Beauty and Work

Beauty is all around us this time of year. These little trees are called service berries. I've never heard of them until my neighbor planted 2. Now I see them everywhere. Aren't they pretty? I can see these looking out my side kitchen window.
Not sure you see really how many leaves are piled up here; but took hubby and I blowing and raking several hours on Sunday. We have leaves at the curb ready for pick up the full length of the house, on both sides of the drive. As do the 2 neighbors between us and the end of the street. Our neighborhood has a large truck vacuum that picks up the leaves about 5 times during the season. The leaves are then composted at a facility where we buy our mulch in the spring. It's my understanding our community was one of the first in the nation to develop this system. It's really a good system. They don't fill the landfills with them this way, and it's far easier than cutting up leaves yourself, and or bagging them which is what many neighboring communities do.
This is hubby's new leaf blower. He had just finished blowing all the leaves off the roof and out of the gutters when the one we've had for years broke. So, he ventured out to the hardware to make a new purchase.

Do you rake or blow your leaves?
What's your communities method of collecting the leaves?

As it's continuing to get colder and colder with each passing day, I'm reminded what a hard time of year it is for those who are homeless and less fortunate. And with that, please read about my homeless project here. I'm betting, there's something you can do to help.

New Camera, at last!

That's the front view of my new camera. It's very small and light weight and can easily be slipped right into my purse. I do have a camera bag that will work for it as well; but love being able to put it in my purse. Funny how these things progress. My first digital camera (which is the one I used to take this picture), was an Olympus. It still works, sorta...just very very slow you fall asleep holding down the shutter. It was a 2 megapixels. My 2nd camera which I loved (used for 3 years), was a Canon that was an 8 megapixels. I really liked my 2nd camera. I thought it took great pictures, was easy to use and batteries lasted forever. It took 4 batteries and was therefore a little larger, and heavier; but I liked the way it fit in your hand. Sadly, that's the camera that broke while we on vacation the last time. Lousy timing. So many of the new camera's don't have a view finder and I use it more often than the viewer. I find it faster, easier on the eyes---particularly in bright sunlight. Somewhere I read you use less batteries that way too? Anyway, since so many now don't have view finders I looked a bit. Ended up with another Canon. It's a 12 megapixels. I do like it being little enough to put in my purse, but find holding onto it a little harder because it's smaller. No doubt I just need to get used to it It has a nice size view screen on the back which gives you the ability to show someone a picture you just took. This is the number 1 selling camera right now according to the guy at Staples they can't keep it stocked. I also tried to order on line and it was out of stock. So, he ordered it from another store for me and called when it came in.

Suz ie Q, baby I love; oh Suz ie Q. I've never been good at remembering who did what song, so perhaps one of you know which song it is that's in my head as I type this post. This is Susie, you've seen her before. She's quite a ham, loves to have her picture taken and is often a model for me for finished scraves, hats and the like. She said, and I quote; "the blankets no good until it's been test". Now if I had a little smiling face thingy here it would be rollin it's eyes. LOL

Anyway, this is a super soft blanket I finished a few weeks ago. It was requested by my boss. Not like one can really say no to one's boss. This isn't the prettiest baby blanket I've made, the colors? I don't know, what do you think? The yellow just isn't soft pretty baby yellow to my way of thinking; but then she picked out the yarn ...........sooooooooooo there you go.

It's one huge granny square, but the yarn was quite thin, like fingering weight so it took forever to make. I used a small hook (can't now remember what size), and did 3 or 4 rows for the ruffle edge. I ended up with 9 scallops per stitch so you know how long that took.

She gave it as a shower gift for her niece who loved it.

Feeling under the weather the last 3-4 days, better today; but still taking it easy. Didn't go to work, no need to spread the bugs.

Gonna spend some time sorting hats, mittens, and scarves today for the homeless folks and the free clinic folks. Have you visited The Bridge and Beyond? If not, please do; some very big hearted and talented people have donated fabulous items.