Window box, knitting, lack of caterpillars

 Partner made me this second window box earlier this year, in which I planted two sweet peppers and two geraniums.  I put in a layer of sticks, then newspaper, then some partly composted chicken bedding, bark dust, and leaf mould.  Definitely a good mix for growing in.  It has also benefited from twice weekly DIY compost tea feedings--very happy plants, particularly the geraniums which have flowered constantly all summer.

I knit these socks last winter, and have got them out again along with my other wool socks;  it's chilly.  These are 100% merino wool, and very cozy to wear.  I joined a new knitting group at the library (I went to a different one in a different library over summer, but had to stop once school started, due to scheduling).  I'm the youngest by about 30 years, but that doesn't bother me--I love to knit, and it's nice to share that!

At the moment I'm knitting a pullover for Franklin out of the leftovers from my crocheted blanket;  it's got grizzly bears and snowflakes.  And it's taking me ages!  Also in the works is yet another coat for him:  a hooded coat with a quilted wool lining.  It's actually nearly finished, but I have two custom orders to fulfil for my etsy shop;  as soon as they're shipped, I'll sew the lining to the shell and it'll be done. 

Still getting tomatoes and runner beans pretty much every day, though I think the beans'll be over soon.  I had one tiny pumpkin, but someone (with feathers, I suspect) broke it off the vine.  It was only about golf ball sized, so I wasn't too heartbroken.  My cabbages are also forming nice heads, and they escaped most of the caterpillar damage this year, thanks in part to my polyculture planting.  Because they weren't planted together in straight rows, but rather scattered about amongst everything, both vegetable and ornamental, the butterflies had a hard time finding them.  In previous years, caterpillars have completely defoliated whole plants.  This year, damage was strictly limited to molluscs.  One of the chickens caught a cabbage white butterfly earlier in the year;  I cheered her on.