KNITTING, GARDEN, and SQUASH

KNITTING: Home from LA one week and have been busy.  Knitting, garden, and squash are always evolving into something newish.  Here's the bear I made for my niece, D.  She is similar to Esperanza that went to my sister, C, who, like me, is a breast cancer survivor.  These bears are wearing pink and have pink/red hearts symbolizing hope for all breast cancer patients.  D can name her bear who went into the mail today on her way to Vancouver, WA.

     Also in the mail today, is the finished "ribs with cable on the side" scarf for my sister, C.  She laid claim to it as I was working on it during my visit.  I know it will keep her neck warm on cool LA nights. 

GARDEN: I ventured into the drying-up garden today and found a bounty of beautiful fall colors that only Mother Nature can create.  WOW!  The peppers, eggplant, and gourds are still producing.  By leaving the peppers on the plant awhile, they turn a gorgeous red.  I couldn't wait to get a photo for my blog.

SQUASH: The first of the Blue Hubbard squash has gone under the knife and not easily, either.  D worked hard with large kitchen knife and cleaver to break the smallest one open.

     Here it is in half.  The insides were very easy to remove not like pumpkins where you have to do a lot of scraping.  The seeds were nestled inside, easy to remove, too.  Then D cut the halves in half again, and I baked them on cookie sheets at 300 degrees for 90 minutes as was recommended at the Blue Hubbard Squash web site.  Yes, there is such a place. 



Here they are baked ready to be eaten.  The seeds are drying and they'll be going to the gray squirrels that live in our neighborhood. 

     Most the the squash meat went into the freezer, but I had some for dinner with a little brown sugar sprinkled on - delicious.  Three more squash to go. 

Fall is making itself known with a mini-storm this weekend, although today it's in the 90s.  I still feel like I'm on an extended summer vacation - Going back to school and the changing of the seasons seemed to go together.  Now I'm keeping an eye out for the first perfect autumn leaf that will fall in our front or back yard.  Then thousands will follow.  Raking leaves is the price we pay for their beauty. 

Knit and crochet on!  I'm working on a cabled pouch that could be used as a gift bag.  Will be in the next blog.