It's autumn already?

Technically, not quite, I know, but after a beautiful sunny and clear Labor Day weekend, it turned cloudy and cool and wet, and the most delicate of the foliage is already starting to wilt.

Let's see, immediately after the last post, our astronomy club hosted a convention, so we were busy with that. Then after that was over, we relaxed for a week. Then, because it was almost August, AKA The Month When My Eyes Act Screwy, my eyes started acting screwy. Six weeks, several specialists, and some fancy-pants medical treatments later, I'm pretty much back to normal or at least my eyes are. While I was Abby Normal, though, I didn't spend a lot of time hanging around the computer. T kindly gave me his rarely used desktop computer, with a 22 inch monitor (love it!) and Windows Vista (hate it!)

That didn't deter me from making the annual pilgrimage to Stitches Midwest, but it did help keep my shopping in check. Shopping just isn't that much fun when you can't see what you are doing, or aren't sure if you will ever be able to see well enough to use the purchase. (Of course, except for making my annual tithe at Black Water Abbey, I bought all lace weight, so don't listen to me.)

I can read again, and knit socks and lace, and even stargaze. Last weekend, we went to the Iowa Star Party at White Rock Conservancy, about an hour from here, and I did a little binocular viewing. In fact, once night T's telescope went wonky, and I actually did more viewing than he did. The weather, as I said, was perfect for camping and astronomy - cloudless and moonless and temperate. It did get warm one day, but it was also windy, so it was still pleasant.

Now, with the cooler weather and clearer vision, my knitting mojo has returned with a vengeance. I keep diving into the WIPs (works in progress) and finding something else that I absolutely must have before winter. Maybe one of these days I will even have some photos of finished objects to share.

Geese and goslings

The last of the vacation videos from Blackhawk Lake. Sorry for the noise. It was windy.

I could watch geese babies all day long.

Vacation photos, at last

100_1400
Originally uploaded by chaimann

Since it is a long weekend, I'm trying to get some backlog caught up - such as putting some of last month's vacation photos on Flickr.

We went to Blackhawk Lake, a couple of hours from here in Lakeview, Iowa. We had rain and thunderstorms almost every day, but at least that kept the temperatures pleasant. The campground was almost empty - only three or four units in the whole place - so it was as close as we could get to being all alone (but still with flush toilets and hot showers.)

Pelicans

When we went on vacation last month, there were pelicans hanging out near our campground at Blackhawk Lake. At about :10, a cormorant pops up and mills around for a few seconds, and then dives back under water.

Cat alert for Minnie: There are bird noises.