DRESSED FOR FALL…with each season I enjoy decorating the front entrance to our home to reflect the time of the year.   Our temperatures have been wildly erratic so far this autumn going from normal cool and crisp days to temps in the high 70’s which is predicted for today, and then back to a low of 40 over the weekend.  However, there’s no denying that autumn is here.  The mums are blooming beautifully…could it be that with the hot summer we had, and lack of rain, I adhered to a much better watering schedule, and thus they are thanking me now?  Whatever the reason they have added to the pleasure I take in just pulling up to the house, and taking it all in. 

In the spring as I stood there surveying the large amount of deer and snow damage we received as a result of the harsh winter I was holding back the tears as I realized I was going to need to re-landscape what I thought was landscaped for good.

By moving some shrubs around, removing the severely damaged ones, and replacing them with more deer resistant types, I reinvented our front plantings.  And now, with almost six months behind them, they are looking like they belong. 

The leaves are turning beautiful hues of yellow, orange, crimson and bronze.  The porches and stoops of my neighbors’ homes are bedecked with pumpkins and mums, Halloween decorations, and colorful wreaths  on the doors. The berries on the crab apple trees in the cul-de-sac down  the street have turned my favorite shade of orange.   And the house is filling with all the wonderful smells of the soups and stews I’ve been cooking.  And most of all, I’m beginning to fill my head with thoughts of Thanksgiving when my whole family will descend as they do every year for my favorite holiday meal.