FALL IS HERE!

Fall has finally arrived in California. The temperature has dropped during the night to around 50 fahrenheit meaning that its particularly cold in the mornings and in the evenings. The daytime temperature can still reach into the 80s fahrenheit so it can still feel pretty warm. Some Californians are complaining that its cold and don't understand why we can still be wearing shorts but I'm making the most of it! Having said that it is lovely to put jeans on again and find something vaguely snuggly to wear. 

As the temperature began to change back in September I had begun to think about decorating some of the house for fall. The trip back to England postponed the decorating and since we've been back its taken me longer than I had planned. However at last it is finished!

Our beautiful homemade wreath greets you as you come through the door. It was trickier to make than anticipated but I think it looks rather good now. The hanging of the wreath was also a bit of a drama as our door is made of some kind of compressed wood meaning that we couldn't just bang a nail in to hang it. Thankfully I had a resident engineer who found a way around it! 

In lieu of a fireplace our sideboard has become the focal point in the living area and will be decorated numerous times. The lack of foliage around here has driven me to desire lots of orange inside. It gives the impression the leaves are changing colour and autumn is here, even if outside doesn't match up. 

One thing about fall the Americans do well is pumpkins! There are pumpkins everywhere and there is pumpkin flavoured food and beverages everywhere! Its amazing and I'm loving it. The mini munchkins are probably my favourite of the pumpkins, although the white one is pretty too. 

The last section of the house to have something fall added to it is the bookcase, but this takes some explanation. We have created a 'thankful tree'. The original idea came from here. The basic idea is that every day during November you write down one thing that you are thankful for on a little card (in our case the gold spotty ones) and then tie it to the tree. Hopefully through the month you will build up a greater appreciation of God's blessings in your life. As thanksgiving isn't done in England, Andrew was somewhat hesitant but I convinced him to do it, mainly because he had to track down a giant branch which amused him. 

So there we go, fall is here! Now I better go have a pumpkin spiced something or other....
H