Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.

Oh the trees around our little cove have been in a very show-off kind of mood this fall. 

Everywhere you turn, you are surrounded by color.

We took advantage of the wonderful sunny, warm days we've been having and took a ride up M-22.  Stopped at the Sleeping Bear Dunes and took a long walk along Lake Michigan.

Such a sweet girl!

This picture is really for my sister and neice, who raise chickens.....

Now these chickens are living in style!



Hooked Mats For Sale

When we went to Prince Edward Island, I expected to love the beautiful shoreline and the amazing farmland. 

What I did not expect, and what ended up being the best part of the trip was the people we met there.  I still can't get over their friendliness.  There whole time we were there, we never met anyone who didn't have time to talk for a while...from the guy who pumped our gas (yes, you read that right), to the man out walking his two Great Danes who was off to buy some fresh fish for his tea, to the wait staff who not only served our food, but would sit down at our table and help us plan out the things we wanted to see that day.

On one of our journeys around the island we saw this:

Of course, we had to stop.  And I had the great pleasure of meeting Margaret Campbell.

Margaret is 85 years old and has sold over 500 of her mats.  She works at this frame that was made by her husband.

She works in yarn on her "good" rugs.  She draws all her own designs and mostly hooks "by eye".  This is her current rug.  She is beginning with the border and then is going to put in some type of landscape....she really hadn't decided yet.

She has this rug hanging in her living room:

It is her homestead.  She was born and raised in the house on the right, married and raised her four children in the middle house and the her son now lives in the house on the left.  Her whole life is represented in this rug.

In addition to the rugs that she sells, Margaret also makes rag rugs.  The materials for the rag rugs come straight from her rag bag and are cut with the scissors you see laying on her frame.  (She is, in fact, a little dismissive of those fancy cutters we all seem to use now.)  These are two mats she had on the floor by her back door.  Before that, they were used in guest cottages that she used to run.  They are 30-40 years old.

Remember how we are always told that you have to use 100% wool--everything else will fade, wear out, fall apart?  Yeah.

I was honored to spend almost two hours talking with Margaret.  Oh, we talked about everything....rug hooking, family, life on the island, aging.  She would say, "Oh I just love to tell a good story on myself." and then she would be off.  It was just the best time and the highlight of my whole trip.

It's October??

So you would think that someone who just retired would have loads of time on her hands...certainly enough time to update this poor, neglected blog once in a while.

But, after boxing up a 30 year career...selling the house....getting rid of so much stuff that I almost qualified for an episode of Hoarders... packing up the rest of it....and then moving....and then unpacking everything....

Well, let's just say that I ended up like this for the rest of the summer...

I read books, took naps, read more books, looked out at the lake, went for long walks.  And, did I mention I read books?  Lots and lots of books.

Of course, my loyal companion supported me in this...

And Jasper and Moses, being experts in nap-taking and all, helped also.

Then in August, we bought this:

And no, that is not Lucy sitting ON the table.  We would never allow that.

And we went here......

Prince Edward Island

and ate lots of this:

Then we stopped here:

Hopewell Rocks, Bay of Fundy

And then we went here:



And yes, I do realize that I added a wool store to two beautiful natural wonders of the world.  Your point is.....?

Oh, and we also stopped here:

But that's a story for another post.