I really didn’t want summer to end as I’m not looking forward to the snow and ice that will all too soon be in our Ohio future. Sure, we’ve gotta get through the craziness of all things pumpkin, the falling of the leaves and the simultaneous putting away of the flip flops and unearthing of the boots. But I’m mentally preparing myself for these events, so it may not hit me as hard.
Especially when I realize that I have absolutely no responsibility
this year of raking up the fallen leaves. Yahoo!
Well. Not that I ever actually took rake in hand and arranged
the leaves in a neat pile near the street to be collected by the city. We either
hired someone to handle the task – or Vince got out his handy-dandy leaf blower
and did the job himself.
Last fall, the yard guy was busy, so I tried my hand with Vince’s
leaf blower. This was not a good move since all I managed to accomplish was to
blow the leaves in a bigger circumference around the very large tree in our
front yard. The leaves were nowhere near the street and in no way would anyone
have considered them arranged in a pile, so all I did was create more work for the
yard guy. Oops.
I’m guessing he’s glad that I moved.
Despite my hanging on to the last possible vestige of summer, the calendar has inevitably turned the page and it is now officially Fall. To underscore that fact, this morning’s walk with Maggie Minx had me busting out both a sweatshirt and a fall jacket since the outside temperature was a brisk 43°.
I don’t like words like “brisk.” The very word makes me
shiver.
Some people I know have been fully decorated for the fall
season since early August. But me? Well, I’m not one of those people.
I had my hot pink wreath on my front door along with my hot pink and black and white-striped urn and matching welcome mat out until I reluctantly removed them from the front stoop only today. Gasp – one day after the beginning of the Autumnal Equinox. For shame, Jane. For shame.
All the front doors in this neighborhood have been
displaying their wreaths of oranges, yellows and reds for a few weeks now. I started
getting a little worried that the Decorations Police would cite me for my inappropriate
seasonal display. Yikes. We wouldn’t
want that.
So I’ve placed an appropriate Welcome sign, mat and wreath
that all shout “Fall.” Since Halloween and Thanksgiving both feature pumpkins as
décor, I will keep this display up until it’s time for the Christmas stuff. And
that changeover will occur only after Thanksgiving Day. Martha Stewart,
I’m not. And I can’t be bothered to put up separate Halloween and Thanksgiving
decorations.
Nevertheless, I do seem to have a Martha-like penchant for hot glue guns and today I got mine out. I took some inexpensive pumpkins and glue-gunned them together, slapped on some fall-appropriate ribbon and some picks of berries, pinecones and leaves and placed the whole thing in a stand to sit in the corner of the porch.
Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that this
creation won’t blow away with the gale-force winds that are soon to arrive. The
trees in this neighborhood are way smaller than the ones in my old neighborhood
and I just remember being so very C-O-L-D from the icy wind when walking Maggie
last winter.
See? I’m already bypassing the Fall season and going straight to Winter.
Hmm. Maybe I should’ve just gotten the Christmas trees out
of storage, set that up in the corner of the front porch and been done with it?
Nah. I’m not one for bucking the system and I really don’t want
a citation from the Decorations Police.
I fear that my community service might be leaf raking. Best
not to risk it.
Happy Fall, y’all!
