Out and About ~ A few Shopping adventures

Good evening! Oh my it gets dark early now, doesn't it. Yesterday my friend L and I did a bit of shopping, just for fun. It was very nice to put on pretty clothes, even if just khaki capris and a colorful autumn cardi. Yes, a cool snap has arrived for a few days.

It was chilly enough that the marshes have picked up an early hint of amber and gold. Photos from a moving car, and far away, but we noted the egrets already flocking in the marsh's pools, like bands of avian ghosts.

Of course we went to our favorite Home Goods. 

I give Home Goods credit for still having Halloween items that looked new and fresh.

Blue pumpkins, anyone?

How about embroidered? Lovely hand stitching on linen, from India. Not my idea of a pumpkin though.

More.... I really so do not like this new Fall Y'all  trope. Reeks of phony redneck down home sappiness.

You know I love bowls! Black and white for Trick n Treat candy. (Will T & T even happen this year? Should Mo get a costume or just a Halloweeny bandana? Or?)

I loved this large striped bowl with the pumpkin colored glaze and punkins inside. Not expensive but I know from others I have bought that this line chips really easily and quickly looks unattractive. Pass.

Paper napkins: this photo is for blog friend Kit, A Montana Life. She's a huge football fan.

And I liked these tiered display stands. Love the funny old galvanized tin. Great for showing off collections like carpet balls or fishing floats. Wobbly though, and where would I store it? 

Almost no Thanksgiving items. I hope this once beloved traditional holiday does not fade, squeezed as it has become  between Halloween and Christmas? Politically correct scorn may also be a factor? But Home Goods has lots of Christmas already. I couldn't buy anything , just could not. I guess this is when the best stuff is offered though.

Mo got a new bed, for when/ if he goes on sleepovers in the future. It's his favorite style and brand but so far he has spurned it. Only $19.99.

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A few weeks ago we also went to a new to me Italian deli. Our local one burned down! This shop was tiny but the foods looked amazing, all specially brought over from Italy.

Enormous cooler case of antipasto makings attracted me, but on a hot day I was dubious. I treated myself to their special eggplant lasagna instead. It was very good, though my lasagna or eggplant parm are both better.

All summer I have been reading the Inspector Brunetti crime series by Donna Leon. The series is set in Venice and besides the central crime [which sometimes escapes me, as Italian law is of course different from US law, etc], there is quite a lot of description of Venice itself, people and clothes and food and wines. I bought a wonderful big coffee table type cookbook on my used books site, called Brunetti's Cookbook. All about the foods he and his family shop for, prepare, consume. Too bad the font is so tiny and pale I can't read it. Maybe someday. I'm interested because the northern Italian cuisine featured in the books is very different from the Sicilian cooking I grew up with and make still.

Brunetti's Cookbook

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I am also writing a timeline of the Covid Plague years. 2020 had become a jumble in my recollections. It was interesting to sort out the past year and a half.

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After we got home L and I were texting, making plans for more things we hope to do. Our lives have become so constrained with covid and Delta Covid edicts that even going to buy a dog bed is exciting! Have a great weekend, as we welcome October.

"Is it cold enough for a cup of hot tea?" 

asks Mrs Tiggywinkle,

 when she emerges each October.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

PS Mo's ears are still being treated, but he seems so much perkier, poor mite.