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October 31, 2006

gettin' my all-hallows eve on!

tessy is supposed to be a frankenstein monster. whadja think?

yeah, that's prolly what she's thinkin' too...

i didn't decorate a ton this year, cuz i don't have the funding i normally do...i did a couple of pumpkins(seen here in their initial outline)...

and they came out ok

i did up the entry with bat-cutouts and some black crepe paper i left over from something....


the sky was a very halloweenie kinda sky

all that was needed were the trick-o-treaters....none of whom showed up....yup-yup

Posted by Meagen at 10:19 PM | Comments (3)

October 29, 2006

revell avenue

this is the first house i ever lived in....only it was olivish-green with black trim when we lived there... when we lived on this street, the dragons lived in this house next door. they would sit outside in their yard for coctail hour during the better weather, and i would go and visit on my tricycle. i also remember mrs. dragon making me hats from the leaves of a big tree in their back yard. i don't remember the family name of the folks who lived here, but the girl's name was tiffany, and i played with her from time to time. this house has always been one of my favorites! it's got a total american crafts movement thing happening inside. i remember tiffany's mother saying she wished the house was bigger....i still think this is a supercute house!
while we were walking around, checking out the old street, this guy followed us around....maybe it was that cookie i gave him... the noseworthy's used to live in this house. they're canadian. one of my mother's favorite stories is about how i got thrown out of the noseworthy's yard for saying, "look! your doggie's going poo-poo!". when i was in high school, mr.noseworthy was the principal.....yup-yup, it was interesting! this was the shore's house. mrs. shore gave me piano lessons while i lived on the street. i also got into MAJOR trouble for writing on the shore's wooden stockade fence with rocks. that was when i found out that writing on things with rocks wasn't like writing on things with chalk. the end in my piano lessons had nothing to do with this incident. i wish i'da taken more pictures of the houses on the street. i have a little story about almost every one of them! also-also; sage came over to hang out sporty came home and hung out with us too!

Posted by Meagen at 10:19 PM | Comments (1)

October 28, 2006

autumn is rolling in!

this is a japanese maple. it looks nothing like the tree in our back yard, that has always been called a japanese maple. i'm thoroughly confused. and i also cleaned up the left front yard, just so's it matches, dontcha know... my reward was IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN CHARLIE BROWN and hot cider with brandy. yum-yum!

Posted by Meagen at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2006

the ever-evolving color show that is autumn in new england

man-o-man! wudja look at that tree!!!



are you sick of THE WALK as topic-of-the-day yet? apparently, i'm not. in fact, it's an ever-constant source of amusement for me, which may prove to be the undoing of any potential followers of this blog....

Posted by Meagen at 05:25 PM | Comments (2)

October 23, 2006

lee, massachusetts

i took a ride up to lee with sporty today.

it was chilly and clear; the perfect weather for a long drive and stories about back-in-the-day...

i found out that pittsfield has a hazmat issue because GE didn't clean up after themselves when they closed their factory and pulled outta town.....i never knew this

i also found out that uncle ed used to live up near lee, when he was going to grad school....

it was an interesting sporty outing!

Posted by Meagen at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2006

personal evolution

in the autumn, i used to prefer the solid color leaves, like the leaf on the left. this year i noticed my preference turning more towards the leaves that sport multi-colors, like the one on the right.

Posted by Meagen at 09:21 AM | Comments (5)

October 18, 2006

gifts long forgotten.....

