Beautiful Days in Autumn

The weather was beautiful today, so I thought I might take a few quick shots in the front yard. In Connecticut we're fortunate enough to get those beautiful, bold colors in the fall foliage. But, I'm sure you've all seen a million pictures of the quintessential New England foliage. So, I thought I'd take a look at some less obvious candidates.

This is the Japanese Maple that sits right outside the family room windows. It's older than I am. My grandparents gave it to my mom and dad as a house warming present when the built the house in 1974. It started out as a little sapling, and now it's over 20 feet tall. The red leaves are amazing when the sun hits them.

This is just the standard female holly bush, with its bright red berries. I just liked the contrast between the red and green.

And this little gem is a Japanese Burberry that Keith and I planted over the summer. It has the most amazing red and purple leaves that develop from younger green leaves. And I didn't even expect the red berries to come out this year, but they just started popping up once the weather got colder. I love this little bush.

Witchy Witch

This pumpkin did take a while to carve, but the result was well worth it. Although I'd love to take credit for the design, I actually based mine off a pattern I found at Martha Stewart Living. I traced the basic outline onto the pumpkin in pencil, and then simplified the details a bit.

Since we moved back home, all of my ceramics tools are still packed away in boxes, so I had to use some of my dad's tools-- an all, a few different types of screwdrivers and even some cool vintage safety glasses.




And here's the close up:



Me in my hot-ass safety glasses: