headstones (many go back to the 1800s), the green grass, the quiet. I was raised with my back yard touching a cemetery, so this feels comfortable and right at home to me. I realize this is not true for everyone.

My poor late Grandma Ruthie had to get out of our house before dark for years, bless her. For her, cemeteries were more like chatterboxes than quiet places. But to me? Just right.

My friend Kristi and I used to meet here with her baby twins and go for long walks. She would push two kids in a stroller up and down those hills, and I was huffing and puffing just me, solo. The place is huge, so taking the outside path around the perimeter can take a good long while while you are chatting with a friend. Life changes and lately we meet in other ways, but those were good times.

I’m putting a few photos here, and a few thumbnails. You can see a collection as a Flickr slideshow if you click right here! It is only 7 photos over there, but the ones at Flickr are large enough to get true detail, if you are so inclined.

Near Rae’s yarn shop, there is a wonderful nook which has been made into a small city Eden. The man who lives above a storefront has maximized his farming ability with almost no soil at all. It is inspiring.

In fact, I saw this garden about 4 years ago and saw the beautiful red tomatoes, shining colorful globes decorating the cityscape. I decided then that I would also try tomato gardening in containers at my house. I don’t really like fresh tomatoes, although I love them cooked. I didn’t care, the look of the plants was all it took to convince me. I have really enjoyed my tomato plants over these last years!

One day I was going to Rae’s on a Sunday and got to talking with the gentleman who has created this lush space. I was with Melinda, and he gave her a few peaches (yes really) he had just picked, and gave me a generous handful of grapes.

I boiled the grapes in water (they are small green ones that smell like concord, but with big seeds so they are not pick-and-eat grapes). I then crushed the grapes, strained out the fiber, and made a sort of gelatin dessert with it. It was light and refreshing.

The grapes grow up the handrail on the second floor; the peach tree looks like half a tree, squooshed up against the wall of the next building next to another fruit tree. At the point I took these photos, all the tomatoes for this year were already gone and things were starting to slow down or wilt.

I think it’s an amazing artform, this niche in the middle of a parking lot, which is now a lush Eden for one man and lucky acquaintances passing by. Isn’t it wonderful?

Just for reference, here is my own back step garden. The three pots at right are tomatoes. To their left is a sage plant that was given to me but which never was very happy there. At the very left in the colorful pot, was a cilantro from seed that only grew about an inch before being drowned in rainwater. I also have a small plot next to the garage which does well with parsley and nearly nothing else, though I tried basil again this year.

And there is always the rhubarb! Plants with ancestors on the Minnesota farm where Mom grew up always do well, the others struggle and never quite die but never become strong enough to pick for pie.

I have a lot more soil than this man, but I can’t compare. He just has the touch.

I have been trying to really celebrate color this autumn. I found some blossoming flowers in Cynthia and Doug’s yard on October 6, and then last week I took a few photos of trees… one at the MSU golf courses and one just five blocks from my home. Enjoy.

There is an area at Lake Lansing, where there are paths which are located on private land. The owner of the land has declared that the use will cease soon.

The citizens of the area and those who use the paths are working hard to purchase that land from the owner. They wish for it to remain undeveloped, and continue to be available to the public. My friend Art wrote this:

If you have note yet had a chance to help on our effort to preserve the North Lake Lansing Trails - please consider a gift now!

We have three weeks to raise the last $7500!! Check out the website for more information

www.preservelakelansingtrails.org

This photo represents 3 seasons. I see spring on the left, with peony leaves. Most of the photo is a bush which grew as a “volunteer” as Mom would say (probably a dropping from a bird planted it here), with beautiful fall berries. And looking through the berry branches at bottom right, you can see one lone nasturtium flower, total summer.

Art is everywhere, even accidental additions to the garden.  The peonies came with the house and perhaps were planted in the 1920’s, the bush has been there at least 3 years, and the nasturtiums were an impulse purchase, a seed packet back in springtime. I love the round nasturtium leaves as much as the flowers.

