The leaves are turning yellow and orange and there is a chill in the air that lets us know autumn has arrived. It's time to put away the flip flops and summer clothes and bring out warm sweaters. We even had to put heated blankets on the beds to take the chill off at bedtime. With the arrival of October, we've also decorated the house to celebrate autumn.
At first we put all our autumn decorations in the living room. It was a bit overwhelming, and so this morning I began removing items until the room had a more coordinated look, settling on one main color scheme of orange and white.
I love this funny cat with the long tail. He works well as a door stop.
In the kitchen, I placed a couple of Halloween kitties that went well with the purple bowl my mother-in-law Clare gave me, which I've been using for fresh fruit. As you can see, it's dinner time...I'm multi-tasking writing this blog while fixing dinner.
A few decorations even made it into the Corral. I don't believe this room has made it into the blog before.
An update on the garden -- as you can see, it's winding down. It's kind of intimidating to walk through the garden now, with its enormous dying structures of corn stalks, blackened sunflowers, wilted pole beans, rotting tomatoes and droopy squash plants.
A few forgotten zucchini squash remain. These will likely end up in the chicken coop as a treat for the hens.
We have gleaned as much of the tomatoes as we can, and what is left now is beginning to rot as it ripens out there with the cooler, damp weather. I may need to pick green tomatoes for making green salsa and green tomato pie.
We figured out what type of squash was mysteriously growing in the garden. These are Blue Ballet Hubbard squash. They are an heirloom squash that has a bright orange inner flesh that is very sweet.
A friend of ours, Dan, suggested that the seeds for the Blue Ballet squash came from the compost that we took from the community barn. Every year, our neighborhood's gardening co-op plants heirloom squash in that compost pile -- thus some of the seeds from the prior year's crop very likely ended up in our garden. I cured the squash on my kitchen counter and we all thought they looked quite lovely sitting there the past couple weeks. The two squash are now in my cellar among other treasures we harvested from the garden.
We made it mid-way through a number of projects this summer before the rainy season started up in late September. Among those still to finish are painting the upper section of the house and cutting firewood. Both tasks were enormous undertakings and we anticipated it would take more than one summer to finish.
The yellow paint is brightening up the exterior. As there are sunny days, we'll continue working on getting the painting done - although at some point we may just need to wait for next year.
We've also been working on sorting through the clutter from our move. There are a number of boxes still to unpack in the garage and sun room. In sorting through things, we found a pumpkin hat for Mojo. She is now ready for Halloween.
Sending warm autumn wishes your way.
At first we put all our autumn decorations in the living room. It was a bit overwhelming, and so this morning I began removing items until the room had a more coordinated look, settling on one main color scheme of orange and white.
Since the dining room is adjacent to the living room, it also needs to flow with the same color scheme.
I love this funny cat with the long tail. He works well as a door stop.
In the kitchen, I placed a couple of Halloween kitties that went well with the purple bowl my mother-in-law Clare gave me, which I've been using for fresh fruit. As you can see, it's dinner time...I'm multi-tasking writing this blog while fixing dinner.
A few decorations even made it into the Corral. I don't believe this room has made it into the blog before.
An update on the garden -- as you can see, it's winding down. It's kind of intimidating to walk through the garden now, with its enormous dying structures of corn stalks, blackened sunflowers, wilted pole beans, rotting tomatoes and droopy squash plants.
A few forgotten zucchini squash remain. These will likely end up in the chicken coop as a treat for the hens.
We have gleaned as much of the tomatoes as we can, and what is left now is beginning to rot as it ripens out there with the cooler, damp weather. I may need to pick green tomatoes for making green salsa and green tomato pie.
I don't like to weed and avoid doing so for most of the growing season. As a result, by this time of year, I'm always more than a little embarrassed by how overtaken the garden is with weeds. A cover crop would solve the weed problem. Should I just get the tractor out and drive over the top of the whole thing? I could till under the dying corn stalks and sunflowers, the rotting tomatoes and the tangle of weeds, and start fresh with a new crop. I will need to hurry and get this done, since the cover crop should be in the ground a month before the first frost.
We figured out what type of squash was mysteriously growing in the garden. These are Blue Ballet Hubbard squash. They are an heirloom squash that has a bright orange inner flesh that is very sweet.
A friend of ours, Dan, suggested that the seeds for the Blue Ballet squash came from the compost that we took from the community barn. Every year, our neighborhood's gardening co-op plants heirloom squash in that compost pile -- thus some of the seeds from the prior year's crop very likely ended up in our garden. I cured the squash on my kitchen counter and we all thought they looked quite lovely sitting there the past couple weeks. The two squash are now in my cellar among other treasures we harvested from the garden.
We made it mid-way through a number of projects this summer before the rainy season started up in late September. Among those still to finish are painting the upper section of the house and cutting firewood. Both tasks were enormous undertakings and we anticipated it would take more than one summer to finish.
The yellow paint is brightening up the exterior. As there are sunny days, we'll continue working on getting the painting done - although at some point we may just need to wait for next year.
We've also been working on sorting through the clutter from our move. There are a number of boxes still to unpack in the garage and sun room. In sorting through things, we found a pumpkin hat for Mojo. She is now ready for Halloween.
Sending warm autumn wishes your way.
This House with Knotty Pine
See many more photos of our house with its knotty pine walls in our e-book, This House with Knotty Pine. Click to download your copy from the Amazon bookshelf (for reading on iOS, Android, Mac, and PC using the free Kindle app).
In the book, which you can download and view now, you'll discover how we stumbled upon our unique home. The house was once part of a dairy farm, but it had fallen into disrepair over the years. Despite the sad state of the house, the solid planks of knotty pine throughout were still in great shape. Included are photos of the renovation plus many more photos of each of the eight rooms decorated. Click to see the book on Amazon.
We invite you to download your copy of the book, which follows our journey as we share what we learned while renovating and decorating a house with its vintage knotty pine walls. See photos of our rooms from start to finish and throughout the seasons.
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