i don't know how many walks i've taken around paradise pond with tessy, but i would say more than a few handfuls. for whatever reasons i never noticed this stone....or, if it had grabbed my peripheral vision, it wasn't enough to draw me in, until today... and it was a beautiful day....maybe i was feeling more curious because of the weather? i decided that i'd pull tess over to check out the stone. in a way it was like that story in what the bleep do we know?, where the indigenous people of central america couldn't see the columbus ships until their shaman convinced them they were out there. it was like i had to read the stone and be told that there was a wildflower garden there in order to see the two little bridges and stairs and walkways... tess and i checked the whole thing out, even crossing both bridges. each bridge had a little medallion on it, indicating in whose name(s) the gift had been made. if you look, you can still kinda see the remenants of landscape design....there was what seemed to be an old marble/stone bench that was missing it's top slab you can see tessy circled in red, trying in total vain to get at whatever small creature has taken up residence there. dude, there were even old labels on some of the plants and lots of small, hidden, stairways tess was lovin' it! it made me kinda sad, in a more thoughtful kind of way. i mean, people gave money to have this garden and it's various "highlights" made in memory of loved ones, and it was just let go...what were the circumstances behind this transition from garden of memories to garden of gifts long forgotten?

Posted by Meagen at 03:23 PM | Comments (2)

October 16, 2006

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TESSY!!!!

tessy turns four!

Posted by Meagen at 08:50 AM | Comments (2)

October 14, 2006

smallest zucchini....EVER

things in the garden didn't turn out too well....i shoulda used somma the energy i spent on the seeds in prepping the soil. the results were: the beans died, the squirrels ate all the zucchini blossoms (which are necessary for the vegetable to grow), strawberries take a year to "take", and planting the tomatoes too late meant that the frost came before they could ripen on the vine....

i put the ONE zucchini i got next to the tomatoes for size comparison. the tomatoes i picked from the plants and put in a brown paper bag. that bag sits in our sunniest window, and the ripening happens at a slow-yet-truly-unnatural pace....

and now some random autumn picts

Posted by Meagen at 01:42 PM | Comments (1)

the crafting moved with a slow gait

there has been crafting in the months since i moved to northampton, but not nearly close to my usual pace. perhaps this is why i chose to save it up, as it were, to show-n-tell all at once. it seems to represent more productivity than really happened. i'll start with the knitting.... sporty's birthday was july 2nd, and i made him this sweater vest outta valley yarns's longmeadow, periwinkle. it grew a bit, width-wise, when i put it through the wash. i was suprised by this, since it's 60% cotton and i was sure that it would shrink. it's a version of the men's tennis sweater pattern found in the summer 2006 knit 1.
i took a break from forcast to make the v-neck. once i was done, i went back and finished it. the sleeves seemed to take forever. i tried making it with the cables and bobbles, but it was a bit too much with the verigated yarn. i ripped it out, and did it plain style, which i think looks much better. however, i'm sort of wondering if this wasn't really meant to be made in a solid color, and still contemplating ripping it out.
i made three pairs of socks. the top pair is a gift for mary prioux, and the bottom pair i made for me (which i obviously wore before i took this pict...). the third pair were orange lace (i don't remember the yarn maker or type) and were sent to nathalie as a birthday present without taking a picture of them. perhaps you know nathalie, and can ask her to show them to you!
lastly i made tessy some sweaters for this winter. she sorta needs them for when it snows, so her belly area/belly hair won't get all frozen. i made the one on the left because i was sick of hearing everyone assume tessy is a boy, just because she's got a beard! it's from the knitting for dogs book by kristi porter. the middle one is a pattern i kinda made up. it's based on the hogwart's scarves (ravenclaw colors) from the first two harry potter movies. the sweater on the right is from the first issue of knit 1. i've shown the belly area to highlight the super cute buttons i found. they look like the leather ones, but they're plastic, which means they can be washed! how stoked is that?!?!?! you can see picts of tessy in all the sweaters in her album in the picture area.
there has also been some beading! i wanted a necklace that i could wear to dress up any t-shirt and that yelled summer for realz. this is what i came up with. i was suprised to find that i had the flower toggle clasp amongst all my beading materials. the fact that i don't really know all of what i have for beading materials tells me i should prolly be cut-off from buying any more. although, i have to say it was a nice suprise that i had just the right clasp for such a spontaneous project....
i made this cloysienne necklace for my brother's wedding. it looked really nice with the dress i wore, even if the craftsmanship on the beads wasn't so consistant.
then i went to a.c. moore (a kind of michaels), and there were so many cool beads in the 50%off bin, that i bought some to make this vintagey bracelet. in particular i love the swarovski clasp! even though it's a little difficult to take off.
i was still on a bracelet tear, but also wanted to use a tube of mixed seed beads i'd bought at beadissimo before i left san francisco. i came up with this band bracelet. this was made with the crazy version of a box-stitch i use. i liked how the closure button came out. it's based on a medallion i saw in one of the bead and button magazines i have (i'll try to come up with the issue, for reference, later). at first i wasn't sure if i liked it, but after wearing it a couple of times, i've decided i really do!
while parusing b-n-b i found a great pattern for these crochet earrings i still have not decided which style of closure i prefer. the rounded one hangs far down, and makes the earring feel heavier, but the straight one doesn't dangle too well....oh the dilemas...
once i made the earrings, i knew i needed to make a bangle for myself, using the same pattern. i went with red simply because it's my favorite color. the bracelet took MUCH longer than the earrings combined.... i also can't take my eyes off it whenever i wear it; it's so sparklely! the bangle is so worth the time it took to make it!
then i wanted another goes-with-anything bracelet. i made this knotted glass druk bead bracelet, and was suprised, once again that i had the perfect clasp! even though it looks like plastic beads, in a way, it's weight reveals it's in fact glass. i particularly like how the bracelet lies just between my wrist and the upper part of my hand, but not in a way that makes me fear it's gonna fall off.
finally, finally, finally, my thoughts have finally turned to christmas, which means i won't be able to show any f.o.'s until january or so....what i can show for now are some ornaments i finished. this year there'll be a real tree, so i made some larger ornaments. i got the basic pattern for these beaded pinecones from interweave.com. i altered the pattern somewhat, because i didn't think they'd hang correctly. instead of putting the "spray" behind the pinecone, i made it underneath so the ornament would be weighted properly to hang centered on a tree branch. i also used the christmas tartan i bought at a.c.moore when i was partaking in those 50% off beads......how convenient!
and that's all of it...that's six months of crafting....how quickly it passed....

