Fall follies

 

 Just a random potpourri post of a few fall things.   We'll start with fall cleaning, which I seldom do, preferring to work on cleaning projects all year round, but ...

🍁  As mentioned earlier, I've been so inspired by Becki and her 30 Days to Less over at Field Lilies.  The idea is to get rid of 1 item on Oct. 1, 2 items on Oct. 2, and so on.  One ends up with quite an impressive total if the plan is followed.  Even though I'm not actively participating in the challenge (and will be out of town part of October), I've been decluttering daily and keeping track of items I'm getting rid of.  Here are the stats as of October 17:

Oct. 1 — popsicle stick picture frame
Oct. 2 — bag of clothing left  with us for my daughter’s family (probably 8 or so items in the bag); an extra dictionary taken to our cottage
Oct. 3 — items for thrift store: 1 shirt; 1 pair overalls; 1 denim jacket; 1 dress; 1 jumper; 1 box dryer sheets
Oct. 4 — 6 vintage magazine pages (I brought these home to scan and they’ve been in a pile on my desk.  There are more …); 1 ceramic shade and plate to use with a jar candle — thrift store.
Oct 5 — 6 colorful bandannas I never wear or use; a slip; a couple of detachable lace collars — all these will go to the thrift store.  3 vintage kids’ books on rocks, etc. — took these to our cottage; if kids don’t read them there I will sell on Etsy.)
Oct. 6 — 32 catalogs tossed out; 1 wood burned plaque someone gifted to my hubby (it’ll go to the cottage where it will fit right in with the eclectic camp decor)
Oct.7 — 1 large round basket to the trash, along with maybe 15 or so old, tired kids’ books and a tiny pitcher with no handle.  2 kids’ books and a tiny owl pitcher will be given away.  6 kids’ books will be sold on Etsy, and 5 will go to the cottage.  1 miniature ginger jar and 10 kids’ books are on their way to the thrift store.  

Headed for the cottage ...

Oct. 11 — a favorite calendar page I often used as wall art.  Somehow it got damaged by moisture.  It was in a folder with other printed art that I rotate in and out of frames seasonally.  Others are damaged also but I haven’t yet been able to bring myself to look closely and throw out more.
Oct. 12 — a tired kitchen towel with a strawberry design; 2 pieces of mail I’ve been putting off dealing with and now they’re outdated; a package of construction paper (taking it to the cottage).
Oct. 13 — a book that belongs to someone else to be returned to the owner; a bunch of old sentimental papers from 2010 and earlier — tossed; several catalogs tossed; an old songbook and a Christmas carol book to be sold on Etsy; two old hymnbooks and a school music book to the trash; a nonfiction book headed to the thrift store.
Oct. 15 — To the trash: a broken comb, 3 manuals for hair dryers I no longer own, 2 hairbrushes, 8 worn-out hair elastics, a beaded sun catcher that’s seen better days, a protective quilted sleeve for a curling iron, 2 shower caps with worn out elastic, a plastic barrette, part of a brush, a magnetic bobby pin holder, some sort of oversized white shoelace, a fine-tooth comb, a bundle of hairpins, 1 bottle dried-out nail polish.  To sell on Etsy: 2 vintage Rexall lipsticks, a silver trimmed brush and comb set.
Oct. 16 — to the trash: 2 "home fragrance sachets" that have lost their fragrance, 3 native American dolls (part of my daughter’s childhood doll collection) that had seen far better days; 2 handmade paper tepees, likewise.
Oct. 17 — 13 floppy disks (haven’t had a computer that used them in [gulp!] well over a decade; a Tracfone User Guide, a bunch of defunct computer information; 2 ultra thin business-card size calculators that don’t work.

I had to say goodbye to this beautiful calendar page.  It was stored in a folder but somehow got damaged.  The tag, made by a friend, was safe since it was on my wall.

 More to come!  I'm thinking I might just keep this up every month!

🍁  All manner of leafy fall fun has been happening over at our little camp.  Josiah and Arielle came over and raked leaves into huge heaps.  The first day, this happened:

The next day, they raked an even bigger pile of leaves, with the idea that Grampa could jump in it.  Those of you who follow @lifeonabackroad on Instagram know that he did! 😁

 In the process of raking that pile, Josiah found a frog!  As you can see (maybe!) this frog had the perfect camouflage for hiding in a pile of leaves, but Josiah managed to coax him out so he wouldn't get jumped on. [Hint: the frog is about in the middle of the photo, just above that sort of orangey leaf.]

🍁 Pumpkin spice and all things nice!  This was the theme when our granddaughter Julia's orchestra group did a concert atop a mountain.  This also involved a gondola ride to the summit.  I'll share more of our pictures later, but here are a few for now.

This last one was taken from the gondola on the way down the mountain.

 

This photo of Julia (left) and her friend Jen was taken by Jen's mom after the concert.

 The parents brought pumpkin treats to share after the concert.  Julia's mom , our daughter Carrie, made pumpkin whoopie pies which disappeared almost instantly.  They were scrumptious!  I asked about Carrie's recipe, and she said she uses this one: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies from Annie's Eats.

Photo from Annie's Eats

And also in the pumpkin spice category,  my hubby found a great deal on New England Coffee at a local supermarket and brought home three of these:

Photo from New England Coffee

Oh, so good.  We always enjoy this in autumn, and we hadn't found any at a reasonable price this fall.  Now we have!  He'll get more if he can find it.

And just one more photo, snagged from Carrie's Instagram:

Rainy days can happen in autumn, and we were thankful for a good day of rain last Friday.  Still, we went to the camp in the late afternoon, and a game of Scrabble ensued.

Oh, and I just have to include these scans of the front and back of a very intriguing oak leaf:

Front of leaf

Back of leaf

Doesn't it look like it is edged in jumbo rickrack?  You can see why it caught my eye.