HAPPY NOVEMBER!!
Did ya'll have a Happy Halloween? Did you see lots of little gremlins and goblins and witches and punkins? We had just a handful here. About typical for us the last several years. We live on the fringes of a lovely suburban neighborhood but at our end there are mostly older families like mine. Many empty nesters. And because we live on the fringe and because of that tacky fence the neighbor puts up, we don't get many of the kids from the rest of the neighbor hood so it was a pretty quiet night for us. And for that reason, Jay and Ang and Brady spent the evening here. Jay's neighborhood sees hundreds of kids and poor Brady would spend the night barking and pacing and wound up. It is just easier for them to come here, and so I made our traditional Halloween dinner. Jay is all about traditions and one year, MANY years ago, he asked me if we were having our 'traditional Halloween dinner'. Hummm - I had no idea what that was and had to ask and he said something like 'Moooom!! You know, you always make us nice hot soup before we go out in the cold to trick or treat!' So it became our traditional meal. So Friday night it was my chicken noodle soup and a crusty loaf of 7 grain bread. YUM!
Now that Halloween has passed, it's funny how so many feel like fall is just about over when really, we have until December 21st. Outside, gone are all the brilliant foliage colors like the bright oranges and reds, but we can still enjoy some muted color - especially in the oak leaves. This year they seem to be a much broader range of color, Every dark red, orange brown, chestnut, and golden colors. When splashed with a touch of green from the evergreens and yellow from a late dropping maple, it is just spectacular. A wonderful send off to fall. Here is southern New England, some parts of the landscape are already gray and barren and too soon, the rest will be. Luckily that happens just as we are getting in the Holiday spirit. (FYI, I don't say Holiday in place of Christmas. When I use Holiday, I mean it to encompass Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve.) I know I could only live in NE because I so enjoy the changing seasons - even the winter months.
I saw that several bloggers are now decorating for Christmas and the winter holidays. I will admit, I have gotten rid of most my bittersweet - I got it way TOO early this year anyway - and the Halloween and some fall decor are all packed away in the attic already. But we are entertaining this weekend and I am hosting Thanksgiving, so the rest of my fall decor will probably stay up until then. But then again, Thanksgiving is so late this year that I am tempted to break my own rule and start decorating before then but I'll have to see. Here are a few pics of the recently undecorated spots in the house. Just as I enjoy the changing seasons outside, I am always changing things inside as well. For instance, this big bowl here -
Is now hanging here- 
We spent some time over the weekend cleaning up outside. We had a lot of branches that fell in the recent wind and rain storms and my poor mums finally faded away. And leaves, those beautiful leaves that change their colors, they are now piling up everywhere! Our neighborhood is blessed with a trillion(yes, a trillion!) beautiful leaf dropping trees and so even though we cleaned up leaves for well over 4 hours Saturday, and DH went back out Sunday, we only made a dent in it. There are some big trees in the neighbors yard that still need to drop so we'll have a few more weekends of raking and getting rid the leaves before the snow turns them into a muddy slippery mess. I have heard several public service announcements on the radio and TV reminding folks that wet leaves can be a slippery as ice so the be mindful of them on the streets and sidewalks. After a recent rain storm, I had to go out and shovel an 8 inch deep pile of wet slimy leaves that converged on the storm drain that is inconveniently situated in the center of our driveway where it meets the road. Yup folks, it sure is late fall in New England! So what did you do this weekend? Are you itching to put your Christmas decor out yet?Until next time-hugs, Linda
