The (artificial) Leaves Are Falling!

What a beautiful sight! Orange, red, brown, and yellow leaves falling~~~I see them outside every window and door! So glorious. Yet these leaves do not gather in piles in my yard nor do they crunch under my feet when I walk. These are my silk leaves so I can have Fall anytime I like! I always put them up now; Labor Day traditionally has been my beginning of Autumn though I have started earlier this year :)   
When you stand in my foyer, you can see the pretty leaves in the sidelights of the front door. I can't explain to you how pretty the glow of the colors are inside! The foyer is warmed with color! The big window that looks into my yard is in my kitchen/dining area. Again, a pretty glow and during the day as the sunlight streams through them. And at night, through the little window on one of my two rear porches it seems to beckons you to come in for the night--the leaves are falling and air is crisp.  Come in, come in! Let the leaves fall outside! Well almost anyway! I love the look and the feeling artificial or not.

 I have noticed some real leaves start to fall; just a couple. AND our first chestnut fell off our horsechestnut tree in the backyard!

Decorating continues--simple little jars filled with good stuff can make such a statement. I love how they look. I most times put things where I have had them in years past. How 'bout you? If I find a good place, I keep it!

Besides all my decorating, which will really kick in this coming weekend, we got a delivery of 18 Leland Cypress trees/bushes for our yard. I am so happy as ever since Hurricane Irene hit us last Summer, one side of our yard had been so severely affected. We lost the five trees that I have told you about  and the bushes that were killed by the trees when they fell. We have replaced some and repaired our patio, but we were still lacking with privacy bushes. Our home is on 1/4 acre and although I dearly love my neighbors I also prefer to see them when I want to see them! My husband came home with a truck full of cypress ( and I believe it is actually the anniversary of Hurricane Irene) and today  he will have about ten more! My son planted the 18 yesterday! He loves doing his projects! It feels good to check off another "want" on our list and this Summer we covered 99.9% of our list. It has been a good Summer.

 Caitlin is ending the Summer with two missing teeth! Her front ones! They both came out in one week!Kept the tooth fairy quite busy.  My husband calls her "choppers" or "fang" . Don't worry; Caitlin has a good sense of humor. She's been thinking about what she wants to be for Halloween. Most of her 7 years she has opted to be a witch. That was my favorite growing up! We had a big brown bag of "costumes" that included a clown or a witch. The clown costume consisted of a pair of striped flannel pajamas that had big colored pom poms affixed down the front! We would make up our face in clown makeup. I never was a clown; my sister was I remember once or twice. She was also a gypsy a couple of times. My brother was a "bum". I was the witch. Our witch costume was a long black skirt that had been my mother's. She attached straps to the waistline to go over our shoulders like suspenders! We wore a long sleeved black shirt or turtleneck and a witch's hat and of course some make up. The skirt would be floor length for us, and we loved it! I couldn't wait. I loved when we took the decorations out. Our decorations included the Beistle jack o' lantern guy with the moveable arms and legs (wish we still had him!) and a few other cardboard decorations--all Beistle of course. What great memories.  I'm kinda hoping Caitlin wants to be a witch again this year! but I'll let her choose, of course!  I wonder if kids still do go dressed as bums or gypsys? Is it not politically correct, maybe? I don't see many of those costumes in my large groups of trick or treaters...I wonder.
I've been doing some good cooking through all this decorating and planting! Today I am making turkey chilli just to have in the house. It's like a staple. My kids like to open the fridge and see chilli, some kind of soup, hard boiled or deviled eggs, and cheese. Maybe some tuna salad too! So I try to have those things in there. They love having chilli to eat as a snack with some tostito scoop chips and shredded cheese or eating a small bowl before dinner like an appetizer! And they love the turkey more than beef in chilli; I have made both.

 I made a really hearty chicken soup the other day and it was smelling the kitchen up so yummy! I gave some to our neighbor who loves to eat but doesn't like to cook and yet again she asks me the recipe, which I give her, and she thinks it has to be more complicated than I am explaining! Simple soup. Simple chicken soup I say. Nothing complicated; nothing exotic. Simple goodness of vegetables and chicken!

I also made a fast pasta dish with fresh greens that I enjoyed. I boiled ditalini pasta, added a can of diced tomatoes with basil & oregano, fresh mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, and assorted greens like spinach and red leaf lettuce. The heat from the pasta melted the cheese and wilted the leaves. It warmed up the tomato and was so satisfying! I would surely make that as a buffet dish or a luncheon item with some nice crusty bread!

Before I go and get that chilli cooking, I wanted to share a picture of little Dixie. She is such a cutie. I may have mentioned we rescued her seven years ago from a big state park near our house.  She's deaf , and she has very few teeth, and she is very tiny! I don't think she even weighs five pounds. But Dixie is the happiest cat you could meet! She looked so cute perched on my little bench that I wanted to take her picture but every one I snapped, her eyes were alien eyes! We call  her our cat from outer space.
I hope you have a great day!