That means it's to time watch those wonderful old horror movies-- you know what I mean-- the ones with Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, Elsa Lanchester playing the usual Halloween suspects....Count Dracula, the Werewolf, the Mummy, Frankenstein (and his bride)....





That means it's time to channel my inner kid, get a lot less serious about decorating, and weave some of the fun and whimsy and magic that comes along with October 31 into my house....with just the right amount of scary, creepy (yes, that's you Mr. Spider with your top hat), and macabre. Things that are too disturbing and gruesome need not apply at my home.





A few weeks ago, I threw some pumpkins up on to my fireplace mantle, which I shared in my last post (click here). Since then, I've been adding just the right amount of Halloween to the mantle area and hearth. 

Here's a little bit of the spooky, spirited, and fun woven in with some of my everyday things on our family room fireplace....

Autumn is in full swing, isn't it?  Even though here in California it's still so hot-- but it's a Santa Ana condition, dry and windy and clear, typical for us at this time of year, and so much better than the hideously humid tropical systems that creep up on us from the Gulf of California like warm, moist, suffocating blankets.  

I can tell it's October, that most perfect of autumn months, because the light is different, more golden and mellow, the nights are cool, the sun is setting earlier and earlier, pumpkins and Halloween decor are everywhere....and, even though the liquidambars and crepe myrtles in my yard have yet to turn,  the sycamores and willows that I pass when I drive over the nearby mountains to my office are starting to turn a dirty yellow.  One good cold snap at night and everything will be brilliant yellow, orange and red (or as brilliant as fall color gets here in southern California).

This is a fairly short post-- short on words and photos-- because I'm still recovering from our recent trip to Utah to work like maniacs on our cabin, which was exhausting, exhausting, exhausting.  But I have been adding to my growing pumpkin collection, which is temporarily, but happily sitting on my fireplace mantle... which I thought I would share, along with some autumn-themed poetry that caught my eye....