Fall at Brambly Pines

As I sit and look out the windows from the inside of the house, I noticed how pretty our Fall is here at Brambly Pines.  You get so used to your surroundings, day by day that you need to just stop and look at the world around you.  I remember how excited I was to wake up every morning when we first moved up here just to see what my day would be like.  Now I have to make myself stop and really look at where we live and realize how lucky we are.  Our beautiful 22 acres are amazing!  It's time to take a Fall walk to the back woods and take in the scenery.  I haven't walked back there in way over a year.  Maybe take a bag to collect little pine cones or what ever I find back there.  Ya just never know.  Soon the pretty leaves will all be on the ground and the bare trees will be covered in snow ( I hope) .   Another wonderful season will soon pass the honor on to the next one.  Four seasons....the only way to live!!!!

Second to Brambly Pines

1903 Farm House

Back yard

Old barn

On the way home from our Fall drive to the quilt shop, Chuck took a different way.  It brought us by this beautiful 1903 farm house.  It was going up for auction the next day.  Of course we stopped!  I just HAD to see the inside of this house!  As soon as I walked into the front door, I fell in love.  My mind started racing with how I would decorate it with all our things.  ...yes....I would sooooo live there!  Well, when I really made myself think about it, I could NEVER give up Brambly Pines and our house now but oh how I wanted to live in that house too.  As you walked in the front door, you were in a wide hallway.  On the left, was the " parlor"....with a bay window, fire place and wooden floors.  On the right of the hallway was a huge bedroom with a fire place.  ( I would have made that our TV room and the "parlor " a sitting room )  There was a formal dining room and a kitchen that had been redone with blue/white tiles.  I know...see....my stuff would have fit right in.  A laundry room off the back of the kitchen and on the side of the kitchen was a small screened porch....with a stain glass door between the two.  There was a bathroom and a small den downstairs also.  Upstairs...ya had to be care full or you would hit your head on the beam for the floor upstairs, going up the stairs.You had to duck.  As you come off the stairs, you were in a huge, wide hallway.  Big enough to be a small room.  There were 3 bedrooms and a bathroom up there.  All with beautiful windows and claw footed tubs.  My mind was " painting and decorating" each room as I stood in the middle of them.  Not only was the house beautiful but the area outside was too.  The house was sitting on 4 1/2 acres, with an old barn and a wooden garage.  The view out the back was nothing but land to the mountains in the forest.  The front view of the house was a huge field which had just been harvested.  As far as you could see...was the field.  Right off the side yard by the kitchen was a garden big enough to grow plenty of food in the summer.  Yes, if I wasn't in love with Brambly Pines so much, we would have been going to that auction the next day.  What a beautiful place to live.

Land of Cotton

"Yes, Virginia! there are RED barns".  

The land of cotton!

pure white!

"Oh, I wish I lived in the land of cotton..." ....oh wait!  I do!!!  How lucky am I?  Not only does Fall bring the beautiful colors of the leaves but it's also cotton harvest time.  It's impressive when  as far as you can see, fields of corn or soy beans but my favorite of course is cotton.  There is nothing else like it.  It's even more fun when you get to watch them harvest it.  No more back breaking,dragging a huge cotton bag slung over your shoulder, hand picking cotton.  The machines do it all and compact it into huge bails.  Then off to the cotton gin it goes.  Yes, I am lucky to live in the "land of cotton" and get to see such sights every Fall.  

A Beautiful Fall Day

Driving up the mountain.....

The kudzu is still hanging on 

There is a saying that says....".I'm glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."  Nothing could be truer but you have to live far enough north for it to be true and we do!  We set out one morning last week to the quilt shop where I get my quilts, quilted and the drive couldn't have been any prettier in the country and up the mountain.  Even though I feel like I have lived here all my life now, I still get excited for each season to a peer  and bring it's glory. Fall can not be out done!
   " October gave a party;  the leaves by the hundreds came- the chestnuts, oaks and maples, and leaves of every name.  ...( George Cooper)  I'm sure glad I was invited also!

The Signs of Fall

Pumpkins on the studio porch

A basket full of fall flowers

Wood at the end of the drive way

Ready to be split

Re-wrapping the green house

Bulbs to be planted....

so there will be a pretty Spring

The signs of Fall are defiantly here at Brambly Pines.  We thought we might have until the end of October to have to deal with the colder weather but mother nature surprised us and we had to hustle and start winterizing things around here.  We went and got a truck load of wood.  Chuck spent one afternoon, stacking it at the end of our drive way.  Another day, Chuck took the plastic off of the green house and then re-wrapped it all.  That meant, bringing all the plants from the yard...and deck to be housed for the winter, down to the green house.   Everything is tucked in where they will be warm for the next five months.  Some of the plants that were on the two porches, are now in the house.  Some like to be warmer than what the green house will be all winter.  In the next week, I have to spend a day deciding where I want to plant the bags of bulbs that I bought and get them in the ground.  I really don't like the chore of planting them but as I plant, I keep telling myself how pretty they will be come Spring.  I will be so glad that I took the time to plant every one of them.  Yes....winter will be here before we know.  ...but we will be ready to sit back and " wish for snow".

Apple Butter Time

September means it's Apple Time!  Time to go to one of the orchards and get apples.  We have one not too far from our house.  For the past couple of years we have been going there for our apples.  I like to make apple butter every Fall.  It takes all day in the crock pot but it makes the house smell so good....like " Fall".  This year I made two batches so that means two days of wonderful smells.  I also made a fresh apple pie.   There is nothing else like it.  Forget canned pie filling!  September is just the beginning of my favorite time of year.