§ Housekeeping...

I don't do much on the lines of decorating our home for Thanksgiving. At least not like I do for Christmas and Halloween. The theme is more or less Autumn instead of the holiday. But, it comes out as I put October's stuff away for the season. The mantle is not 'heavy' with much. A pumpkin, a gnome [new], a turkey [new], candles and just a short string of lights. The soft sculpture turkey is kinda unique. Its neck actually expands to the length you want. Like this...

The gnome is Autumn colors and he's riding an old fashioned, 3 wheeled, bike...

The large, centered coffee table in the living room has only two things worthy of "Thanksgiving"...that is a Native American Brave and his bride! That's it for the living room.

A small display on the dining room table and a few scarecrows made of resin decorate the the rest of the house...

The scarecrow I crocheted years ago. He sits this year...on a bale of straw with some acrylic table scatter [acorns and pumpkins with autumn leaves] and my porcelain autumn candle holders. I do have a pair of turkey salt and pepper shakers, but can't find them. Got tired of looking for them and gave up! lol

§ The Big Eat....

For Thanksgiving, I don't do too much interior decorating. It's mostly cooking and baking involved...pies, dressing, salads, condiment dishes, turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potaoes with marshmallow, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, etc. This year, with the virus, there will be just the two of us, but that is not gonna stop me from celebrating the holiday. It'll just be toned down a bit. No big bird roasting [a small one]. No three pies for company [just one pumpkin pie]. No cooking fresh cranberries and making a waldorf salad, plus a jellied sauce [it'll be ocean spray, canned]. I will, however, make dressing from scratch. Neither of us likes sage nor do we care for cornbread dressing, so I will dry out the bread and go for it. And the one day we splurge and have all kinds of potato dishes, I will make greasy, unhealthy, gravy! One day a year...gotta have gravy on my mashed potatoes. Playing it safe because of this pandemic I went to the store and bought everything I need for it all. Just in case there is a shortage of things later on this month, I will have it stock-piled.

After packing away October's decorations, I brought out the few Autumn/Thanksgiving trinkets and polished wood, dusted furniture and mantle...I even ran the duster over all the walls in the house to rid of the tiny webs [shhhhh, don't repeat that in front of Bud, he has the illusion I keep a clean house], windexed all the glass table tops of the end tables, etc. It's nothing compared to what I put out for Halloween and Christmas, but we now know what season it is....

I have a collection of mini scarecrows, but decided to not bring them out. Only the one I crocheted years ago seen at the end of the following series of images...

§ The Happenings....

It's been kinda a busy week for me...besides out walking, visiting the aquarium, the botanical gardens, birding at parks, getting oil changed in the car [again?....time flies!!], some legal paper work updating with the lawyer, a couple of luncheons, being highly disappointed in the Houston Astros World Series so far, volunteering to help make pizzas for a kitchen, helping Bud do some yard work before the cold and wet front moved into our area....at least I helped until I tried to cut my thumb off with the hedger! And then, most of all, working on resizing hundreds of photos for the week off the camera card to get uploaded on my blog!!

So, this will be a bit eclectic in composition today while I continue getting the botanical and bird photos of the aquarium in order...hang in there. Some are what made me quite opinionated, while others are of a fun nature [at least I hope]....

...first: over kill [click on images to open up lightbox slideshow, enlarging them].

Y'all know that Halloween is my favorite fall 'holiday'. But when I drove by this home in the King's Crossing area of town the other day, I had to pull off the road and take photos. Just to see if you agree with me. There is no rhyme or reason to this themed yard!! Dozens of hot air figures swaying in the breeze making it eerie even in daylight, but too much with no reason of placement...just a Halloween NIGHTMARE!!! Agree?

....second: A church's pumpkin patch. I like the white pumpkins and within the last decade I've seen quite a few 'turquoise green' pumpkins. Did you know that there is a purpose of placing this color pumpkin out so trick or treaters will know you have allergy free treats for them? Here is the explanation:

Placing a teal pumpkin on your doorstep or at the front of your home is the first step. You can add your location to the Teal Pumpkin Project map to let trick-or-treaters know your stop is food-allergen safe. Recommended non-food treats include small containers of bubbles, spider rings, glow sticks, pencils, stickers or finger puppets. And if you do participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project, that doesn’t mean you can’t also provide traditional treats as well. If you do provide both non-food and candy treats, FARE recommends asking trick-or-treaters if they have a food allergy or just give each child the option to choose which kind of treat he or she would like.

....third:

A couple of funnies. My sister texted me that she and a friend went to a scarecrow festival in her town in Colorado. She attached a photo telling me that she thought of me right away and couldn't resist getting a photo of the 'crow. [notice the bird on the scarecrow's right shoulder?] I thought it was a HOOT!  And besides, it's much better dressed than I am when out birding!!

"birdwatcher scarecrow" -on the sign

Now, my photo taken...I couldn't resist this. The implication was funny. Sorry, I couldn't get a selfie of it and stand behind the sign at the same time!! But, you should be able to get the gist of it all!!!!

...and lastly. If you're not into the grossness of blood and injuries skip this!!!! The blades on the hedger caught my thumb when I accidentally hit the trigger when attempting to move it from where I was working....it lodged in the thumb, cutting a good slice before I lifted my hand from the power button. I worked my thumb loose and rushed indoors with Bud right behind me. We 'doctored my owie" and I called it a day while I sat outdoors on the patio bench and watched him finish the work. This photo is actually a cleaner version of the initial photo where the hand was much more bloody.  Bud made me a thumb splint 'cause for the past few days since it happened, you don't know how many times I've hit it on something and the pain is there again!!  The wound is healing nicely and hopefully no or little scarring.  So far, no infection.  I probably should have gone and got stitches, but I just didn't want to. 

§ Autumn Fell before Fall Around Here....

On our dining room hutch, among the white carnival glass bowls and maple leaf candle holders, I added some polished pecans and acorns still in their shells. Strewing some green and orange and red and gold crystal dusted leaves, I set out my miniature scarecrows. On the opposite side of the room, along the open kitchen wall, on the banister unit, I added a few ceramic pumpkins of Autumn colors. That'll do it for now; until the witch doll collection comes out to haunt our house in the upcoming month of October...

Read more on White Carnival Glass HERE