Fall's Grand Finale

As I begin to sadden at the thought that fall is over, just as most trees shed their majestic cloaks of color, a stunning grand finale takes place. The maples are the last to turn, and when maples turn it is absolutely stunning. They are the most beautiful of all the trees.

The two maples in front of my house turned a brilliant red. Every time I drove up my long driveway, the sight of my lovely red maples took my breath away.



Those maples stood out like two gems amongst the dying autumn. I adored them. But all good things must come to an end.



One of my red maples shed its beauty virtually overnight and I was left with a red carpet where my pathway used to be.



My grass morphed from green to ruby.



The red intermixes with the green of the shubbery. The colors remind me of Christmas and it feels like a ushering in of a new season.

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.- William Blake

A Thanksgiving with Goodwife Pease

I have never been a Thanksgiving girl. As a child, I didn't get it. It was just a big dinner, right? It didn't have the fun and spookiness and candy of Halloween, nor did it have all the presents and glitter and lights of Christmas.

Even as an adult I haven't been especially fond of Thanksgiving. Of course, a big part of that is the fact that I married a man who is allergic to turkey. And, really, I'm not a big fan of that particular fowl anyway. So, to me, Thanksgiving just became an excuse to have a big dinner on our rapid ride toward Christmas.

But something happened to me after I moved to New England several years ago. This is the land of Thanksgiving, afterall. I live within driving distance of Plymouth. And, oh how I adore early American history! I read up on the first Thanksgiving. I have roots on the Mayflower and I have roots in the New England Native American tribes. The whole holiday took on more meaning for me.

In reading about Thanksgiving, I realized it wasn't just a single event. It was a tradition of our ancestors to have a feast of Thanksgiving when they were grateful, not just once a year after harvest. What a wonderful concept. Taking time to express gratitude and thanks to God. I fell in love with the whole notion.

So, now that I'm a fan of Thanksgiving, I want to decorate for the holiday. I'm sure I'll never have as many Thanksgiving decorations as I do Halloween or Christmas, but it's a holiday I now feel deserves some festivity and acknowledgement. Last week I sadly took down my beloved Halloween decor, but happily put together a Thanksgiving mantle in my living room.

I wasn't sure how I was going to decorate at first, but it all came together when I pulled a lighted Christmas garland out of a box in my attic. I then inserted the garland with some fall folliage and fruit. I also added a little autumn owl on the side and intermingled pinecones here and there. A couple of months ago, I also ordered a lovely Thanksgiving banner from Emily over at Art-N-Sewl. It is so beautiful. The word thankful is written in gold glitter. I love it!

I also just put up my new painting on the mantle. I commissioned this piece from Heather of Audrey Eclectic. I was so happy with the family portrait she painted of us earlier in the year, that I asked her to paint this portrait of Sarah Pease, my Salem witch ancester.

Isn't Goodwife Pease simply gorgeous? Of course, we have no idea what Sarah looked like in reality, but Heather did a wonderful job in her imaginings. Over Sarah's left shoulder, you see the little village of Salem and on her right you see the ocean. Also, above her there are owls with glaring yellow eyes sitting in the leafless trees. I love that touch. Heather painted Sarah holding bittersweet. It's very symbolic of her experience during the witch trials. The bitter comes from having been left to rot in the dungeon for over a year, but the sweet is that she was ultimately released when the witch trials were mercifully shut down.

Sarah will stay up all year long, but I do think it's rather appropriate that she made her debut during Thanksgiving. I don't doubt that the Pease family had their own feast of Thanksgiving when their Sarah was released from prison.

I am looking forward to taking the time with my family to slow down and gather together and acknowledge the blessings, even amongst the sorrows, we've been given this year.

I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving too!

An October Stroll Through A Cemetery

An old New England, country cemetery...



The crunch of fallen leaves under foot at the front gate...



Won't you come along...



Peaceful and haunting...



Stories etched in stone...



A row of monuments, both beautiful and sad...



Stones drapped in colorful lichen and the forest painted in the hues of fall...



A heartbreaking tale of Our Alice, a toddler taken too soon from loving parents in another era, but the pain still reaches across time...



A sudden mist rises across the way by the empty church and chills me to the bone...



