who doesn't love a holiday monday?

i do, that's for sure. i hope all of you on the northern side of the border had a wonderful thanksgiving. we had a small get-together at our house, complete with a local chicken that i roasted (with prosciutto, sage & lemon, yum!), roasted potatoes and root veggies, gravy, aioli, pumpkin bread, squash, pumpkin pie, apple cobbler and so on... i'm sure i'm not the only one out there who is still recovering from the food coma. although i found enough room to use some of my leftover pumpkin oatmeal bread (recipe found here) and make autumnal french toast for breakfast. yum.



the sun shone quite a bit yesterday, and before i got into the kitchen to start cooking i wanted to get out for a little forest wander. after two days of heavy rain, i was sure the woods would be alive with mushrooms and i wasn't wrong. we were on the hunt for chanterelles, but i found myself stopping nearly every few steps to capture some of the other fungi (fun guys?) with my camera.







we did make off with a few white chanties as well, enough for a meal or two anyway. i'm tempted to head up a bit north of us soon, where i know a lot more golden chanterelles can be found. but at the same time it was just a pleasure to tramp through the mossy trails (and off trail!) and enjoy the forest at this time of year, saturated with moisture and lush and green at every turn.



i also finished a little friend - who also enjoys flitting through the forest. the birds are getting busy around here as the weather cools down, and i've started putting some seed out for them, which put this black-capped chickadee on the brain to make. hand stitched with wool, wool felt, cotton fleece and corduroy, he's a cute cool weather friend. he is in the Fog and Swell shop now.