Just about the time you think the excitement is over, something new happens. This morning I discovered two birds frantically fluttering on the screened terrace. They must have gotten through the hole in the screen that the cats use and then gotten trapped. The cats were racing around trying to get the two hapless visitors, leaping on the screens with ferocious gusto.

I opened the door and one bird immediately flew to freedom, but the other one was too frightened to try it. I suppose my presence by the door was enough to convince it to avoid the sure way to escape. It whirred around the terrace until it finally ended up under the picnic table. I had to nudge it out, only to have Mischief pounce on it. It managed to get to the grass just outside the door before he pinned it down. I picked Mischief up and put him back in the terrace, then nudged the bird out of the grass. It took off explosively and quickly vanished in the distance.

We survived the flap over the presidential race, too, but many leading Democrats are throwing uncivilized fits about it. At least Mr. Kerry was gracious in defeat after holding out until the last possible chance that the votes might go his way. Now we are waiting to see if they will try post-election dirty tricks, if bin Laden will try his own dirty tricks, and if our troops in Iraq can successfully stop the opposition of the new government from persisting in their dirty tricks. Sometimes it feels like the whole world is fluttering around going nuts from the trouble they largely caused for themselves or others. At least Afghanistan is making progress with their newly elected government.

The days have cooled considerably and the first frost should happen soon. The afternoons have gotten chilly at last, agreeing with the falling leaves that fall is here. The rustle of leaf rakes has replaced the whir of lawn mowers in most yards. The weaker sunlight feels almost frail compared to the burning vigor of summer. It struggles to find gaps between the frequent rains soaking the parched garden with much needed moisture.

I got two new paper shredders to replace the last one that died. I think of them as Snarly and Growly in honor of their predecessors. I'm hoping that spreading the load over two will reduce the temptation to overwork them. The tumblers and garden need more paper mulch than one can handle. I suppose I could buy one of the expensive office paper shredders and see if it lasted longer, but somehow it seems too extravagant considering that I'm just going to wear it out by shredding more paper than a shredder is designed to handle.

I've been feeding Baby and Rapunzel (our compost tumblers) lots of scraps and paper, trying to squeeze out another few loads of compost before the weather cools enough to lull them to sleep for the winter. During the coldest weather, I can still load kitchen scraps into them and have them slowly compost, mostly in Rapunzel's bigger barrel. They don't seem to quite freeze, but they don't compost much either.

The new irises are making more new leaves, so they are settling in well. Hopefully they will start blooming next year. The garden show is pretty well over for the year, the palette changed to autumn browns and dull greens. The tomatoes are still making a few yellow blooms here and there, but they are mostly trying to ripen their last fruit in temperatures unfavorable for the enterprise.

The freshest greens in the garden are from the cabbages, broccoli, and turnip greens. The cabbage butterflies have largely left the scene, and these cool weather plants are enjoying the fall weather. A few of the bigger cabbages are now folding their center leaves upwards, coyly suggesting that their pregnant curves may hold some cole slaw in the future. The sugar pea vines are contributing the occasional handful of sweet pods as well. Their white blooms flutter here and there on the vines, a nice last touch of spring like purity reminding me that it will soon be time to plant spring peas again.

The crafting is still children's sweaters. The last one I started was a large size, so it is taking a while. I've gotten the body section done and I'm almost halfway up the sleeve section on one side. I've been using the pattern for circular needles to eliminate some of the seam sewing, and it has been working well. I just start at the bottom and spiral up to the sleeves, then split the stitches to work the two sides and knit them together at the top. Depending on whether I use a garter stitch border or a ribbed border, the finishing is more or less simple and looks pretty good.

I'm still getting a nudge about that cat block flannel quilt. I've knitted so much that my arms are sore, and the quilting guide put up her flower template article again. Appliqueing flowers to the backgrounds of those blocks would be very pretty, especially if I mix some of the different kinds of flowers. Fabric.com is calling with flannels on sale along with other goodies, too.

All that is competing with some other projects that joined my list of patterns to make if I live that long. There's a nice set of knitted dish cloths on a site where the members are knitting together as each pattern is posted. I think I'm eight patterns behind them now. I could really use some dish cloths to replace the worn bath towels I'm using after wearing out my kitchen towels. Of course, I could be sensible and buy some at Big Lots -- but sensible isn't my strong suit when it comes to crafting. If fabric.com hadn't sold out of their cotton yarn before I noticed it going, I might well have succumbed. Once again, my disorganization won out over my crafting greed.

There's also a pattern for teapot cozies that caught my eye. I just won a little teapot at the ABWA meeting, and it would be darling with a Christmas cozy. Unfortunately, it is about half the size of the smaller pattern, so I'm either going to have to find a miniature tea cozy pattern or figure out how to make one out of lighter yarn and smaller needles. I could go for a strictly decorative one out of crochet cotton, but this is an actual working teapot meant to brew one cup at a time. A skimpy cozy is just not cozy. It is yet more to put in the organizer's memo list, the limbo land of neglected good things to do.