All alone on this October stroll. I leave to let the stories rest in peace for a time.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

My driveway is normally like a long, winding black snake of concrete. But in the fall, a carpet of autumn color covers the winding snake like a blanket. I love to drive my car through the leaves and feel the crunch under my tires and watch the weightless leaves swirl around in my rear view mirror.

Autumn is my favorite season, but it is also bittersweet. It is a fleeting season. The beauty of it lasts for but a moment and then nature rests and hiberates for a season. I look forward, with the eagerness of a child, to fall. Then, when it is upon me, I am sad as well. It is so quick. Too quick.

It is beautiful, lovely, and sad all at the same time. Nature, like life, is ever changing, ever cycling. And the beauty of leaves in full color can be gone in an instant with just one swift, strong wind.



I know that in Nothing Gold Can Stay, Robert Frost is mainly referring to the first buds of spring. In New England, the birches first buds are actually gold. However, the gold makes me think more of fall.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert Frost

The day I took these pictures of my driveway was a windy day and leaves floated down like soft snow. As the leaves rained down, I snapped several quick shots.


A golden shower

David played in the leaves with his nerf gun, jumping from rock to rock, shooting at imaginary foes, and the line "her early leaf's a flower. But only so an hour" came to mind. Like fall, childhood is fleeting.

(Quick side note - sorry I have not been around to read many of your blogs or answer email. We've had quite a few house guests over the past month and I haven't had much time. Things will slow down this week, however, and I look forward to getting caught up with all of your blogs.)

Ride With the Moon In the Dead of Night

The title to this post is a line taken from the song This is Halloween from the film A Nightmare Before Christmas. I love the imagery of that line. It evokes images of the classic, cackling witch riding on a broom, passing by a full, autumn moon. Ahhh, Halloween. Love it. And love all the fun, spooky paraphernalia that goes along with it.

My house has been bedecked and bejeweled in all its Halloween finest since Labor Day. A bit early, I know, and we did get quite a few laughs and strange looks when we were asking for Halloween lights by the first of September, but I have a hard time resisting the Halloween itch for long. It's fun and it simply makes me happy.

So, I am posting a few of my Halloween decorations (not of them because that would be a very long post). I'll start in our living room. We have four fireplaces in our house, but our living room fireplace is my favorite to decorate during the holidays.



First of all, check out my fabulous new Halloween banner. I really adore it. My friend, Emily, over at Art-n-Sewl made it. (She also made me a Thanksgiving one, but I'll save that photo for after Halloween.)


In glitter letters, the banner spells "Spooky".



I also love this haunted house that I bought at Yankee Candle Village this year. The spider webs are an annual favorite for me. They are annoying and time-consuming to set up, but my kids always enjoy them, and so do I really.

In my dining room, I have another vinette set up.


Just have to brag about that family portrait again. Heather over at Audrey Eclectic made it for me earlier in the year.

I just picked up that Happy Halloween banner on my mirror this year. I bought it at Target and I love the bold, colorful statement. And do you see the witch riding past the moon? Like I said before, one of my favorite Halloween images. Hence, the title of this post.

My pumpkin tree man has been one of my favorites for a few years now. I call it my Halloween tree, not unlike a Christmas tree. I picked him up from Michael's. That store is always full of wonderful fall decorations.

Stepping away from Halloween for a moment, check out those monograms. The "A" is for Alyson and the "R" is for Russ, my husband. These creations were also made by the amazing Emily. I love the pages from an old book that make the background of the monograms. Creates such a vintage look. Here's a closer look.



Ok, back to Halloween.



This is also in my dining room. By the way, I bought that table from Ikea and then painted it with an orange milk paint called Autumn Haze and then coated it with a amber glaze and distressed it. I love it! But I digress, that's not what this post is about. On this table, is my candle topped with a ceramic candle topper.



There is a hole in the middle of the topper to allow in oxygen, of course. The flame coming through that opening gives it an eery glow. This is also one of my favorite Halloween decorations. It was yet another purchase from Yankee Candle Village a few years ago. Speaking of candles, for autumn I recommend Yankee Candle pumpkin spice scent and also fall festival. Those are my two favorites for this time of year.

I hope you all have a safe and happy Halloween season. This is one of the best times of the year, so enjoy it! I know I am. I still have some apple picking and a hay ride to look forward too. Not to mention our annual October trip out to Sleepy Hollow, NY. Fall really makes me happy. Can you tell?

