At The Front Door: Wildflowers & Jack O' Lantern

I’m not really into Halloween. I particularly dislike haunted houses (or a haunted “ship” as my city is known for promoting each & every fall). I don't enjoy scary movies. I run from spiders great and small. And while we're at it, roller coasters are really not my favorite thing either.

Although I do have the fondest memories of dressing up and trick-or-treating with my siblings early on and later on with friends too...the sweet, carefree innocence of that time was likely the part of Halloween I enjoyed most. I also have sweet memories of pumpkin-carving on the floor of my parent’s three-season porch, next to a roaring fire in the wood burning stove. So even though I don’t buy into the whole notion of the Halloween holiday and the darker, more sinister side of things, I do love to carry on the traditional pumpkin-carving, seed-roasting, and just generally enjoying the autumn season altogether.

Yesterday, getting into the autumn spirit on such a sunshiny-warm day, I drew upon my inner “florist” and gathered up the prettiest, dried up wildflowers from around my yard. Some wildflowers had gone to seed and were soft bursts of creamy fluff. Others were sprigs of chocolate-y brown buttons, formerly colorful flowers suddenly bitten by frost. I also spied some gorgeous red berries, perfect for adding a pop of color. I tucked them all into this old watering can along with birch logs from a previously chopped up tree.

I noticed while outside making my humble “autumn arrangement” yesterday that due (most likely) to the unusually warm weather, there seemed to be an abnormal amount of black flies and lady bugs buzzing about. And their overabundance (an overabundance of anything really, like Birds ala Alfred Hitchcock) is just plain creepy enough for me!

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P.S. Hub & I jointly carved a pumpkin together last night...he designed it and cut out the "lid" and I ended up doing the rest of the work...scooping out goop and cutting the design...we ended up doing an owl's head but it really isn't all that photo-worthy...so now I'm off to roast the pumpkin seeds that were drying overnight!

(Tips for roasting your own pumpkin seeds can be found at the very bottom of this previous post.)