uhm, not me. The plastered one I mean. Although I do like my wine ... No, I was speaking of the weather we had on Saturday. Really windy and nearly two inches of rain. The leaves at times rained down like wet confetti and stuck to the windows, deck—you name it—driven there by the wind and the rain. It toppled my mums. The tree tops swayed alarmingly to and fro and I had visions of a power outage. But none occurred.

Here is my shadow (in baggy robe) trying to get some of the leaves decoupaged onto the deck from this morning.

I didn’t really mean to get myself in the shot, it just happened that way.

Today was the last farmer’s market in Warwick for the season. boohoo. We hadn’t been in several weeks and were surprised (and extremely pleased) to see a few new vendors. Mainly the mushroom vendor (hurray!) whose farm is not far away and hopefully will continue to sell their wares straight from their farm. We left our email just in case they follow through on this. She had Hen-of-the-Woods, oyster, lobster, creminis, white portabellos, and king oysters. Tomorrow we will be making a mushroom risotto from the Hen-of-the-Woods that we bought and the kings.

The other vendor had this ...

... and this that made its way home with me. Hey, I couldn’t resist local alpaca (spun with bamboo) now could I? Soft and squishy, this will make a nice scarf.

I also bought a bunch of veggies that I plan to cook a stew with in a few days when the weather is supposed to be really cold. We’ll miss the Sunday market in Warwick until it returns next Spring.

Today we also dismantled the poolside cabana. We flicked off all the little spideys hoping to make it their forever home from the screens and curtains, hung the curtains on the line to completely dry, and folded them up to store away until next year. The cabana frame still stands as it’s bolted down.

In doing so, we discovered this cool caterpillar. It was about 4 to 5 inches long and to me looks like a piece of tinsel off a Christmas Tree. It’s body sparkled so! I have no clue what Mother Nature has in store for someone who hasn’t blossomed into a butterfly at this late stage of the season. I ran my fingers down its porcupine back. This one has some natural defense going on for sure. I’m not sure the photo really captured its glitz.

That was my day today. And by the way, what you see in my blog is my real life. Not some made-up existence (which is blog fodder for another day). I’ve been working on a blog entry for days now about our wonderful hike that we took a week ago, but it’s slow going. I have so many photos that I am wondering if anyone is going to want to wade through it. But, this blog is really about me. For me. About my life. It’s my way to keep a diary (but a public one) of my life. If you choose to read and enjoy, welcome. But this is really for me. Me me me! (Thanks to all who read!)

I’ll close now with the view out my kitchen window. Who could want for anything more?

UPDATE: Thanks to Gretel who suggested the caterpillar was a moth! It is! A quick Google search came up with a Giant Leopard Moth! Follow this link to see. Here’s another photo I took blown up a bit. You can see the tiny red bands peeping through and bristles much better.

What a beautiful view!

Are you sure that caterpillar wasn’t a piece of fun fur? LOL!

Well, since I had been to a Wine Tasting all afternoon on Saturday , maybe I was plastered, but my poor gazebo was, too!  The wind took it and turned it over on top of the hot tub - again!  2 times in 2 years!  We are not buying a new one this time.  Kevin & Mark plan on sneaking into your yard and trading ours for yours when you’re not looking!  Then we’ll have a nice new one - and poor you!!  Keep those eyes peeled!

Mary, yes it is nice, isn’t it? And the caterpillar was real enough even though it does look like a piece of fun fur!

Kim, not again! oh no! Did you have it secured down this year? Did the frame get mangled again? Well, if Kev and Mark come over be sure they bring the tools necessary for unbolting it from the deck!

4-5 inches long?  Wow. that’s some caterpillar.  I have learned that it takes moisture to grow big crawly things, and I am now not used to them.

The sunflower dishclothes are at http://www.masondixonknitting.com/ in their free patterns.  Like I mentioned, for the center, I used a variegated yarn.  Simpler!

Maybe it’s a moth caterpillar? Over here the furry ones usually are. OK, I’m going through an envy thing here, our farmer markets don’t sell any kind of foraged mushrooms and your kitchen window view is breaking my heart…

Becky, yes crawly things are here indeed!

PG, yes! I found it! See link above. Now if I could only see it when it turns into a moth! wow! Unfortunately these are not wild-foraged mushrooms, but grown with spores and cultivated on a farm. Still ... it’s a joy to have them.