Celebrating Autumn!!

Well ... the days are cooling down and the nights even more so here on top of our hill and winter is hinting that it's on the way. BRRRRRRRR!!! I am NOT looking forward to that!! So in the meantime, I am firmly in denial and enjoying our gorgeous autumn days that we've been blessed with in the last couple of weeks. The temperatures have been in the low 20's, the sun has been shining, the wind hasn't been blowing a gale ... so I'm celebrating autumn! :0)

My autumnal celebration is taking the form of gardening at the moment. My Beloved Geek Boy and I got stuck in and did some more tidying up, cutting back and pulling out on the weekend ... which my muscles are again complaining about! Obviously I was using DIFFERENT lazy muscles to last week's gardening effort! :0) But it has just been so nice to be outside when it's not too hot and not too cold ... a bit like Goldilocks and Baby Bear's Porridge ... it's been JUUUUUUUUUUUUUST right! Tee! Hee! Hee! And because a few of you said you'd like updates of how our vege patch is progressing, I thought I'd take a photo at the same time each week to keep a growing record, so this week's updated photo is ...

Can you see the biggest change from last week? No? Well ... we've changed the lemon tree's pot. The original pot was GREEN but it wasn't quite deep enough to allow for the lemon tree to grow much bigger, so we visited De Pott Man on the weekend and this bright RED pot caught my eye. I think it looks great against the green leaves of the lemon tree and will look even better once the veges start getting bigger. They HAVE grown, it's just a bit hard to see in a photo yet, so stay tuned and we'll see how much they've grown by NEXT Monday. :0)

And speaking of celebrating Autumn ... the ancient Celts did just that in rather a more organised way than me. Each year they celebrated the festival of Mabon (pronounced "Mah-bawn") and this was when they gave thanks to their deities for a bountiful harvest that would see them fed through a long cold winter. Well, when I was asked to design a bear for an autumn issue of "Handmade", I was inspired by the colours and textures of autumn, so my little bear was named Mabon after the Celtic festival. Today he arrived home from his magazine visit - YAY!! Another 'bearbie' home safely! :0) And he was VERY keen to show off HIS issue of "Handmade" ...

Look who made the cover!! Can't call him a 'covergirl' like I did with Annie-Rose Bear last month, though! :0) Er ... cover ... BEAR! Tee! Hee! Hee! And the layout inside the magazine looked like this ...

Here he is showing off his lovely autumn leafy scarf. Mabon is made from lovely flannel that I found at my home-away-from-home ... although ... it was a bit tricky finding flannel in January, let me tell you! :0) Poor Marion had to go hunting through containers where her winter fabrics had been packed away for the summer - thanks Marion!! What would I do without your help! :0) And a big cyber BEAR HUG to the lovely blogging buddies who were very quick to email me with congrats when they received their issue of "Handmade" in the mail - I think Miriam of Bubba Chenille must have emailed as soon as she opened her mag! Tee! Hee! Hee! Isn't it lovely that we have such friendship and support in blogland!! :0)

And now that I've celebrated autumn, I think I'm going to go practice for winter and find a jumper and some funky socks to keep my feet warm, cos as the sun goes down so does the temperature these days - down to 6 tonight the weatherman is telling me - EEP! Maybe I'll find TWO pairs of socks!! :0) Hope you're all finding your own ways to celebrate autumn ... or spring for those northern gals ... cos every day is worth celebrating!! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS