Welcoming fall has been a gradual approach for me, and continues to be. A couple of weeks ago I found large pumpkins priced under $5 each, potted mums (8") for $4, and so I grabbed a couple of each. My fern that's been on the porch is still thriving so, with a couple of heavy clay pots already on hand, I plunked my new pumpkins and mums on the porch and called it fall.
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| Buy a mum, pumpkin - BOOM - it's fall |
Did I stop there? Nooooo. I knew I my fern would eventually wither, and I knew I wanted to pick up some baby boo pumpkins for a table centerpiece. I also knew I'd be putting some Indian corn on the porch, so off to the local farmers' market I went. To my pleasant surprise, I ran into my oldest daughter while there! Uh oh, we somehow were a bad influence on each other. We both went away with much more than either of us intended.
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| Buy more pumpkins under the high of a chance meeting with daughter at market |
Once home, I immediately worked the opposite side of my porch with a tiered stack of pumpkins, each unique and different from those I previously purchased.
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| Tower of pumpkins |
So, I called it a day...er, rather a night. Simple, subtle fall porch display. Except I forgot the Indian corn, which I wanted on the left side with the tower.
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| Porch balance - or not? |
So, I waited a couple of days and went at it again. First I had this:
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| Add a loaded basket |
But, I was leery of the basket getting soaked on the edge of the porch when the rain blows, so I opted for a cast iron candle lantern I had gotten years ago and left outside to weather.
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| A cast iron lantern full of baby boos and miniature pumpkins with Indian corn |
And that's how it ended - that day. I don't put wreaths on my doors other than at Christmastime. I like my front doors and don't really care for storing wreaths (you can see I would need two), and I generally keep things refined on the porch. When I do use wreaths, I use moleskin on the backsides to prevent the rub against the wood that damages the finish.
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| Early Fall Front Porch, 2014 |
Three days later, I got the stamp of approval for my front porch decor - from the squirrels. They started nibbling the cobs. It took them almost two weeks before they even discovered them last year.
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| Day 3 of Indian corn on front porch - squirrels discovered the treat |
The squirrels leave their mess on the porch as thanks (they eat the hearts of each kernel and leave the remainder). I guess that's better than eating cable wires, which is what happened this past week. The cable guy actually found a squirrel's tooth in a severed wire, which caused me being off air for two days. Just another day in the life of bad squirrel decisions (BSD) - it's that time of year again, you know. They cross streets without looking both ways, run across live wires, and chew into what they must think is hard candy in transformers and wires - all BSDs.
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| Day 4 of Indian corn on porch - it was getting messy, especially in those crevices. |
Can you imagine if I had wreaths on my doors with Indian corn? I'd probably find Rocky swinging on the door as I opened it, unleashing my inner wild woman. Let's not go there.
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| Day 6 - the cobs were completely raw and yes, I trashed them after I cleaned up the mess and took this photo. |
I don't think I'll replace the Indian corn on the porch, even though I have some miniatures for indoor decor. I was less amused by the hide and seek routine with the squirrels this year (blame it on the BSD of chewing into my cable line), but I was certainly less tolerant of the mess this year too.
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| Early Fall Front Porch, 2014 |
So, I'll just stick with my earlier statement of staying refined on the front porch, and go with a less is more attitude this year. Simple, subtle, fall. Happy Fall.
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