November always seems to fly by. Halloween is over, Christmas is around the corner. Too late to keep up the Halloween decorations, too soon to put up the tree, too short to do "November Decorating". So usually it whizzes right by with no wreath on the door, no "things" around the house to make it seem like fall. Which is really OK. Because there is enough going on outside to make up for it.
And then I saw the ginkgo leaves. I'm fascinated with ginkgo leaves. I love how leathery they are, how long they've been around. I love their shape and size and I love the bright, butter yellow they turn in the fall. The kids and I were out walking the other day and passed a row of ginkgo trees on the way to downtown. The sidewalk was covered with bright yellow leaves and the kids scooped up hand fulls to toss in the air, rub between their fingers and slide into their pockets and I couldn't help but think what a pretty wreath they would make. So yesterday Evie and I took a big plastic bag with us and went on a leaf expedition.
I'm pretty sure the people passing in their cars thought I was crazy, scooping up leaves and stuffing them into bags while Evelyn looked stonily on, angry with me because I would not let her wear her yellow Salt Water Sandals on our walk. But when I got home I had plenty of leaves for my wreath. What I didn't have was my hot glue gun.
You see, I had a "uh-oh, the children have the hot glue gun" moment a few weeks ago and decided to hide it from them. But I did such a great job of hiding it that I couldn't find it myself. After
practically tossing the playroom shelves I finally found it (behind the paper rack, under the modem) and got to work.Overall I'm pleased with the result. I could have added a few more leaves but ran out of glue sticks just as I got around to the top again so I just went with it. I love the bright yellow against our (newly painted and will need to be RE-painted because I used the wrong paint and it's already peeling ) front door. Hard to believe though that it only has about three weeks of life in it before the jingle bell wreath
comes out to replace it. Now, if if my head would stop spinning I could go hunt down the bag-o-pine cones I kept from last year to add to a bowl on the counter for a nice, insidey, fall-winter look. Humm, Need to get back to organizing the basement I guess!