"dianamo, your dolls are amazing. I once watched a documentary about dolls. A grandmother so grieved the loss of her grandson after the divorce of her son and daughter-in-law, the mother taking the child miles out of state, that she commissioned a doll in the exact likeness of her grandson. That way she could still have him with her. I wasn't sure what to make of it, except to each his own. If it makes her happy, I can't seem the harm. " I saw that documentary, too. Through the grapevine on a doll board I belong to, I have heard that the lady in that documentary now makes reborn dolls herself. And is very good at it! And the young girl that made the doll to look like that womans grandson got a lot of orders for dolls that she wasn't able to fullfil. She ended up going bankrupt and still owes a lot of money people put as downpayments on dolls she promised to make.

Someone posted here that they love yellow trees. I know that ginko trees can be a striking, brilliant yellow, and there are several near my office. The ones along the street were pretty solidly yellow, but they are small and unimpressive. I've been waiting for the big one across the street to turn. Its an impressively large tree, about 4 feet in diameter and over 150 years old. This is the tree as of this past Friday: Yesterday I could see that it was pretty much the same as above. Today every single leaf is on the ground. Every. Single. One. I had read that ginkos (or at least some ginkos) lose all their leaves in a day, but never quite believed it.

It's Nov 3, but this little rose doesn't know it. We've had above-normal temperatures this week, 19°C. There's a flower plus 4 buds that weren't there last week.

Last week I was given some knitted dishcloths as a thank you for helping a friend out. It got me thinking that I could make some, only crocheted. Many years ago I tried using a crocheted dish cloth, but hated it as the knife points would go right through and poke me. So I noodled around and saw a video and whipped this up. It's not bad for my first one, and will get better (and straighter edges!).