NOVEMBER FROST

It was the perfect day. Today I awoke to a beautiful foggy, frost laden morning. I love a foggy morning, but when they occur in the autumn, they are especially pretty and peaceful.

And looks like my last rose and cassia have been numbered.

HIGH AUTUMN

As you can see, a section of the back garden is getting the typical fall treatment as we enter what I call high autumn. I just did a huge clean-up of the garden yesterday, but with some very strong gales today, that effort was made futile. You can't even tell I did it today. The trees are all but just about bare now, the grass is browning, and the garden has almost come to a standstill with blooming. The calendar says fall, but the weather here has remained quite warm for it being mid-November. I have never still had salvias still with blooms on it. While most of the garden flowers and roses have gone, a few stalwarts still continue to muddle through. The herbs, asters, the cassia is barely hanging on, a coneflower or two, pansies and the nasturtiums. The dear, Agnes sent me a hug bag of mini white daffs as a thinking of you, that I added into my planting of bulbs yesterday too. I look forward to seeing how they will do. The top picture is looking toward the potting shed. Enoy the pictures and the strange invader. 

These are not snow peas, but seed pods from the cassia.Even they smell like popcorn.

A huge fugus plateau was found under the nasturtiums growing off the old stump from the eastern white pine cut down last year.

My last two zinnias.

A view to the side of the house looking across to the neighbors.

What's left of the wildflower garden. The big burning bush to the top of the photo has been removed recently. This will make for an expanded wildflower garden next year!!! Think of all I can add in with that space.

EEEEEEK! Look at this strange invader on the windowsill yesterday!!! And small white eyes. Has the invasion begun???

I also came across these almost translucent mushrooms. 

How pretty are they?

My last rose left blooming.

 

I also did a few thanksgiving touches inside. I got out my Lefton turkeys and my grandmothers pheasant vase and had the Dame do a small arrangement it. The first photo are some cassia and berries from the firethorn bush in the garden.

I love this time of year, and Thanksgiving generally gets looked over. We go from Hallowe'en right to Christmas. With no peace between. Thanksgiving time for me is always peaceful. And we got treated to not one, but two nights of Northern Lights last week, so there was that.

HALLOWE'EN TOUCHES

 

If you know me you know I love decorating and adding seasonal touches. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Love the feeling and vibe of this time of year. Many of my decorations are old and vintage...some in the family since I was a wee one. Other items are all natural. I love using real gourds and pumpkins. And loads of candles. All year it generally looks like a seance is going on. And as one can see...my halloween black bird Matilda is still with me after 15 years. This year she adorns my door wreath. Some think Im nuts...but it changes things up and gives life to each season. Who wants things to look the same all the time? It's been a while so I thought I would share a few snaps of the Casa du Borghese for Halloween. And just enough not too much.

This pumpkin above was one my mother brought to me to be made into something for her pumpkin contest at work. But they could not be craved. I decided on making it into a witch. Hagtha. The eyes even light up! As of yesterday, she said there were 14 entrants. Yesterday I came home to play the part of little kid, and carved two pumpkins for the tricks or treats night coming up this weekend. I craved two, and the one pumpkin on the ground is actually a old terra cotta pumpkin we got years ago at a garden center. It's been years since it made an appearance.

Here's an overview of my pumpkin placement! 

This one sits among others in the wall flower box.

The terra cotta pumpkin.

And this one sit in the crook of three branches in my dogwood tree. Since I live on a corner, I don't get many beggars for treats, ( yes, last yea I had 12. It was a big year apparently), since they have to walk down to the end of the street, and then cross all the way through the front yard. But for thems that do make it, their getting a bag of mixed candies and chocolate bars and a $5 bill. My little bottles of liquor used to get me in trouble, but the adults loved it!!!!

Even on the back patio, I couldn't resist this votive holder for the table. $3 in a clearance bin. Yes I am still taking a pew out back, if nothing more then for a quick nip and some fresh air. Then in to continue watching horror movies.

A GRAVE SITUATION

Nothing like a good walk or run through a graveyard to make one feel alive! Since I was in Philly anyway for the weekend, I have been longing to take a walk in Laurel Hill. It's been a while, and one of my favorite places. Visting Laurel Hill evokes a bygone era when cemeteries were built intentionally in scenic areas, and vistas, where loved ones or visitors would come to walk the grounds, not in mourning but to see the wondrous architecture and peaceful landscapes and visiting passed on family. I love cemeteries. You may recall when I lived in Bucks County, the original Casa du Borghese was next door to a very old one. I never minded them. Philadelphia's Laurel Hill though is one of America's most notable burial grounds founded back in 1836 and was established as a bucolic alternative where the living could bury their dearly departed. The place sits high above the Schuylkill River and has been designated a "National Landmark" the first graveyard in the country to receive such a title. Every season is quite beautiful there, and the cemetery in parts reads like a who's who of notable figures from Thomas McKean, a signer of the Declaration of Independance, to Sarah Josephs Hale, credited with making Thanksgiving a national holiday and the author of Mary Had a Little Lamb, to Matthais Baldwin, the locomotive magnate, General George Meade and other Civil War generals, a handful of Titanic passengers, many artist and architects, and many families of the socialite scene. It was a beautiful weekend for a visit. Is it any wonder this was a perfect spot for some quiet and peace after a busy weekend? The people there are always so quiet.

I love being a taphophile.