Autumn is creeping up on us again. It isn't officially fall yet, but the days are growing shorter and the dawn light later as night stealthily gathers the minutes at its edges back into the shadows. The light is noticeably softer when night finally does yield to the sun and as it reaches out for control of the skies at sunset. The fireflies are down to a tardy few in the evening, an occasional spark of light in the garden as one seeks a mate to sow the seed for another crop of fireflies for next summer.

We had our first taste of cool weather last week, marked by a few relatively chilly mornings and humidity low enough to enjoy some time on the terrace swing. Another cold front promises to bring us a little more in a few days. The tumblers are full of rough compost nearly done enough to empty onto a garden bed, but they too have noted the changing season and have slowed their peak summer pace.

Yesterday, I had to make time to clean up more fallen branches and mow the back yard. The trees are still shedding a few branches from the storm damage, but at least the leaves haven't started to fall quite yet. Baby and Rapunzel got lots of nice chopped monkey grass and weeds added to their loads, and I'm hoping that will be enough to finish that compost this week. The oldest tomatoes are nicely plump and turning lighter, so I'm still looking for the first tomatoes of the year yet. I've also got some snap beans waiting to be picked.

My pace hasn't slowed from its usual brisk totter as I try to keep up with everything waiting to be done. We got so disorganized from that severe storm that we completely forgot about diva night at the pottery studio last month. I did an evening check of the email looking for something Mom was expecting and had to announce that the reminder of diva night was also there half an hour before the end of it. The lady who organized it turned out to be the only one who got there that month, but we're signed up for it this month along with several others.

I've gotten some tempera paint powder to simulate painting with fusible glazes for practice sessions on paper, and I've been to the library twice for books on painting. So far I haven't had time to do more than read the books with everything else to do. I'm trying to squeeze in some painting practice time before we go over there again, but there's so much to do.

I've gone from having minutes slip through my fingers to grabbing for whole weeks. Time is rushing on and the daily chores flutter onto my mental to-do list like autumn leaves. New issues of magazines arrive with astonishing rapidity. I was so busy with breakfast and starting the laundry this morning that Mischief started growling and swatting at me with his claws out, trying to get me to settle down somewhere so he could curl up for a nap nearby. He finally gave up and went to sleep on my bed without me.

As you might guess, working on the quilts is also a high priority. I've still got that almost finished quilt waiting, although it has gotten a few more stitches in it as time permitted. The new flannel quilt top has 36 blocks assembled and 36 more waiting to be sewn together. It is singing a siren song from its bag, accompanied by a fiendishly clever email from fabric.com praising me for my efforts to support their store and promising a big discount on all orders placed before September 25.

Wouldn't you know it, it includes quilting flannel in some very nice colors that would look wonderful among the other cat blocks. They're only eight-inch blocks, so it is going to take a lot of kitties to make this quilt. Steve is cursing fabric.com with considerable vigor, especially since that email came when he was checking the email so he saw it. He doesn't know why I became one of their best customers but he does know how!

They've also got some other goodies that I would dearly love to order, but Mom keeps reminding me that I've now got two quilts waiting to finish. Unfortunately, one has to order when the fabric is there because they have lots of close-out deals and usually won't have more of that fabric when it is sold out. It is giving me more incentive to work on the quilts but not more time for it. I did get my internet shopping nightgown done so I could cut some cat blocks from its scraps, so I'm ready for a nighttime excursion into the depths of fabric.com.