Fall Folly-age
On Saturday, Thor and I went to Springdale Farms for some mums. Because it’s our first real *season* in this house, I wanted to festoon it properly.
We picked a hyooooooge (*tm* Trump) unbloomed pot of mums for the porch, and two smaller purple mums for the garden at the end of the driveway. (Note: the petunias that I planted back in June became some bunny’s lunch.) I hope the mums on the porch bloom.
Springdale Farms is noted for their bakery, so we bought a French Apple pie and a tiny loaf of pumpkin bread. Neither disappointed.
We eyed the pumpkins, but decided it was too soon to buy live pumpkins, and we didn’t want them to be smashed.
I also wanted a wreath, but the tiniest one was $30.00, and the larger ones were closer to $60. Yeesh! Then my mind started…surely I could manage to make an autumn wreath! I made many wreaths back when I still cared about how the old apartment looked. And I have a glue gun! With a glue gun, anything’s possible!
We returned home. Thor hunkered down to watch the Ole Miss football game (the post-Eli Manning team sucks — they lost again) and I abducted Mom to the Rag Shop.
Forty-some dollars later, I trumphantly carried two bags of Autumn into the house. My biggest prize was two small fake pumpkins. They’re on the porch now with the big unbloomed mum. I bought some scented pinecones and a glass bowl (that became my fall centerpiece), a Halloween doormat, and wreath fixin’s.
I sat at the kitchen table, plugged in my glue gun, and took inventory. One grapevine wreath, two strands of fake autumn leaf garland, the leftover pinecones, and two picks…one with a scarecrow and one with a basket of minigourds. It only took me a few moments to wrap the garland around the wreath, jam the picks into the bottom, lay the pinecones out around the circumfrence and glue it all into place.
Hot glue hurts.
Twenty minutes later, I had a very acceptable wreath. Well, it wasn’t gorgeous, but LJC I ain’t.
Pride.
Smugly, I carry the wreath to the front door and hang it on the magnetic hook. I step outside, pull the main door closed and let the storm door swing shut.
It doesn’t close. The wreath is keeping it pushed open.
Disappointment.
Desperate, I pull off the pinecones. The door still doesn’t fully latch.
Anger.
I put my full weight against he storm door and push. The wreath flattens agains the two doors, but the pressure causes the magnetic hook at the top of the wreath to separate from the door…sending the wreath tumbling down between the doors.
Resignation.
Turns out that my front door has 8 decorative ‘squares’ on it made of raised trim. The wreath can’t lay flat against the door at all.
“We can always get a new door,” Thor said supportively as I lay the wreath back on the kitchen table, where it remains.
So much for a cheap wreath. 😉
I leave you today with a picture of my fat cat Charlie smooshed between my keyboard and monitor. He was feeling pretty needy. The red vixen on the screen is my City of Heroes character “The Apprentice.”
