More Fall Porches and Door Decorations

I took these photos on a visit to Salem earlier this month. I was feeling brave that day and

seeing no one was home I stood on the walk and

zoomed in on the wreath. I thought it looked elegant against the black door.

I liked the yellow house with the dark green door. Nice color

combination. There was a lot going on with the facade. I thought it was simply beautiful.

The last house had nice ironwork on the stairs. Pretty mums on the porch and fabulous columns.

One more day of baking for my bake sale so another short post. I am tired from baking all day. I made double chocolate muffins, pumpkin pecan bread and muffins,

and lemon squares. Tonight some friends are helping

me package it all. We have some beautiful ribbons and Fall

leaves to add to the containers and bags. I'll post pictures

soon.

Fall Porch Drivebys II

Just a few more front doors and porches. I like the cornstalks on this one.

I love the bright colors of the mums against the brown house. Of course the leaves make it

even more fall-like.

This porch is pretty so the spider isn't all that scary. But it is very cool.

More tomorrow I hope. I am in the middle of baking cranberry apple crisps for my charity bake sale so I may not get to post until Saturday. I will have to play it by ear.

In the meantime, if you haven't already done so, please look at the prior porch posts.

Fall Porch Drivebys

I'm continuing from where I left off yesterday. Let me share with you the fruits of my labor. It's a tough job trying to find beautiful doorways and porches to photograph. We know there is no beauty in New England in the Fall. Yeah, right! The tough job is selecting which houses to choose for there were hundreds to choose from. So here goes. This Stoneham porch is precious.
I loved the bench with the pumpkins but then I liked the steps too and the railng so I went for the wider shot.

I liked the seafoam color of this Winchester home. The featherlike thingies in the pots, and the arrangement of the fallen leaves made this one a winner in my book.

This one blew me away. Really, almost literally. The winds were kicking up by the Lake in
Wakefield. No ornamentation on the door but oh those leaves are fabulous!!!

Again, the leaves got me at hello. This side porch is so charming. I think I need a side porch!

This home is in Winchester, north of Boston.

The colors on this house are so different and very appealing. I once looked to buy a condo in this
house. You should see the inside. It is as glorious as the outside. I love the purple steps.

Alas, the tour has ended for the day. Don't worry, you're coming back tomorrow. Right?

Porches on Parade

I am participating in the Porches on Parade event with the Inspired Room blog so I went out
this weekend to take pictures of doorways and porches with Fall decorations. Since I am having some technical difficulties uploading the photos, I can only post two today.

The first one I liked because of the color scheme. The color of the home goes well with the decorations.

I liked the second one because it was simple and nature had given it all the decoration necessary.

Sometimes natural elemnts are the most beautiful. I find the leaves on the ground as photoworthy as the ones on the trees.

That's it for today. I'll post more tomorrow.

New Friend

Today is Saturday and I didn't have to work. I decided to get started taking photos of Fall Porches and Doors for the October 2oth upload. See the Fall Porch button to the left of this post for more info. I actually started taking door photos about a week ago. The goal is to take photos of fall decorations on porches or front doors. I've taken shots of homes in Salem, Reading, Wakefield, and Stoneham.

Today I went to Winchester, a rather affluent suburb north of Boston and the town where I was born. I knew I'd find some great neighborhoods with interesting fall decorations. I snapped some wreaths on doors and leaves on stairs when suddenly I stumbled upon a beautiful home with a lovely garden. I looked at the fence and thought oh how cute! A cat statue on the fencepost. The statue looked back at me with big blue eyes. It was REAL!

The cat was beautiful and regal looking. She spied me and my camera and gave me a few sneers and then turned herself around so her back was to me. I called out to her but she had a typical catitude! Obviously this cat wanted no part of me. So I walked away and started taking photos of the door decorations.

A few minutes later, I looked up and kitty was jumping off the fence post and coming towards me. So I started taking photos of her, she got closer and closer until she was at my feet. She started head butting my leg. Now she wanted my attention. I should have given her a taste of her own medicine and turned my back on her. But, I am a sucker for a sweet kitty face and so she of course got attention from me. We had a lovely time. Her fur was so soft, the sun was warm, and we were enjoying a lovely Fall day. As you can see she was smiling by the end of our visit. I was smiling too!

A visit to Salem

I had another day off yesterday. The weather was perfect for a drive. I was looking for interesting shopping and brilliant foliage. I found both in Salem.

I love to go to Salem. The historic homes are beautiful and I love taking photos of their architecture, some of them are so ornate. Walking down the narrow little side streets, there's always something interesting that catches my eye. During my walk, I passed by the Witch House and it made me think. I really dislike the commercialization of the whole witch trial thing. This was serious history. Let's not trivialize it. I don't like seeing witch references everywhere around the city. Maybe the tourists like it, but I do not.

My favorite shop from my travels was Sophia's. This is a cool shop. The merchandise was gorgeously displayed. All my favorite things too, like soaps, candles, jewelry, hot chocolate, pretty signs, scarfs. Oh my goodness, a visual treat. The shop had tin ceilings and tin on parts of the walls. Fabulous! If I owned my own shop I would want it to look like this.

The owner was so nice. She let me take some photos of the store. To see more of the store
click here Sophias of Salem.

St Francis was surrounded by pretty nests, rabbits, and lots of nautral elements.

The shop is located in the childhood home of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne.
If this cabinet would have fit in my car I would have taken it home. Lots of interesting things

inside. I bought some of the hot chocolate, Mariebelle's. It's my favorite nowadays. It's more

like a European drinking chocolate- very rich intense chocolate flavor. I also bought some pretty signs for my new condo. One was a welcome sign, one had a cat on it. Such an elegant feel to this shop. If you're ever in Salem don't miss Sophia's.

After shopping, I needed refreshment. So across the street I went to the Hawthorne Hotel.

There is a fine dining restaurant called Nathaniel's but I opted for the tavern. I ordered the Ghoul Special of the Day-grilled steak tips, roasted potatoes and broccoli. It took quite a while before I could order and even longer for lunch to arrive. There was a TV at the bar and we

were all watching the Dow drop and drop and drop.

My neighbors at the next table started a conversation with me. They just bought a condo and I am about to do so we chatted about the housing market and the financial crisis. Terri and Charles live locally but not in Salem. Terri was hoping to retire from teaching next year.

Charles is a retired dentist. We enjoyed our lunches and I left to go back home.

I'm looking forward to displaying my new found treasures in the condo. Don't worry, there will be pictures.

I'm wondering about all of you. Got a favorite spot for interesting shopping? Leave a comment so we can all share.

Fall for New England

Fall for New England
Originally uploaded by cafechatelaine

Continuing my love affair with Fall. I made this photo mosaic with Flickr Toys. All photos were taken in Massachusetts.

It's quite chilly tonight. A perfect Fall evening. The stars are out, the air is crisp and I think I actually smelled a wood stove burning. I'm in my happy place...