Fall decorations

 

Yes, those apples are from our tree. Yes, they have worms.

Costco has these amazing potted mums every September. Who can resist? Of course, like everything there, you have to work for it and push the dang thing around the store then somehow get it in your car.

I also bought purple Halloween lights so the porch looks festive at night. When we did the rewiring, the electricians installed a new outdoor outlet, something I wanted for years, so might as well use  it. Around Thanksgiving, I'll switch to white Christmas lights.

John has the lights on an automatic timer, set for our wine time. As if we're going to forget! ha ha.

Chrysanthemums are easy and cheap to propagate with cuttings, which how they can sell these big balls for only $15 and still make money. This type of mum is considered semi-hardy. 

They sometimes survive the winter, but like greenhouse poinsettias and amaryllis, it has one moment of glory and despite all your efforts to "make it bloom again" it will never look this beautiful again. I guess there's a lesson there, but too early in the morning to ponder.