Haven't really decorated the house for fall before. Seldom buy a pumpkin to carve as a jack-o-lantern, because I don't want the mess. I have a few old candles in the shape of pilgrims and turkeys (from the fifties at least) and a cornucopia-shaped basket that I sometimes fill with plastic fruit.

If I find an autumn-colored wreath that I really like, I'll buy it for the front door. But I seldom go to craft fairs, and the stuff in the garden center is all from China, so I won't buy that.

One of the vendors at the farmers' market had bunches of bittersweet, but they wanted $9 for just a few branches, so I passed on that. I'm considering planting my own next spring.

One year (I guess I was around 10), my Dad planted gourds, then built this rack for them. He carved about a dozen like j-o-ls, and lit them with a Christmas light in the back of each. What an imagination! He was a kid at heart.

Maryanne