Fall Is Here!

My favorite season. Man, I love it. It seems easier to take a deep breath, to stop and linger over beauty, to celebrate. I don't know what it is really, besides the colors and the leaves and pumpkins and cool air and a faint smoke smell and great sunsets. There's something else. I wonder if there is something of rest in it? Things slow a bit, we are inside more, families get a little more time together, coffee tastes better, there is pie in the evening. Idyllic view, sure, but it makes me smile.

I received an autumn gift this week in the mail--a box packed with Halloween and fall goodies from my parents, currently functioning as Ghosts and Goblins Headquarters if the return mailing label is to be trusted :) Boxes from the mail are so fun to unpack, especially in front of your admiring office friends who can't believe, along with you, how much stuff your parents fit into this cube of cardboard! Along with many yummy treats, including pumpkin and ghostie Peeps of course, were these cute dish towels...autumn in my kitchen...fun!


The turkey cracks me up. He clearly has no fear of being in my kitchen, no concept of what has happened to the turkeys welcomed for years into the kitchen where I grew up, every one dubbed "Marley" ("Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail."), my dad reciting lines from A Christmas Carol while it plays on a tape or CD, as he cackles a bit and stuffs the bird with gusto. Yep, turkey prep in our house was never a subtle, quiet affair.

This year, the affair comes to Boise! It's Mike and Jo's year for Thanksgiving with her folks, so Mom and Dad are headed this way. My Granny Mel and Bud are over in Oregon these days, and I have a dream that they will make it here, but I know one snowflake will keep them off the road. That, and my grandmother's conviction that my house will be crowded with me and my parents and she and my grandpa here. Heavens, yes, Granny, we will overfill my 1580 sq. foot house with 5 of us.

Speaking of house, I realized I never posted pictures. So, for those still carrying a moderate interest, here is the tour.

Front door entry area, decorated almost entirely with pieces Liann expertly picked out when I felt helpless about any more decorating decisions. Whew! Bonus room is up the stairs, over the garage.

Living area. The walls were already painted when I moved in and I loved the colors.

Kitchen directly behind the living area. It's all one big room, along with the dining area below.

Master bedroom.

Guest room.

Study. This, I did paint. It was a little girl's room, pink on the top half, yellow on the bottom half, with a nice, wide, well-glued flower border running the length of the room mid-wall. Oh my.

The front o' the house.


Mumsey and Popsey in April!


Me, after my Dad showed me how to mow with my new rechargeable battery mower. Can you believe they actually sell versions of lawn mowers that you leave plugged in while you mow? I can't even keep from running over the vacuum cord...how in the world would I not kill myself with a corded mower? Yes, siree, rechargable cordless for me...

I now understand the excitement of fall around here...your lawn goes to sleep...no watering, no mowing, no hedge trimming. Those round hedges behind me grow like weeds in the summer and get HUGE! There are four of them, and I have to keep them trimmed down or you can't see my front door, which freaks me out for all kinds of reasons.

No mowing for Thanksgiving, Daddy, I promise! Come and christen my house with its first turkey...it's time for the house to meet Marley :)