September Summer...

.... it is still over 100 degrees on most days, and we haven't yet seen any rain. Wild-fires are still burning in parts of the state, but the winds have died down some so the fire-fighters have been able to keep them more or less under control. 'More or less,' because all it takes is one little breeze hitting one tiny still-burning ember, and the flames will be reaching for the sky again.

The chickens are back to laying eggs on a regular basis... both Scarlett and PittyPat have been laying eggs every day. The weather is still too hot for Audrey to bother with laying eggs, and Prissy doesn't seem to realize that after sitting in the nesting box for an hour, there is nothing in the bottom of the nest to show for her time spent there.

Our friends J & J have had a wild turkey nesting in their garden for over a month. At last count, the turkey is sitting on ten eggs. And she's been sitting, and sitting , and sitting.... for weeks now. They close up the garden gate at night, open it up in the morning, and J & J have provided fresh water and food for that lucky turkey-mama. I was up in their garden a couple of weeks ago, taking care of the locking and unlocking of the gate while they were out of town..... and I got a little too close to the nest for the turkey's liking...... so close that she hissed at me. If I hadn't seen that turkey open her mouth and make that sound, I would have sworn there was a huge snake in that garden. I had no idea that turkeys could make that kind of sound. They don't know if those eggs are fertilized or not, but it won't be too long now till J & J find out if they're the proud grandparents of ten baby turkeys, or they're just the proud recipients of ten turkey eggs that have been sitting (and have been sat upon) in 100-plus-degree heat for 35 days.

I've been going into town once or twice every week, bringing stuff to the antique shop, and looking around the thrift and resale stores for items to buy, mark-up, and re-sell. I have also gone through cabinets and drawers and closets here.... finding all sorts of things that I collected over the years and no longer use. My little space in the antique co-op now has an eclectic display of vintage books, pretty porcelains, carved wood boxes, all sorts of collectibles that surely someone will see and then say "I've just got to have that!"

I have been paging through my pile of Halloween magazines...... I save them from year to year and 'borrow' ideas from the decorating pages. In one of the old Mary Engelbreit "Home Companion" issues (I truly miss that magazine), there was a Halloween tree made of dead branches...... well, heaven knows we always seem to have a plethora of pecan branches out on the lawn, so out I went to collect some. I washed them off first (didn't want any fire ants getting into the house) and then put them into a decorative Halloween-ish tin can with black cat lithographs all over it (a thrift shop find). I used bits of newsprint to make the branches stand up the way I wanted them, and then used shredded orange/yellow paper to not only cover the newsprint but to cascade out of the tin. Onto the tips of those branches went small plastic orange pumpkins... the ones with the happy faces that all the stores sell. The result is a cute little pumpkin-tree centerpiece that took minutes to make and just pennies in cost.

The Halloween party invitations are all written out.... I will distribute them the first week of October.... that should give everyone plenty of time to think about a costume. Or not. We've done so many Halloween parties over the years.... not everyone is comfortable dressing up, and that's just fine....... a costume isn't necessary, but it does add to the fun..... and over the years we've seen time and time again that the friends who didn't dress up would get to the party and then wish they had.

This will be our first Halloween party in this house. I'm hoping that everyone has as much fun that night as they all did for our simple neighbors-get-together potluck dinners that we hosted over the summer.