Fine and Feathery

Here's what happened this week. It got really cold. I mean really, really cold. It hasn't been this cold here at this time of year since 1916. What the heck. But...I watch the weather report, I was ready. I raced around the garden on the last morning of nice weather, tucking ceramic pots and birdbaths away safe from freezing and thawing destruction, wrapping the standing wall fountain in a big blue tarp. The cold front blew in, the temperature dropped, the snow came, twice. But I was ready. Amazing!

The miscanthus standing tall a few weeks ago.

And the snow didn't beat it down. It still looks fine and feathery. Before I shovel my walks and driveway I brush the snow off the ornamental grasses. I have my priorities.

 

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Antlers?

Every blog I look at is featuring some fall decorating. Mantles are big, so are front porches. I did stick a little pumpkin on my porch thus depriving the squirrels of their usual carnage on the large display of pumpkins and gourds. But I decided that probably wasn't quite enough. Maybe a centerpiece for the table? I rooted around in the storage room and found this stuff.

I cut the heads off my red hydrangeas, now a dusty rose.

These antlers have been sitting around forever. Can't think where I got them. Probably at a garage sale.

I must have packed up these gourds and pumpkins from last year. I wanted to add some Indian corn but then remembered the squirrels ate them all last fall.

Add some bittersweet.

Now for something to put them in. I rescued this from the garage - it had been on its way to Goodwill. This will save me a trip to Goodwill to buy it back.

So I plunked the antlers and a big pine cone in there and started adding stuff like little wooden acorns. Aren't they cute? I'd like to see a squirrel bite into one of those. Who am I kidding? They'd still eat it.

And here's what I came up with.

I liked it a lot better before the antlers started reminding me of a stegosaurus. Maybe I should start over? Naw, I'm done. Happy fall!

 

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Bird brain

"Grammy, you changed your table." This from a 7-year-old grandson. Well, yes, I did. I moved the stack of library books from the dining room table to another stack in the living room, put the Halloween candy bowl in the basement storage room, sorted and recycled the mail, put a bag of purged clothing into the car, hung all the coats that were draped on the chair backs. No wonder he noticed the table was different. He said, "It looks like fall."

Such a sweet boy. Because that's what I was going for. Never mind that the hutch behind is still full of summer seashells. The table is fall.

But what fascinated the 7-year-old and his brothers, 9 and 11, were the pheasant feathers. What kind of bird is that from? What does it look like? (We're suburb dwellers - no pheasants around here.) I tried to explain...well, it's kind of like a turkey but not, has beautiful long tail feathers, lives in fields...but - their attention had waned.
Relating this to friends later, one of them said, "Why didn't you show them the taxidermy pheasant you have in your hallway?" Okay, duh.

Yes, there is a stuffed pheasant in the hallway. I look at it every day of my life. It's so familiar that it doesn't even register anymore. Obviously.

Maybe I'll remember the next time they're over. Bird brain, indeed.

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The Wind Blew

Last week looking out my living room window.

This week.

But I did wash the windows.

 

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Fall on the front porch

This is what it looked like before the mums and ornamental kale started fading (well, before I got tired of watering the potted plants).

 

 

Nice pumpkins, huh? And I do like that crow.

 

 

Uh-oh, a pumpkin smasher on the loose? That also eats Indian corn?

 

Uh, no, just my usual nemesis.

MELTING SNOW AND FALLEN LEAVES

After two snowfalls last week the snow has melted (mostly) and even though my trees have shed only about half their leaves, I spent the afternoon blowing them into huge piles. Then the wind tried hard to scatter them again but I did manage to get a few bags filled. Those piles of leaves aren't half as much fun as they used to be when there was a small child or a pet to jump in them. I bought some Halloween leaf bags to fill and take over to the grandchildren's house since the trees there are too small to produce enough leaves to fill even one of these.
While I raked, old man tree kept an eye out on his fallen progeny. Small children don't know what to make of this face, but squirrels like to knock the nose off. Now if they'd just finish knocking the leaves down they could make themselves useful for a change.