Ghostly White Pumpkins

'White pumpkins tumble over silvery fields '

They're here...

Eerie-looking white pumpkins — naturally white, not painted are finding their way into more and more homes for Halloween season.

The albinos are called Ghost pumpkins, Snowballs, Luminas or Caspers — presumably a reference to the friendly ghost.

They seem like they will almost glow.

White pumpkins, simply another variety of the autumn favorite, have been around for a while, but what was once a curiosity at farmers markets is now available at grocery stores and pumpkin patches.

Scarlet Ball

"October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came-
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band."

~ October's Party, George Cooper.

Sweet October Rain

Mother Nature heard my plea and sent rain to this lush Tennessee valley today.
After fifty days of sunshine, the ground is parched and dry.

If you listened carefully you could hear the trees and flowers, heaving a big sigh of relief, their roots and foliage drinking in every last drop of moisture.

"Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain."
~Author Unknown

Awe of Autumn

Be clothed within an autumn mist
Of morning’s coolest dew
Look upward to the painted sky
Of season’s rusty hue
Step lightly midst the crunching leaves
That blow ‘pon hearty breeze
Then hunker down and lay their bed
‘Neath winters snowy freeze

Be crisp the night with snap of chill
And short of day be warm
The sunset mirrors the changing leaves
As stars of night do form
The fields be tanned with burdened straw
Of summer’s life fulfilled
And autumn’s flowers, days be kissed
With season’s colors willed.

~ Sherry Gail Heim

Wreath Hanging

I'm taking advantage of the splendid warm days we've been having lately and decorating for Fall while it's still shirt-sleeve weather.
I usually mix the Fall-themed decorations, with Halloween ghosts and goblins lurking in between.

There are signs of changing seasons everywhere.
Leaves turning reds, oranges and yellows. The fields are full of wild berries, Rose Hips, Wild Blueberries, Autumn Olive.

Sadly we've been without rain for almost a month now, the lawns are brown and parched.

"On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels . . .”

~ Charles Dickens

To Autumn

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells."

~ John Keats, To Autumn

Sixty Years Strong

Another one of the treasures to share from our road trip last week, is this wonderful old garden plow.
Still in usable condition, with the original red wooden handles.
An old advertisement shows this plow cost a whopping 12.75 in the year 1950.

I've been up to my eyes in cardboard boxes for the past two days. The First Sergeant has been organizing his workshop and moving tools and equipment out of the garage and into their new location.

How do we accumalate so much 'stuff' ' ?

More 'Pickin'

There is a noticeable change in the air, the mornings are cooler and have a certain crispness to them, the dew is heavy afoot.

Yesterday, The First Sergeant unloaded the 'pickin' goodies and began placing them around the garden.


Old tractor wheel and new mums, displayed along the spilt rail fence.




I spotted this copper weather vane, and wanted him for the potting shed. It turned out to be a little overbearing, and so it was decided to mount him freestanding next to the fence.



There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.
~ Winston Churchill

The First Sergeant had his sights set on a huge old cast iron pot, which took up most of the room inside the trailer.

He filled it to the top with sand and soil, and planted it with Asters, Chrysanthemums, and Winter Pansies.

The next 'pick' was something I have been keeping an eye out for, an old bicycle....

There she was, in all her glory, propped up alongside the iron pot.

"Picked"

I've still to work on her flower-carrying usefulness, but I'm already loving her.

There a still a couple of treasures to share with you, I'll get busy with the camera today !

Hope your Sunday is a treasured one......

American Pickers

Yesterday The First Sergeant and I decided to enjoy the last of the summer weather, and so we loaded up the trailer and headed East..
We had a mission in mind, we were going 'pickin', just like the American Pickers on the television show.

Instead of randomly stopping to see what we would bargain for, our destination was an old antique/junk store situated within a stones throw of Center Hill Lake in Smithville, TN a reservoir constructed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in 1948.

The lake, which is 64 miles long, and covers an area of 18,220 acres has approximately 415 mi (668 km) of shoreline, with the deepest point at 190 ft and is well-known for water recreation and fishing.

View from atop the Dam entrance

View from Dam onto lake

Traveling down the back roads of nearby Edgar Evins State Park

Abandoned homestead

We returned home with our little trailer full of treasures, mostly for the garden, of which I'll post later, but wanted to share this wonderful old Blue Willow teapot I bought for a fraction of it's worth.

Time for tea !

Simon's Cat " In the Box "

For all of us cat lovers out there, a new Simon's Cat video, for your purrfect enjoyment .

This message approved by Oliver >^..^<