It's Late In The Season

It was late in the Season, but I scurried to downtown Roanoke for a last minute gift.

The little red farm truck was there selling live trees, wreaths and greenery for those who had yet to don their home with the fragrance of a forest.

You simply can't beat the look, hustle and bustle of an old downtown that takes you back to days of yore, beeping car horns and shoppers scurrying across  the busy streets.

Pay to park lots, parking meters, and high rise parking buildings help to manage the scenes, and if my husband could survive there, I would choose to have an old. small apartment over a store.

The lifestyle would suit me well.

My little Elf On A Shelf girl would have come along,

But downtown simply had no place for horse parking.

Neighbors stopped by with goodies in a cellophane wrapped box,

just one more thing for us to eat!  But we love that we are surrounded by good people.

 

A pretty flower arrangement from my husband's mother arrived, and it's nice to know that at 87 she still thinks of us each Christmas with a display that brightens our home.

Rowdy loves the red and green of Christmas and hiding directly within it is a game he plays each December.

And he was nice enough to think of his girlfriend, Izzy, and brought a matching Christmas scarf home for her from his visit to the vet.

They are simply stylin' in their pinecone neck scarvess.

 My husband's present arrived a few weeks early this year and parking it beneath the tree was a problem, so we parked it in the driveway instead.  This photo was the last one taken before those golden leaves in the background fell to the ground from a windstorm followed by the first snow of the season.

So in early December we said goodbye to the golden leaves and hello to the snow of winter.

 

But snow never gets us down.... as long as we can get to the grill life is good!

 

The lights come on with each sundown and  cast their reflections on the rainy, wet driveway,

and we ooh and aaah when we step outdoors with the pups.
It's only right that we should enjoy them, since our home is hidden from the road and only those two homes we share our driveway with can see them.

And my husband brought us home a pink poinsettia from the grocery store this week, a must have each year at this happy time.

I'll say goodbye for a few days now as each and every one of you enjoys YOUR gifts of the Season

and time with your loved ones next to the warmth of your heart fires

and Christmas trees.

Merry Christmas to all!!  

See you soon.

What Mama Can't Afford

 Praise be to the porch!

The fabulous October PORCH!!

Yippee Kai YAY PORCH!

 So I purchased a few smaller sized pumpkins for the screened porch.

We don't have a lot of 'color changing' trees on our property.

They are mostly piney type trees that don't change like deciduous trees do, so the pumpkins are my fall color from our somewhat like tree house screened porch off the back of our kitchen.

 Did you know that when we sit on this porch that we are at the level of birds flying past?

We see cardinals and bluejays go zipping past us and last month the humming birds were even peeking in through our screens.

Such nosey but lovely little creatures and they make us laugh.

 Along with the pumpkins I had two potted mums on the porch, but today they are planted in the pots on the lower level back patio.  Hopefully they will do well there in REAL flower pots instead of the plastic containers they came in which had them root bound.

 Another benefit to the porch and deck area are that these two have access by a doggie door to be shaded inside the porch, or had through their flapped doggie door to sunbathe.  This month, with it's cooler temperatures, they seem to enjoy sunbathing during the morning hours, and come evenings they move inside and sleep on the dog bed until it's time to come inside for t he night.  Spoiled could definitely be the word to describe them.

 A katie did has been hanging out on the outside of the porch.

She's there on a daily basis.

 October wardrobe with plaids has definitely kicked into  high gear for me, layering is definitely the answer.

AND, red plaid is totally da bomb and makes me feel pretty darned cheery.

 Blouse is Kasper brand from Steinmart at $39.99

Scarf from last year and I still love it as much as the day I purchased it.

The leggings are the Suave brand, also from Steinmart at $29.99,  and they are sold out.

Try these instead.

AND.... still no shoes.

Mama can't afford them.  LOL

Hit Or Miss Endeavor

 Although we have had LOTS of tomatoes from the garden this year, the rest of our home grown crop has been discouraging.

 No cucumbers at all, and only a few very small squash with bell peppers not nearly as bountiful as in years past.... in fact I probably won't be stuffing any peppers this year.

 But we are thankful for what we have grown successfully and will simply hope for better weather during next year's growing season.

 But what has been good enough to pick goes straight up the hill to the house.

 Rowdy helps in any way he can.... like following along behind.

That's helpful, right?

 Izzy needs a refreshing drink too....

 There's just nothing quite as tasty as cold cold well water from the hose.

It's a delicacy.

 Gardening.

It's a hit or miss endeavor.

The Ho Hum Heated Days Of Late Summer

 Mid August and the crepe myrtle is nearly at the end of her beauty as the heat and humidity drag the weight of the branches to the ground.  It may be time for a trim job on that mophead of hers.  LOL

 The pups hang out near the front porch,

 and the gloomy dead potted flowers have served their summer needs, no longer looking like flowers at all, but rather dead, brown weeds needed to be pulled and tossed into the forest.

*Izzy, as always, interested by a bug*

 The local preying mantis hangs onto the outside of the screen hoping to snag a hornet or two in the nest nearby.   Of course it could be a hornet that wins the battle as well.

And last but not least.... a butterfly seeking shelter from the heat in the shade of the front porch.

Summer at it's worst.

Summer at it's best.

The Softest Spot

 There's a spot at the end of our driveway just beyond the entrance columns we had built last year,

 that has soft, silty, broken shale....and the pups love to lay there for a while when their human dad is working in that area of our property.

 He had taken down an old pine tree that no longer had any needles on it... a dead pine,

 and he sawed it so that it would drop right across that area of the driveway.

A perfect landing so to speak.

 And, once the cutting was done and I had raked up some of the smaller branches and tons of pine cones,

we let them out of the house and they immediately headed for their favorite soft spot.

 They can be soooo predictable.

Some have said that they cannot tell our dogs apart... but LOOK... how can they not?

Rowdy on the left and Izzy on the right.

They are so different in so many ways.

We just love these two mugs!