fall fever

Living with four distinct seasons was one of the reasons we wanted to move from Texas to New England. And, the seasons here do not disappoint!  I have never lived anywhere where I have felt the impact of each season so deeply- physically and spiritually.  All four seasons are events- anticipated and relished for their beauty.  But, "fall" is the queen-bee of them all.  Fall in New England is spectacular!  
You can start noticing little signs of fall in the marshes as early as mid-August.  At first you think "nooo... I'm not ready to let go of summer," then as the weeks pass and more subtle changes start to happen- the cooler temperatures, the sun changes its angle, the first leaves start to turn, you see fields of pumpkins, etc...- you start to cheer on and eagerly anticipate all that is "fall!"
After living in the farmhouse for the last four fall seasons, Dan and I have found that this time every year we get something we call "fall fever!"  I suppose it is akin to the squirrels hurrying about trying to stock all their nuts before winter's arrival.  While we are admittedly project-people;) we turn into overdrive during fall.  The list is long, but here is a bit of what we've been up to!

The first cord of seasoned firewood arrived and has been stacked on pallets.

Several of the balusters on the back porches had rotted, and we had other outdoor issues to address, so our handyman/painter was here for a good two and half weeks doing repairs, painting, and re-painting all the exterior doors.  (For my southern peeps- be grateful for your inexpensive labor; there is no such thing in the north:)

As you can see in this photo, the herb garden did not get its fence this year.  The gate still stands as a folly gate.  Thankfully, I didn't have an issues with deer (which seem to stay away from the house) or other varmints, and probably don't "have" to have a fence, but I still want one visually.  Late this summer we finally found the granite posts for the corners and the gate posts.  We had been looking for old posts which are smaller in scale than new ones and are impossible to find.  Hopefully the granite posts will get set this fall (it's on the list;), so that when spring comes all we  Dan has to do is add the wood pickets,which will be painted black.  (you can see the granite posts lying next to the raised beds)

The front door getting a fresh coating of high gloss black!  We've also been busy organizing closets, planting grass, finishing up fall planting and cleaning all the windows and storm windows- which is no easy task... the farmhouse alone has 31 windows and three sets of french doors;)  We haven't even started on the barn yet!

I thought you would like to see how the vine ended up looking on the new trellis (here)!  Love it all so much- it was a wonderful addition to the courtyard.




The leaves in the front meadow are just starting to turn.  (photograph taken this morning)

As are the maples along the drive.

I will leave you with some more fall goodness.  If you follow me on Instagram you will have already seen some of these photos, but I couldn't resist sharing them here too.
Have I mentioned lately how much I love living here?!!! :)
Happy Fall from around New Hampshire!


I snapped this photo driving home from doing errands last weekend!

Several days ago we took a break from house-projects and drove north a bit to see some color and do some "leaf peeping" as it is called!  We were about 40 miles north of the farmhouse and drove there via back-roads (i.e. no freeways.)  Our leaves are about a week behind these. The following photographs are from that afternoon drive...

We loved this stonework and the large stones that were built into the bridge that with the addition of a chain become the guardrail!

Me thinks this might not pass code today!:)