Posted by Meagen at 06:47 AM | Comments (4)

October 12, 2006

yippe-kie-yie-yea!

you know, i'm feeling pretty good today; i might even call it borderline elation. i have no idea why, since nothing in particular has happened. i still don't know if i got that job at smith or not. my time is still being spent between tessy, the house, and crafting (which is getting more holiday minded lately). the big outing of the day is still going to the grocery store (aka errands), eating out with tully/sue and/or dad, or taking tessy on the longer afternoon walk. there have been no life-altering revelatory experiences. my biggest excitement is being able to add birds to my bird-sighting list, or cooking something new for dinner. i still don't really have any friends here, other than sage, and ted(who's an hour and a half east in roslindale). and let's not forget that the side-front yard is awaiting my leaf-removal attention...

yet here i am, feeling borderline elated.

i also have a question. i've noticed during my walks that there's an interesting landscaping situation.

this is one of the paths that leads to the trail around paradise pond. about halfway down the path it becomes this:

by the time the path intersects the trail, it looks like this (curb has been circled):

what happened? i mean, the lawn next to the path is mowed regularly, how did this tar path get grown over? it's instigated my curiosity for sure...any constructive suggestions are welcome!


all i have left to show you are some arty shots from the walk and the rest of the day. note that sporty makes a cameo! i'm hoping to post pictures of the stuff i made over the summer, including three fun sweaters for tessy! maybe i'll do that this evening!

Posted by Meagen at 02:34 PM | Comments (1)

October 10, 2006

the leaves, oh, the leaves

despite temperatures that might suggest otherwise, fall has started. fall, indeed, as the yard is covered with leaves that have fallen there. i did the front-front yard (as opposed to the side-front yard) since rain's on the horizon, and wet leaves are quite difficult to rake. i'm also under the distinct impression that the condition of the front-front yard defines the overall appearance of the house, while the side-front yard is more of an afterthought....i suppose i think that because when we first moved in there wasn't really a side-front yard, there was "a small field" next to the house. then evolution happened, and suddenly, there's a side-front yard. now, why i would feel the strong urge to dillineate between front yards is up to you to decide for yourself, as i, personally, have no idea why i would have such feelings of borderline indifference to the side-front yard...well, other than the fact that it more than doubles the amount of work you need to keep up on in the front yard....


well, there you go!

tessy hung out with me while i worked on the yard...

