FALL DAYS!

Happy October!  And just so you know, there was no September.  Nope, not for me or you or anyone.  It just zipped right from August to now, end of summer to fall.  Let's carry on, soon it will be Christmas.  

As usual, I haven't had time to come up for air.  Today is going to be a rare day of nothing.  A shower, a run to the dry cleaner, and then a date with the couch and my book.  I raved about the book I'm reading, Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted already,  I am slowly making my way through it.  It's just such a wonderful, captivating, heartbreaking book, I simply put it down so I can savor it later.  I love when I find a novel like this.  Bliss.

We had dinner for the kids here last Thursday.  The guys were coming to help move the bedroom furniture for Charlie The Painter and so I thought it would be nice to cook for them.  I had planned on simple chili with cornbread and then The Husband said, "How about a nice roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy?"  I must have looked at him like he had two heads because he muttered, "Or not."  Off I went to the butcher and got a beautiful cut, picked up a few odds and ends and spent the afternoon cooking and fluffing and tweaking and I'm so glad he gave me a push to make a rewarding effort.  I make a lot of Sunday roasts, I grew up on them.  The Husband had it a little worse, he wasn't allowed to take off his church jacket and tie until after dinner.  Believe it or not, I've never made one for company, probably because that was the norm in the 50's and 60's.  It came out very tasty, although I always struggle with gravy.  I set the table with my everyday dishes (ignore all the chips), and I managed to squeeze in eight of us at a table for four  Cozy!

Since there's no room, I usually have a buffet, but I like to serve salad before so we can all sit calmly and talk before we dig in.  I have a little trick of saving the packages of Parmesan cheese from food we have delivered, and these make nice little individual servings as you can see on the plate.  I'm savvy like that.  So...the furniture got moved and the next day I had a heck of a cleaning job in the bedroom.  Our bed is a high four poster and we store our luggage (of all things) underneath it.  Well, we haven't been anywhere in awhile and when I pulled it out, it looked like it had fur growing on it!  No more under~the~bed storage for us!  All in all, the bedroom is dust and allergy free.

We had it painted  a very light gray and this is the rug I picked out.  other than that, I'm at a loss as to what I want for a duvet or comforter.  Solid gray is too much gray and white is so hard with my dogs.  I looked on Pinterest at "Gray bedrooms", and all of them were very modern...platform beds, modular furniture, glass, animal prints.  I really thought I had made a mistake with the color.  We went to the lake while Charlie was here and then Emily came over to lock up and texted me pictures.  It's beautiful...just perfect, not too gray or blue, very soft, not stark.  We also had the cherry trim on the windows painted white so it looks very crisp and cottagy.  So, I continue my hunt for the duvet.  And I will share a picture of the room soon, it is really overcast today and I want you to see the true color.  And the furniture is still in the middle of the room!  Maybe I'll have to make chili for the gang tonight after all!

We got up to the lake about noon on Saturday.  The Husband wasn't feeling so well, so he retired to the loft for some football and R&R.  It was a glorious day.  I unloaded all sorts of junk I had packed up over the last two months to bring, (I'm constantly transferring things back and forth between houses).  I put away food and provisions for the weekend and started to wipe down down the kitchen and baths and did a little dusting.  I love getting up there and nesting.  Our house is like a patient friend waiting for us, it just wants a little love and attention once in awhile.  I spent some quality time outside with the dogs, it was so sunny and warm you just wanted to drink it in.  You can see how the sun is glinting off the bay past the arbor, and look!  See the tall stuff to the right in the water?  Those are cattails!  I don't know how they sprouted up but I'm thrilled.  Aren't they the epitome of "lake"?

I was checking out the clematis on the arbor, I couldn't tell if it was going to bloom or if it already had.  Do you see the pink colored tweedy, curly stuff?  I'm not sure if that is the dried up blooms.  This is autumn clematis.  Wow, look how rusty that light is, nice character.

I made a trip up to the Farm Market.  I was ecstatic to see all the different colors and shapes of the pumpkins!  And they cost less that half of what they do here!  I found hay and mums and gourds, I packed the car as best I could and would have kept foraging except I had Milo with me and he was barking at all the excitement!  I went back the next day to get more for Emily and DIL Mary Clare.  I picked up a few perennial plants and when I went to pay, Gloria, the manager told me that they were 10 for $20.00.  I nearly fell over!  So I loaded up more..lupines, Veronica, purple coneflowers, asters!  Oh my!  I don't know how I packed up the car to get home.  I had stuff in the back and on the floor in front of the seats.  Milo and Layla were smushed together.  And we had the lovely smell of wet hay for the whole ride home!

 I set up my own pumpkin patch for the girls to come and take their pick!  I have some pansies, too.  I have been spraying the pumpkins with Pledge furniture polish and I think that is keeping the squirrels away.  That and Milo playing sentry.

These are my flowers looking very weedy and ready to be planted in their new forever home.  I thought I would get to that today but I think I'm going to give them a big drink of water and wait on that.  Wow, I hope I have the space, I have been going hog wild with getting all of these sales in the past month.  My spring bulbs will be here any day.  I ordered a bag of 100 tulips.  Now before you think I'm nuts, the best way to plant bulbs (and most of you know this, I'm not an expert), is to dig a big hole and plant about 10 bulbs per hole so that you get a nice big clump.  Easy.  I'm going to start moving my indoor plants back inside so that I'm not rushing.  The nights have been in the 50's and I think it's time to accept that I'm not getting any more tomatoes.

I wanted to show you these beautiful fall runners (minus one) that I ordered from Judy at 20 North Ora.  She is filled with tons of creativity and I fell in love with these runners in her shop.  Since my table is small, she made these to order, and because she is SO sweet, she included the one on the top left with the holly as a gift!  You have to go over to her blog and have a look in her shop.  Even The Husband, who does a lot of heavy sighing when I get packages in the mail, was truly impressed with these.  And it really is hard to find shorter runners, I usually have to fold mine. 

I'm sorry this was such a long post, it should have been two!  I'm leaving you with a small vignette.  I had these dishes tucked away in my hutch at the lake and then I realized they needed some attention.  I found these at Cracker Barrel on a trip up there many years ago.  Maybe we'll have some chili and cornbread on them tonight.  

I hope all of you have a wonderful first week of October.  Soon the leaves will be falling, the bon fires going and happy pumpkin faces everywhere.  Enjoy! :)