Samhain Weekend

I don't know where this month went. I came back from vacation, and that's about the last thing I clearly recall.

Well, some work got done around the house. The three walls we initially intended to paint in the dining room are finally done. I said it that way because we were not going to paint the fourth wall, the one that's the outside wall with the door and window. The old rather cheap-looking paneling that covered the entire room, was paneled over on this one wall with nicer, richer looking paneling that wasn't actually so bad. So we thought we'd try leaving it. So far I'm not too keen on how it looks, but I won't be able to judge for sure until we get more done in there - the proper curtains put up, the molding painted and installed, stuff like that. Once the room's more 'done' I'll be able to judge whether that one dark wood wall looks silly or is okay.

I've had several fires in the upstairs "Captain's Parlor" fireplace this month! It's great, because it's the first time we've had fires in that fireplace since we moved in. It's working grand - and that room looks absolutely gorgeous with a fire in the fireplace.

Spent two days raking and chopping up leaves, and the entire front yard and walkway and porch is covered again. Having those two beautiful maple trees in the front yard is wonderful year-round ... except for that is an awful lot of leaves. Next year I think we have to come up with a better, more efficient way to deal with them all.

But now - sadly - all the leaves are down, there will be no more ... so once I get the existing ones cleaned up, we're done till next year. I've left them so far, because I liked the look of the beautiful, bright maple leaves for Halloween. But after this weekend, they're going to need to go.

Speaking of Halloween, our yard is all decorated for this weekend, and we'll be handing out candy for the first time in our new house. I hope we got enough - we don't know how many trick-or-treaters to expect for sure, although we have a rough idea from a friend who lives in the neighborhood. So, we shall see.

And I've been doing a little work in the Imaginarium, though there's much yet to be done. But I've been spending a ton of time up there, like all the time anymore. It's great to finally get to be using it so much. It's starting to feel homey and comfortable, and the more time I spend there, the more ideas I get for fixing it up.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. Just a sort of quieting down and snuggling in for the coming winter, I guess. Appropriate to the season, anyway. But I thought I'd check in before it looked as if I'd abandoned the place.