Mystery solved

I wondered why I always found the quilt pulled down from the railing. I knew the cats were to blame, but not the nefarious reason behind it. Then I captured the guilty parties while I was working on a quilt in my craft room and happened to have the camera there. Caught in the act!

Cuz you know, they don't have enough soft places to sleep in every freaking room of the house. Not to mention the handmade hooked wool rug the quilt is scrunched up on. Since this first sighting, now I regularly catch Aurora curled up inside the quilt on the floor. For once she is the instigator, but Ariel is all too happy to take advantage when it's on the floor.

Bittersweet

The changing season has me thinking fondly of several lovely fall trips. Like a couple years ago to Italy and the afternoon spent in the big park in Rome. A surprisingly relaxing day in a crazy busy city.

I am enjoying my belated Thanksgiving long weekend by devoting it entirely to a quilting project and restocking my freezer with hearty soups - the perfect antidote to the cooling weather. Yesterday I made a favourite I often return to - noodle soup from 101 Cookbooks, but I got a bit carried away with the lentils and noodles, so now it's more stew than soup. Today I made Italian chicken soup from the Pioneer Woman. I scaled down the recipe a bit because the first time my jumbo pot wasn't big enough. This soup does involve many pots and pans and multiple steps, but it's totally worth the extra effort - and that's coming from a pretty lazy one-pot casserole kinda cook. Tomorrow I plan on making again this spicy Indian vegetable soup from Jamie Oliver. Then my freezer and me will be ready for the cool weather.

I made the switch from homemade iced tea to steaming mugs of tea. But nothing as fancy as this old English tea shop in Rome at the foot of the Spanish steps. The place setting was so lovely and the tea and treats delicious.

Sadly though, fall means my cycling season is coming to a close. If the forecast is right, I may have already enjoyed my last ride for the year. There's nothing more serene than biking through the countryside and all the fall colours. And I managed, with many extra and longer rides, to reach my second goal of beating my first by 1,000 kilometres when I passed 2,550 kilometres for this year. I have to say, that's pretty amazing when I think about it. That's about a third of the way across all of Canada! Now if only I had thought to have people sponsor me by the kilometre, I would have been able to buy a new road bike for next year. For now I will just window shop and dream of a spiffy new ride.

Winter is coming

Summer is over and that means it's time for the fall ritual of taking down the bunting from the front porch. I'm fascinated by the sun's effect on the fabric. Every year it loses more colour, depending on the fabric and where it hangs.

But I think there's something lovely about the sun-bleached fabric. It reminds me of autumn leaves fading on the sidewalk, leaving an imprint of colour. The change is quite dramatic in some of the triangles.

I'm not really worried about the winter coming yet, but the changing season made me think of the often used line in Game of Thrones - winter is coming. Which now made me think of the awesome blog that does a mash-up of Game of Thrones and Arrested Development. It's crazy how these two very different shows match up. Kinda a niche audience, though, for Arrested Westeros.