THERE WERE SO MANY LEAVES. it's been many, many moons since i last was raking so many leaves.... dude, i used both a broom and a rake to deal with all those leaves. i mean, let's face it, if i'da left all the leaves in the curb area in front of the house, they woulda just wound up on the lawn tomorrow=more work. i pushed'em all down into the driveway, and it took me three trips to dump'em in the compost area in the back. i used my handy new big-bucket-on-wheels that sporty got me! in that bucket is the snow shovel i used with the rake to mimic large webbed hands that could easily load up all those leaves. tessy totally agreed with today being a beautiful day to spend raking leaves in the front-front yard...well, except for those rascally squirrels accross the street. they taunted her until she managed to squeeze between the bars of the fence. unfortunately her lead only allowed her through the bars and an additional 6 inches. what she won't do to get at them squirrels! when i pulled her back into the yard, she decided leaves made good lounging! good to go for the next couple of weeks of leaves-gathering! i don't really wanna think too much about doing the side-front yard. i shoulda taken a pict of it....it has three times the amount of leaves, with the addition of hidden dog poo. although tessy refused to poo in the yard, some nice dog/cat drops'em quite regularly. i'm really very angry-borderline-bitter about it, to be honest. although, apparently i'm not quite worked up enough to hang out in the entry-way for an entire 24-hour period to catch the culprit in action.....i think i'm learning to let go a bit....

Posted by Meagen at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)

October 08, 2006

day-of-the-oppressor weekend

ted came out for a brief weekend visit.

i kinda lost track of pict-taking until we went on the walk saturday afternoon.

can you find tessy?

ted was very drawn to the light....

can you find ted?

i noticed on this walk, in particular, how much earlier it's getting dark these days.....well, i suppose that was partially due to how much later we took the walk from when i "normally" go....actually, there is no "normal" time (poor tessy), i kinda go when it strikes me...

i've come to think that perhaps ted's abilities to disappear into the landscape might have been honed during secret-agent training...whaddya think?

ted's not in that one...that one i took just cuz i thought oooohhhh, pretty! when i looked up...


and i thought this one looked out of a scene of LORD OF THE RINGS (and you'd thought i'd forgotten all about lotr, just because it's not the topic of conversation so much these days...silly you.)

Posted by Meagen at 04:18 AM | Comments (3)

October 06, 2006

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TULLY!!!!

please note the use of a classic vintage photograph.....fourth grade, 1977, i believe...

Posted by Meagen at 11:29 AM | Comments (2)

October 04, 2006

getting some heavy visuals here....

i'm not feeling all that verbose today, but i've got quite a few picts to share....

staring out this screen door is tessy's version of television....i wonder what she's gonna do when it's too cold to open this door anymore....

whaddya mean when it's too cold to open this door anymore?!?!?!?!?! i'd always sort of assumed this was a bush. i took a closer look today and found that it's really a bunch of shoots growing out of a tree stump....
the walk

Posted by Meagen at 07:03 PM | Comments (0)

October 03, 2006

willa ford....really?!?

i'm referring to dancing with the stars. i really enjoy this show. i could label all my reasons, which some may label "justifications", but i won't. i'll just say that i don't normally like "reality television", but i enjoy dwts; i even call in to vote!
this week i found i was unexpectedly, and genuinely, moved by something willa ford said. she and her professional dance partner (pdp) maksim had performed a beautiful waltz, and were back stage talking to one of the show's mc's. willa said that maybe she'd sold herself short, and that maybe she could do the graceful/elegant thing...

yes, willa, i think you did sell yourself short.
and good for you that you've had this self-realization/life changing concept televised live and broadcast to millions on dwts!!!!! although i might have a couple of votes to spare for you in the weeks to come, i must say, for me, it's still ALL ABOUT JERRY SPRINGER!!!

