Home Sweet Home

"Home, the spot of earth supremely blest,

A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest. "

~ Robert Montgomery

Autumn's First Frost

Frost on the pumpkin last night. 

'Tis the season of woolly socks and flip-flops.

"The hazy, cloudless skies of Indian Summer.

Leaves scurrying down the street before the wind.

The cold shiver from an arctic blast.

Indian Summer. The last warmth of the sun.

Chilly mornings and glorious warm afternoons.

The Harvest Moon. The Hunter's Moon. The Rainy Season.

Dry corn stalks clattering in the wind.

The touch of frost on grass and window pane.

The smell of burning leaves."

~ Keith C. Heidorn



A Pottering Day

We were gifted with yet, another perfect Autumn day.
Blue skies and sunshine.

A day spent pottering about the garden, stacking plant pots, arranging shelves in the potting shed, dipping fallen-leaves from the pond.

The geese flew south overhead.

Squirrels busily transported their overwinter stash to secret hiding places.
Birds feathered their nests.

Wild turkeys led their flock to the nightly roost.

Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile.

~William Cullen Bryant

Cottage Love

Lilliput Lane : Double Cottage.
Part of the BLAISE HAMLET COLLECTION  : http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/blaise-hamlet/
click to enlarge

" The cottage homes of England/By thousands on her plains."

~ Felicia Hermans

Simple Days

The most perfect of Autumnal days.
Sunshine a'plenty, low humidity, and flowers in bloom.

How I'll miss them when they're gone.

Autumn Splendor

We've been experiencing beautiful Autumn weather these past few days, highs in the 80's with low-humidity, it makes for perfect outside chore-doing, or just plain rambling-about weather.

All around town people are decorating with Fall colors, pumpkins, gourds, and pots of colorful chrysanthemums, and down on Main Street Oktoberfest is being celebrated.
It's such a pleasant time of the year ~

"I am rich today with autumn's gold,

All that my covetous hands can hold;

Frost-painted leaves and goldenrod,

A goldfinch on a milkweed pod,

Huge golden pumpkins in the field

With heaps of corn from a bounteous yield,

Golden apples heavy on the trees

Rivaling those of Hesperides,

Golden rays of balmy sunshine spread

Over all like butter on warm bread;

And the harvest moon will this night unfold

The streams running full of molten gold.

Oh, who could find a dearth of bliss

With autumn glory such as this!"

~ Gladys Harp

Gossamer Threads

"The milkweed pods are breaking,

And the bits of silken down

Float off upon the autumn breeze

Across the meadows brown."

~ Cecil Cavendish, The Milkweed

Recycling Nature's Way

Each Year, as Fall comes to an end, I remove the Boston ferns from the front porch.

I buy them from our local farmers co-operative, and with a faithful watering, and the occasional feeding, they grow into huge plants which we enjoy them all season long
They are lush and green, but after the first few hard frosts hit, the leaves turn brown, and I'll transport them to the trees and offer them to the birds as a winter refuge.

I have tried hanging them in a room and watering all winter through, it makes a huge mess, so I've given up, and resigned myself to the fact that each spring as soon as the farmers greenhouse flings open it's doors, I'm there waiting in line .......

Autumn Cottage

Autumn is in the air, and for the past few days we've been led to believe it is already upon us.
Cool mist-filled mornings, and even cooler, crisp-laden nights.
The trees are beginning their changing of color, yellows, oranges, and reds.
The songbirds now busily returning to their winter homes.

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.

To Autumn : John Keats 1795-1821

Purrfect

Gentle eyes that see so much,

paws that have the quiet touch,

Purrs to signal "all is well"

and show more love than words could tell.

Graceful movements touched with pride,

a calming presence by our side --

A friendship that takes time to grow -

Small wonder why we love them so.

~ Author Unknown ~