The days of October are spinning, slipping…
Passing so quickly, oh my!
I can't hardly catch up.
Mystery and mayhem indeed!
I am just starting to conjure up some ideas for our Halloween Party in one week, eeeeeks!
It's almost here!
We are starting to get all trick-or-treatified!!
Even our old wooden mermaid girl put on a pointy hat.
Spending waaaaaay too much time in the glorious garden.
Such delicious breezy temps and sooo many blooms turning up for it.
Giant dahlias.
Blue and purple swirled morning glories.
Sleepy hollow naps in the overgrown tiny lawn.
Dinner plate dahlias in coral.
Heads bobbing in the sun.
Don't they remind you of these guys from Labyrinth?
Such pretty things these dahlias.
So forgiving, turning up year after year.
Since they grow from tubers, you only have to plant once where I live.
(the ground doesn't really freeze here enough to dig them up every year and replant)
The garden is about to have a huge color explosion.
It's so exciting!
I just love Autumn in Arizona.
It's not a New England autumn, but it's another spring.
Lovely in its own way.
And, a trickle of real autumn will come later.
Tea roses I love.
It's all coming alive again.
After the ridiculous summer heat.
Hoooray!
A place to dream and read and be.
A place to sing and invent tales and poems and songs.
I feel like October is on fast forward.
Where has the time gone?
And I am not seeing much Halloween goodness out there in the world.
It's like, the stores went straight to December?!?
Which is my birthday month and I love it.
But, what happened to Hallooooooweeeen?
We must make our own magic then, mustn't we?
It's trickling in for sure!!
So much planning and thinking up I have to do.
I always leave my parties to the last minute.
Then it (decor, planning, etc.) just comes to me and happens by some miracle.
We'll see what turns up this year!!
😉
Cackle Cackle!!!!
I already made up a batch of caramel corn and we ate it so fast (hot and delicious), I didn't even take one photo.
How is your autumn coming along???
Any fun things to report?
Looove, V
OH YES!!
And the winner of the Scarlet Pink Magazine is…..
#19, Karen Leigh!!
Thank you to everyone who played!
That was so much fun 🖤
Love all your Halloween beauty! And, YAY, I won! I’m so excited! Thank you!
Congratulations Karen!
It’s been cloudy & rainy for a week but that’s supposed to change next week! I’m so looking forward to some sunshine!
You are so right about the quick change to Christmas! I was at a Hallmark store at the beginning of October & I was looking for fall & Halloween stuff. I finally asked a lady there & she said that they had a couple of fall towels & an acorn bowl. That’s it!!! By the time I start feeling Christmasy, it will probably be all about Valentine’s Day! :0)
I’ve always been curious about that green hand, did you make it? It’s really cool!
I am not ready at all!! eeeee! I need an extra month!!
😉 Lets see, that hand… I got it at an antique stores about 13 years
ago…and i painted it to be halloweenie when I used to have massive Halloween
parties with guests from work etc…And then i just left it looking halloweenie
😉
As soon as I saw those dahlias, I thought that they looked like the Fireys!!! =D
October is indeed going by waaaaaaay too fast! It’s my favorite month of the year, and I think therefore goes by even faster than the rest of the months seem to. Hmph.
I love how you get a second Spring after the heat of the Summer cools a bit… it’s so beautiful, yet so different looking than your first Spring of the year. ^_^
I love your garden! It’s just blissful.
Autumn has seemingly woken up my Muse… I’ve been spending all my free time painting, playing with clay or writing. I’m like a woman possessed. ^__~
I can’t wait to party with you & everyone else in a week! Yay! See you soon!
XOXO
PS. I hope your Mister and your furs are all doing well! =D
XOXO
Your autumn looks like the height of summer, so luscious and beautiful. Here we have weeks of cold rain, yellow leaves falling off the trees and winds that tear at everything.
Your pumpkins look amazing, and your dining room as a dream! We got some pumpkins this year, but we were a bit too late. One of your pretty fairytale pumpkins started growing a few weeks ago, but since we haven’t seen the sun for a month it’s not really developing 🙁
I am looking forward to your party!
Your gardens are just wonderful to look at and those dahlias are fabulous!
Hi Vanessa:
It’s just now starting to feel a little autumnish in Inland Southern California. There’s that yellowish glare that always signals fall. Winter birds are coming in and there’s a cool breeze in the shade.
Your dahlia’s are amazing! That’s one flower I have never grown. Well, maybe I did once, but they weren’t the dinner plate babes.
So….I know you’re not one to eat a lot of sugar. Do you actually like candy corn or just like the idea of candy corn? We always get a bag or 2 but no one really loves it! It’s almost like a hideous tradition. Everyone has to eat at least one or two grains.
Thank you for the lovely garden tour!
xoxo
Kim
Gerushia’s New World
I love your decor and your garden is so inspiring! Thanks for the inspiration as always! <3
Well i have never planned one of your Halloween parties before but i have started having photo sessions and trying to come up with a story line with very limited supplies and decorations…..i guess we’ll have to see if i can pull it off….:) Hugs! deb
Hello, Miss Vanessa
Your dahlias are so beautiful! I love the two-tone yellow and pink one the best, gorgeous colors together. I don’t know if it was Fenton glassware which produced a glorious style of fluted edged pieces, I think it was called Burmese which had a glazed, opaque yellow (like vases and such)and at the extreme edges the yellow bloomed into a beautiful blush of pink. Like that dahlias does, and there is also a rose which does the same thing…the yellow with the flush and blush of vibrant pink. Glorious colors in nature! ‘Let heaven and nature sing!’ I also love the coral colored roses, one of my favorite colors for a rose.
So happy for Karen winning the magazine..very lucky gal!
hugs,
Miss Teresa
I love how you have decorated everything for fall. I didn’t realize your wooden mermaid was that tall. I love it as it reminds me of what they use for the front of ships as their prow decoration. And I can’t think for the life of me the proper name for what they call those lovely ship figures.
Oh I would soooo love to sit for a spell with you! October always seems to be the busiest month for me. Midterms, papers, blog parties, pre-winter travels, folks looking for a little bit of magic. So madness is how it has been! I am so looking forward to your Halloween party! I can’t believe this is year #4 for me participating!
She is one of my most beloved treasures, and she is almost as tall as me,
if not as tall. I will tell her right away that you sent your greeting her
way 😉 (ps: she is a an antique wooden mermaid that was
used in religious processions) Her base is large and sturdy, like two men could
carry her on their shoulders.
I love walking through your gardens…and your beautiful home with all its spender.
Congrats to Karen.
Ahahaha…oh my goodness! I am so happy to hear that you’re a “last minute” type of person when it comes to parties. I’ve been so busy planning for a party I went to last weekend and then the kids party that I’m hosting on actual HALLOWEEN night, that I haven’t had any time to plan for the SUPER AWESOME blog hop. I really need to get it in gear and get going. ‘;)
Side note: I’m so envious of your ability and climate where you can grow dinner-plate sized Dahlias. I really love those flowers…so lush…so colorful. *SIGH*
We’ve had gale force winds and torrential rain all day today, even my garden furniture ended up blowing over, so reading your blog and seeing your beautiful garden is something of a treat.
I’m working on my Halloween party this week. Really looking forward to Saturday. 🙂
What wonderful dahlias and cosmos! I fear our have long gone and we’re onto the spookier things of the garden — the dead Black eyes Susans look divinely creepy and the branches begin to scrape the roof of the house. Tis the witching time!
I can hardly believe all the flowers! What a special place you live in!
Happy Halloween to you!