For Everything, There is a Season

Yes, the seasons are changing.  

We left Maine on a chilly, but glorious, sunny day.  For the first half hour of the drive home, I kept begging for the car to stop so I could get "just one more" photo.  We found the perfect, red blueberry fields.  This year was my first opportunity to see their festive cloaks and I couldn't get enough.

Although all the leaves haven't fallen yet, we are getting buried in them, back home in Southern Ontario.  10 bags full and counting.....

 The deep, Home Depot bags are what our very particular garbage man WILL collect, as long as they are not over filled, or too heavy.

Hubby, ever compliant to the sanitation department's wishes, 

has a routine and ritual for doing things according to the rules....

All summer, our ancient lawn mower had one problem after another.  New cables.  New levers.  New plugs.  The men in the family took turns fixing and babying it along all season.

Yesterday, first one and then the second front wheels fell off.

Mr. Determination is using it anyway.

Although we are luckily enjoying above freezing temperatures today, it won't be a surprise when we wake up one day soon to a white world covered in snow.  Shovelling snow mixed with leaves is nobody's favourite thing to do.  We are making hay while the sun shines, so to speak.

This weekend was the annual Niagara Life Christmas Home Tour.  I toured yesterday and volunteered today.  I got so inspired and into the spirit of it all, I came home and decorated with Yuletide gloss and glitter.  As soon as Hubby raked away the leaves and disposed of the Halloween Pumpkin from the front door, up went my green boughs and pine cones.

Last spring, when I came home for Easter, the by-then-totally-dead-brown-and-withered wreaths were still hanging on the front door.  Lesson learned:  don't put up more than you can take down before you go away, even though it is still holiday season for another 3 weeks.

I moved Grandma's Cape Rosier Racer sleigh and the snow shoes to inside the front door, festooned with a big red velvet bow.  That's about it...for now.

How about you?  Are you stringing your lights up outside before it snows?  Or do you wait until mid-December and freeze your fingers off?