And We Didn't Want It To End...

Life moves so fast. Kids grow overnight. Day to day is hectic and often overwhelming. There are many days when the only chance I have to talk to my husband is over the fever pitch of activity over the homework table, sometimes not even that. Over 20 years ago, the very wise teen Ferris Bueller, the brain child of the even wiser late John Hughes, said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Decades later, it's still true, perhaps even more true.

So, we did "stop and look around" and suddenly wished life wasn't so fast for just that day. Our vacation in Cape Ann ended in Rockport and the day was precious and we felt it.

We had never been to Rockport before and it was just a magical place. If Disneyland had a New-England-seaside-town-land, then Rockport would be it. It was charming and put us immediately at ease. All of our stress was washed away in the sea breeze and perma-smiles took the place of worry lines.


Flowers blooming outside of a little shop.


My family looking out at the fishing shack.

Rockport is bewitching and peaceful and has become a haven for artists. In fact, the red fishing shack my family is looking at in the above photo has become so famous amongst artists that is simply known, the world over, as motif number 1.


A better view of motif number 1.


Beauty, flowers, and the like abounded everywhere.


Colorful kayaks


and colorful boats




Cute shops and chocolatey treats, and we did take advantage.




Caroline is walking to shore in the very colorful jacket she bought in Rockport.

Then the sun set on our lovely day.


Sunset over the harbor in Bearskin Neck in Rockport.

But even night in Rockport holds a magic all its own.



Twinkly lights were lit and the air was smooth and cool. We wrapped ourselves in our hoodies, visited the quaint shops decorated in strings of light that looked like fireflies, ate handmade chocolate, and laughed and teased each other. And we didn't want it to end.

Getting Candid in Salem and Cape Ann

This post is really meant to be an ode to a telephoto lens. Last year I bought a 70-300 mm telephoto lens. I've used it, but not much. I saw the value in it, but didn't know exactly what I'd use it for. Plus, it's bulky and didn't know if I wanted to haul it around much, but then we went on vacation last month, and that's when I realized how amazing this little tool is.

We all do the posed, cheesy photos on vacation. They really are a must, but we rarely get to capture those candid moments. I think one of the main reasons we don't is because of the kids themselves. I don't know about anyone else's kids, but as soon as my kids see me pull out the camera, they start hamming it up and I am bombarded by poses galore and shouts of "mommy, look at me!". However, with a telephoto lens, they can be very far away from me and they aren't even aware that I've got my camera to my eye and am snapping away. So many wonderful, candid shots are captured and they are just being themselves and not their crazy, phony, I'm-in-front-of-camera mode.

Two of my favorite shots from our entire holiday came after a day at the beach. The kids played hard at Half Moon Beach in Gloucester, Massachusetts. As we sat around in the grass, waiting for everyone to use the bathroom and wash up, I saw just how tired my kiddies were.


Caroline is spent and takes a moment to rest. The blue in the background is the ocean.


Sweet boys tuckered out by hardcore swimming.

A walk along Derby Wharf turns into play for the kids.


Here I capture the boys running around Derby lighthouse, even though I was very, very far away. I love my lens! And I love my boys.


Caroline running along the wharf. Kids always seem to run everywhere. So glad I can capture these playful moments.


Through some wildflowers, I find my youngest son and youngest daughter playing in the pebbles along the shore.


Adam in curious mode.


A little tired out after all that running. Look at all that lovely Salem background.


In Gloucester, Caroline just about gives me a heart attack playing along the railings. On the other side is a sharp drop to the ocean.


David is always on the move and hard to photograph. I love that I managed to capture his curious nature from afar.


In Cape Ann, my oldest and youngest play in the ocean.


Adam emerges from the ocean in a sheet of water.


Adam attempts to build a sandcastle. Due to his impatient nature, it didn't last long.

Another wonderful reason to take a telephoto lens on vacation is to get close ups of far away detail.

The Derby Custom House is one of my favorite structures in Salem. Of course, The Scarlett Letter always comes to mind when I see it. In the first chapter, Nathanial Hawthorne (a Salem native) describes the custom house in detail. And, with my telephoto lens, I am able to photograph my favorite detail of the building.


The golden eagle glittering in the sun.