Posted by Meagen at 09:44 PM | Comments (0)

October 02, 2006

pretty pretty lawn foliage

i walk past this yard quite a bit in the afternoons (for tessy's afternoon walk). i think the combination of striped grass (clumps of tall grasses are very popular in yards in northampton) with the deep redish and chartruese leafy plants is beyond striking!!!! i also like that the yard in general does not have a manicured look. our yard is somewhat manicured, but that's because it's not my landscaping, it's my mom's. molly was a tailored kinda gal....

Posted by Meagen at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

October 01, 2006

first degree burn-out

my candle burns at both ends;
it will not last the night. edna st.vincent millay

when i made the decision to move to the east coast, i knew a lot of it had to do with feeling burned out. i suppose i couldn't have known at that time how deeply burned i'd become, and it was only as the months in new england unfolded that i came to realize i was basically charred from years of trying to do "too much with too little time".

the way i've been attempting to heal has been to do allow myself to completely follow my instincts with how i spend my time. i've been telling myself that it's ok not to be producing something every couple of days, it's ok to not be trying to think of a solution for all the world's ills, that it's ok to simply "be" for a while, even if that while is a LOOOOOOOOOOONG while. this is difficult to do at times, as there are many you should be doing something more moments. i have found i need to consciously remind myself i'm in the midst of my year long sabbatical. i am experiencing a choice for something different, and it's not a situation that needs to be rectified. i think part of this is that i've used my productivity as a means of self-definition. this is part of why i stopped blogging for the summer; i was allowing myself to just be "in the moment" (even though i still took alot of pictures) and not be thinking about how i would relate the moment to someone else. as the summer ends and fall begins, i'm feeling cautiously motivated. well, i suppose it would be more accurate to say "ancy". i'm not used to being still, which is not necessarily a good thing; sharpen the saw and all that.... however, on my walk with tessy today, i was reminded of the natural rhythm of things. that's basically what i'm looking for in this year sabatical; my natural rhythm. i've followed an externally applied rhythm for about 15 years or so, and it's become apparent, it wasn't really working for me.

nature, left to it's own devices, produces a lot of beauty. it takes some time, warm days and cool nights, for the leaves to turn such brilliant colors, and it's not a process that can be rushed and the rewards are well worth the wait. however, this does not mean that the process is any less beautiful itself. i realized i was taking what i wanted as the end result, and using it as a compass for the process/journey.

the journey/process, as stated in many old sayings and cliches, is crucial to the overall result. this is something i know, if only because of hearing those sayings and cliches over the period of time that is my life. i realized i was taking what i wanted as the end result, and using it as a compass for the process/journey. this is not the natural order of things. nature doesn't start with the end, in that it seems not to even have a start or an end. nature just is...

tessy, especially on our walks, is a great reminder during boughts of tumultuous thought, that going through the process, taking the natural time and rhythm, may be a soothing balm in itself. she just is in the moment, experiences it, then moves on. the more i go out with her, and experience her, the more perfect she seems to me. it's the kind of natural perfection that just seems to make sense. she chases the squirrels. she wants to be off-road, off-leash. she's shy of other dogs. she wants all people to want to give her belly rubs. she wants to get through those windows to get those squirrels really badly and doesn't understand why i won't let her. she growls when she hears people on the street outside at night. she won't poo in the yard. she wants to have more food all the time. she wants in your lap, especially when it's night. she doesn't know how she feels about cats....and her tail wags an aweful lot.....the burn-out took away my tail wagging...in fact, i was a little kid the last time i had natural tail wagging....i think it's worth a year of uncertainty to get back to the place where i've got that tail wagging going on....

Posted by Meagen at 07:03 AM | Comments (1)