on this 80°+ day i borrowed the car¹ and took marco out for some naturing. i packed my bug spray just in case, some water, and took a hit of nasal spray. i picked hamlen woods and greenways in wayland. there was only a single car in the parking area when we first arrived at hamlen woods, which surprised me because i thought the place would be more crowded on a weekend (maybe the columbus day long weekend plus the indian summer weather took a lot of people out of town).

there wasn't that much to see in terms of wildlife, although we did find a few redback salamanders hiding underneath a log (including some eggs), a garter snake skittering across some dead leaves, and some frogs (basically every type of indigenous amphibian and reptile except for a turtle). we also saw some grey squirrels and chipmunks. it's still too early for any trees to change colors, but there were a few ambitious red maples.

other highlights include polypody ferns, vernal pool, beech-oak-pine forest, rock walls, mushrooms of various colors, a pet cemetery, the sudbury river, scattering milkweed seeds, and fun with round hay bales. because marco didn't bother putting on bug spray i didn't either, and got a few mosquito bites on my neck and face area (encephalitis here i come).

returning to cambridge, we made a quick stop at the mt.auburn cemetery to climb the crowded tower for one final look at the landscape.

i went to belmont in the late afternoon to return the car and stayed for dinner. afterwards i went with my parents to the jo-ann fabrics & crafts in burlington (before the 9:00 saturday store closing) so my mother could get some serenity sock weight yarn (50/25/25 merino wool/bamboo rayon/nylon). they didn't have citrine (the color she wanted) so after we got back i ordered some for her online.

marco wasn't home when i got back around 9:30. i took a shower to make sure i didn't bring back anymore ticks (i found one on my body at my parents' place). marco had dinner at rendezvous in central square. when he got back we watched the season 3 finale of breaking bad followed by the first episode of this latest season.

last night i tried my hands at a two-tone lattice slip stitch pattern. i still don't quite get what wyib and wyif really mean. not only are my stitchings really tight, but at one point i ended up with more stitches than i started with, and some misplaced stitchings. my mother let me borrow her set of size 7 double point needles (DPN) so i can experience what real knitting needles feel like. i tried the two-tone lattice pattern but still messed it up, making the stitches way too tight.

¹ when i went to go look for my motorcycle key this morning, it wasn't in the usual place (inside my helmet). where could it be? maybe i left it on the motorcycle, which has happened in the past. so i went outside, and instead of the key in the ignition, it was actually just on the bike seat. it was there the whole night, and nothing happened to the bike.