fall around the farmhouse

Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald -

It's that magical time of year in New England.... fall! 

As I wrote in my last post, fall is a three-month ceremony of change and beauty.  It's more than a season, it is a spiritual ritual.

I've been taking photographs to share with you for a while and have compiled them together for this post.

This is the magic that is fall around the farmhouse.....

The sun setting as seen from the front porch.

The stone beehives at the entrance.

The antique stonewall along the road.

The kitchen dining table with its jarrahdale pumpkin and miniature white pumpkins on the mantel.

  There is so much color and beauty outside I like the interiors to be very simple this time of year.

Menu board from last Sunday's lunch with friends!

The front porch.

The front porch with fall pillow covers.

(a "favorite detail" of mine is to use down-filled pillow forms in all pillows on the three covered porches- it always feels so luxurious to sit in an exterior chair with a down pillow!  (and yes, they hold up/weather beautifully.... well, maybe not if you're in Houston or Baton Rouge :):)

View down the drive.

The front meadow.

Sweet Ella with her always-wagging tail!

This is our largest and oldest antique maple tree on the property.  It is at the entrance from the road and it will sometimes "weep" from the hole in the tree seen in this photo.  It always reminds me of the spigot in the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" (remember that scene?!) as it never did this before we started tending and gardening the beds and grass around it!

The drive up to the front door.

"Little Red" that was Dan's birthday present last year wasn't pleasing the groundskeeper (aka Dan) and was traded in for the much bigger Ferris that has a larger cutting width (61" instead of 48") and has a triple bag grass (and leaf;) catcher on the back.  The groundskeeper is very happy with new "Big Red!"

The lighting and colors were spectacular on this day!

Inside looking out....

You walk into the rooms of the farmhouse and they just glow!

View from the upstairs guest room.

View from the master bedroom.

In this photo you see a ladybug on the window sill.  Fall is also "ladybug season." ;)  They make their way into the house in droves and hide in the cracks and mouldings through the winter. Try as you might, there is not a thing you can do to prevent this so one just welcomes them as "good luck!"

View from the upstairs master bedroom porch.

View from the upstairs porch to the terrace.  The Nantucket Blue hydrangeas have turned pink, as they do in fall, but are still blooming away!  They've been amazing all summer.

You can see all the large (7-1/2' to 9' tall) evergreens that we planted in late summer in this photo towards the front meadow. 

Distant view to the hillside beyond.

The setting sun....

Hope you're still here (?), and hope your fall has been magical too!

"An entryway is an introduction...."

"An entryway is an introduction.

Like the opening pages of a book, it leads us in and welcomes us to the world inside."

~Rose Tarlow~

Welcome to our world inside!

Come in, won't you?!!

Large dried gourd in an antique urn mixed with gourds and pumpkins at the front door; wicker basket holds shoes, rain boots, dog toys and towels for wet puppy feet!

The newel post was a tired, stained wood when we bought the house. I had it painted a gloss black to make it pop, and to make the statement that this is the entry! This is the same gloss black paint as the front door.

Antique chest holds: antique mirror with vintage oil painting leaning against it; antique wooden pediment fragment that serves as candle holder; vintage hotel silver tray that holds orchid and assortment of car keys, sunglasses and letters waiting to be mailed; lamp with linen shade was originally a vintage iron "smoking stand" which Dan turned into a lamp- the matchbox-holder from the stand is now the lamp's finial.

Antique French urn sitting on the floor holds ivy.

Collection of antique tortoiseshell frame mirrors on wall.

All of the walls in the farmhouse are plaster and are painted shades of gray.

Photo taken from the living room.

If you were to stand at the front door facing the base of the stairs and you turned right, that is the Dining Room (you can see a chair in this photo), if you turn left that is the Living Room. If you were to walk past the entry chest and turn to the left (behind the living room) that is the Reading Room. If you go past the entry chest and turn to the right (under the staircase) this will take you into the Kitchen. The stairs will take you up to the bedrooms.


View of the front door coming down the stairs.
Vintage alabaster chandelier was found at the Paris Flea Market at Porte de Clignancourt.
Antique rug.

Close-up of antique tortoiseshell frame mirrors. The top two we found at the Paris Flea Market. The top frame has a story that is worthy of it's own post! The bottom tortoiseshell framed mirror was found in Jackson, Mississippi.

Afternoon sunlight on the entry chest.


150 year old treads.... I love the wear.


Thank you for coming in!
I hope you'll come visit again.

too pretty not to share....

I hope you don't mind a few more Fall photos!

It's just so gorgeous here that I can't help but want to share it all with you. When you look at the photos imagine that the view is not just in front of you, but all around you- 360 degrees of jaw-dropping color and beauty! And, to be honest, the photographs really don't do the views justice. Every day there are subtle changes; it is a spectacular time of year in New England. As I mentioned to Dan today, I think we use the word "wow" about 100 times a day during Fall!

We have 15 sugar maples along the drive up to the house.

The view from the upstairs porch.


Gorgeous falls are a mere 20-minute walk from the house!

Downstream from the falls. This is deep in the woods, so the colors are less brilliant, but still a stunning view, yes?!

A bridge along the hike.

Ella, being a very brave girl, making her crossing.


I adore this photo.

(This photo was taken from an adjacent hillside, looking back to our hill.)

I have to pinch myself when I realize that....
this is a view of where we live- literally!
The white house in the far right of the photo is my next door neighbor...

Our house sits directly behind (but not in view) the white house.

I want to do a post on how we came to live in New Hampshire, but perhaps this photo says everything that needs to be said.... ?!

A closer view of my next door neighbor's house. This photo faces North.


The little white dot about a one-third of the way in the photo from the left is on our daily walk. It is one mile from our house and is an antique church (that is now a children's summer playhouse). For reference, my neighbor's house can not be seen in this photo; it is out of the frame to the right.
The mountain on the left of the photo is Pack Monadnock.

This is a closer view of the little white dot/church!

Here is the street view of the above photo! The white dot (!) is the church on the left. Trees hide the steeple of the church on the right in the photo above.
I will also add that I was brought to a few tiny tears this past weekend when driving home past this very spot, and there was a tour bus driving through.... a tour bus was driving through my neighborhood! Lets just say that did not happen in my neighborhood back in Dallas!

Thank you for sharing the view with me!!
Happy Fall to you!