Running in Circles

What a crazy time it is to start the school year. I do not have children and do not teach in a school classroom, but it still impacts my life. One night a week, I teach community ed Computer classes, but it seems other things in my life also revolve around the seasons, starting in autumn.

I have been doing without sleep trying to catch up on a backlog of computer/desk work. I’m still working on things I thought I’d finish long ago. Time to be living in the present! At least I’m never bored.

Change, and more Change

So much in my life is changing right now. As they say, there is nothing certain in life except change. I discontinued the very-very-beginner computer class, which I’ve been teaching since probably 1993 in one or more locations. It is puzzling to me how hard it was to let go of that.

I have continued with the “exploration” class which reviews basics and then proceeds forward, depending on the interests of the actual students that term. I punt a lot and go where their questions lead, and it works very well. I have sixteen students in that night class, and they take turns thanking me as they leave at the end of the night, waiting in line to say goodbye. I love it.

In Praise of Care

And I have found a wonderful new doctor. My health was very rough last year and I felt I had almost no support. Now I have a new allergist who turned things around for me early this year, and now a new GP.

May I sing the praises of caring health professionals? We hear so many complaints, and I have complained a bit myself, but I can make a list of healthcare people over the years who have changed my life and who have truly loved me with their actions. It is good to feel I’m in that situation again. I know it’s not a bed of roses in that field sometimes, and I really appreciate the caring folks I’ve had the joy to work with.

Don’t Faint

Also, the big news: I am no longer working for my beloved Foster Community Center. This is where I started teaching computers and then got into teaching knitting. I ran my CityKidz Knit! program there for I think six years.

They still love me, and I love them, but between extra paperwork to be re-hired again (I have been a temporary employee, rehired every year since 1993 or 1994), and other considerations, I decided now was the right time to bow out gently.

The yarns still at Foster center will be available to all the kids I’ve knit with thus far, my boss will take them into my old room and let them stock up on yarn and needles and bags. And my program that I’ve had at Rae’s Yarn Boutique this summer will continue at that location.

Sniff… Some Things Say Goodbye

I moved out of my classroom today, with the assistance of one of my knitters and two of her family members. Also I had three kids from CityKidz last spring, who came to collect yarn and needles in bags so they can knit on their own. I have photos of my last day at Foster, and stories to tell but it has been an exhausting day. I need to delay that for now. No photos…hence the title of this post.

…and Some Surprising Things Return

And speaking of change… I started my Friday back at a location where I used to do computer consulting (in 1999, for Y2K). I’ve discontinued my computer consulting (custom databases, corporate training and web design) for at least 4 years now. However, I designed a complex system in Microsoft Access 9 years ago, for them to run their business. It contains dozens of tables, forms and reports. Parts of the system have become corrupt overnight, but the data is still there safe and sound (sigh of relief here).

So I get a call out of the blue, for help. The good part is that I’m back temporarily working with people I really like and haven’t seen much in the last few years. The harder part is to make sure they are ready to go for their deadline October 1.

Whew. It is a little like going to Mexico years after your last Spanish class.`You know how to do it, but you need to think as you proceed for a while. I fixed the first big part but will spend some more time this week getting that healed and happy. Healthcare for the computer, I guess.

Color, Color, Color!

In ColorJoy news, Lansing has turned red and yellow and orange on the edges this week. I noticed my first electric-red tree on Thursday (across from Sansu sushi restaurant on Hagadorn in E. Lansing). Now color is everywhere. It’s still mostly green, but the colors really pop at this early part of the season. Lovely.

…and Eternal Hope on the Part of my Tomato Plants

I have maybe 2 dozen green tomatoes in the three pots on the back step. This happens every year. I have literally picked 3 tomatoes all year, and now one plant has 9 fruits at one time! They sort of crack me up, they are so optimistic! I keep watering them and will do my best to help them along while it is feasible.

Photos tomorrow… I have so many, but no time to develop them properly for the website.