My favorite month of the year is going by way too fast. I got my turkeys out after Halloween was over, and placed them around the house. Since the new flooring went in and the furniture got rearranged, I don’t have as many places to put decorative things. The reading area with the wing chairs is now an entryway with no furniture. Three bookcases and two tables have been sold. As a result, I have donated much of my holiday decor to the thrift stores. Only the most precious or much loved things remain. Among those are this wax turkey candle. My mother bought it for 79-cents sometime in the 1960s. It came out every November for most of my childhood, and when I had a home of my own, it came to live with me.

In the kitchen, a turkey sits with an autumn cookbook, a white pumpkin and a caramel candle.

On the counter, we have two fall placemats for breakfast meals. A turkey plate is ready for biscuits and a larger ceramic turkey is a centerpiece on a fall inspired mat.

In the den, my largest ceramic turkey is sitting on a corner shelf with a wax leaf candle and a fall leaf glass votive candle holder.

On the buffet in front of the TV, my collection of miniature turkeys sit in a line. I have given away half of this collection, and these five remain.

On top of this shelf, I love this plate with its thankful sentiment. The caramel color candles have fall leaf rings. The ceramic turkey in the center is in such pretty colors. The last two turkeys are actually salt and pepper shakers.

On the cookbook shelf, a ceramic turkey is set with fall leaf garland and ceramic pumpkins.

In the dining room, I set a fall table topper with Fostoria depression glass candlesticks and matching bowl filled with pine cones. The turkeys on each end are the same. In the corner, my Pumpkin Star quilt is displayed on a quilt stand. This pattern has become my best seller!

On the pub table, I have switched out just a few things to turn the autumn table to Thanksgiving. The ceramic turkey in the foreground is a gravy boat. This is another precious one, as my mother loved it so much she stole it from me the year I bought it. It became a running joke between us for years.

The pilgrim figurines are tall and heavy, precious to me as they were also inherited from my mother. A small ceramic turkey proportional in size sits with them.

I switched out the fall salad plates for these with turkeys. The gold rims on the salad plates work well with the gold chargers and flatware. I kept the pumpkin bowls on the table for soup.

The napkin rings are turkeys with Happy Thanksgiving on the base.

I put the turkey place card holders on the table this year too, just for fun.

Early in the week, I baked a butternut squash to make an autumn meal. I cut mine in half lengthwise and bake at 350º for an hour cut side down. This time, I added a bulb of garlic with the top slice off and coated in olive oil.

When the squash is done, I flip it cut side up to cool enough to handle. Then, I scrape the pulp into a container to put in the refrigerator until I decide if it is going to be soup or lasagne. The garlic cloves are removed from the hull and stored in a glass jar.

I decided on lasagne. See my recipe on Butternut Squash Lasagne. This time I left out the mushrooms, and divided the recipe into two smaller containers. I froze one for a meal sometime later. We ate most of the one I baked.

We put the bird feeder back up thinking that it was late enough in the year. Alas, the bear has not gone north to hibernate yet. The pole was rusted at the bottom where it was buried in the ground, and this time the bear must have leaned on it with its full weight as it snapped off half of the diameter. It isn’t repairable.

So, My Sweet Babboo went into design mode, and made a couple of trips to the hardware store. He installed his new idea, a long pole extended from the house with the feeder suspended over the grass. It isn’t bear proof, but it is bear resistant at 10 feet off the ground. If the bear pulls on the pole from the veranda, it is likely it could bend it. But, with the freezing temperatures now, we hope he is gone for winter. We hope the baffle will be enough to deter the squirrels. A titmouse was the first to find it.

The next day was heavily overcast. A nuthatch was hanging upside down stuffing his beak.

Later, I saw a female bluebird. I was really happy to see her, and hope she and her mate will spend the winter here at our place.

A pair of woodpeckers have been here too. This is the male.

One more thing to tell you, I found out this week that our library system is part of a free streaming service called Kanopy. https://www.kanopy.com/en (no affiliation). You go to the website and search for your local library. If you find it, then you can create an account with your library card number and pin. Then, link your TV viewer (smart TV, Roku box, or other) by using a code they will provide. There are lots of movies, documentaries and series available, mostly older, but many things new to me like a British detective series called Sherwood. The movie The Man Who Invented Christmas is on there too, perfect for the holiday season. Everything appears to be commercial free, too!

This coming week is fairly light, with only a guild meeting on Thursday and a charity event on Saturday. Once again, I’ll have several days to sew and stamp, let’s hope I can get more done this week!

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