HAPPY SUNDAY, HAPPY NOVEMBER EVERYONE - FALL LEAVES AND PINECONES

"As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colours enough to paint the beautiful things I see."

~Vincent van Gogh~

"Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go."

~Author Unknown~

"It's the first day of Autumn! A time of hot chocolate mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings and, best of all, leaping into leaves!"

~Winnie the Pooh~

"Fall leaves are not lifeless but rather appear to dance in the wind."

~Author Unknown~

"Meet me under the falling leaves."

~Author Unknown~

"Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year."

~Author Unknown~

"For anyone who lives in the oak-and-maple area of New England, there is a perennial temptation to plunge into a purple sea of adjectives about October."

~Hal Borland~

And last one.

"If only Alexa could rake the leaves."

~Author unknown~

Those of you who have followed me for a while, will recognize the back deck with our regular kissing bunnies and the blue stone birds on the water dish. The crows are really going to have something to complain about today as it is filled to the brim with leaves. 

The deck had not long been swept clean and that night I woke up to a lot of scratching on our bedroom window. Coming out of a deep sleep it scared the dickens out of me. Too much talk of Halloween? Probably! 

As I peeked outside between the blinds, the wind had picked up, and the branches just like the sound spindly little fingers would make, were crawling along the glass. It took me a while to go back to sleep. The scratching continued for another hour (mental note to get the branches trimmed again as soon as we can).

The next morning when I looked outside, I was greeted by a deck strewn with crepe myrtle leaves, pine needles and pinecones. We have both of these trees growing on the side of the house. The first tree in particular is reaching up to the sky.

It seems a shame to throw away all those pinecones. Do any of you have any ideas as to what I could do with them? I am sure some of you out there might have an answer. 

I had a friend who years ago decided to 'cook' them for a while in her oven, or was it the microwave? She had wanted to get rid of any larvae that might be inside them as she was going to make Christmas Wreathes. I found this out afterwards. Her oven/microwave was never the same. All the food that came out of it had a pine taste that could not be gotten rid of and no amount of cleaning helped. Needless to say, she never did that again. 

I was also given a 'pinecone' Christmas tree by another good friend one year. It was very pretty but as soon as the heating warmed it up, I had literally hundreds of strange looking tiny bugs crawling out of it. Needless to say, it didn't last long after that. One of those big trash bags was thrown over it and it made its way into the trashcan. I was so sorry to do that to a friend's gift, but I seem to remember her telling me a while later after she asked me about it, that the one she made for her family did the same thing and had ended up in their trashcan too.

So, what would you do with all these pinecones? Maybe I should pop them in an outside container so that the birds and squirrels can nibble away and find the seeds inside. I've heard they like those.

Thanks for reading and 

I hope your day is a great one.