pictures of fall

So Dana, from the Papertrey Playhouse has a giveaway over at her blog and to enter you need to post a video or picture of your house of neighborhood relating to the beautiful fall (or whatever season it happens to be where you live. The prize in some American Crafts goodies she is so generously sharing!! Too cool!! I had to enter!!! However, the contest ends tonight, so hopefully you can get over there and link up your own photo before it's over!!

I live in Florida, so technically (as in, according to the calendar) it's fall. However, as most Floridian's know (at least those that live from Central Florida on south know) there are really only two seasons...hot summer and cool summer (HA!). It's still in the 70's here, early this past week it was in the 80's. Our coldest day so far happened a few weeks ago and we got down to the brisk upper 50's for an overnight low...still got into the upper 60's during the day. There is usually a week (maybe a little more than that) where we get close to freezing, maybe even below freezing. But that usually doesn't last too long...hence the hot summer and the cool summer. But fall is my favorite season...still...even though I live in Florida now. I am originally an upstate New Yorker, living in central NY to be more specific. I spent 4 years in Oswego for college...and had 4 years of a lakeside view from my dorm room. I know snow!! But I love the changing of the colors of fall. My neighbors have a few sugar maple trees in their yard. One year one seed planted itself into my mom's tomato pot. I wouldn't let her pull it out. That tree is now huge (maybe 25 feet tall) and a few years back it too had seeds that planted themselves into some of my mom's pots. In 2005, she brought me three little sugar maples. One survived (they are not native to central FL and the heat really confuses them) and we have since planted it into our side yard. My mom take pictures of the big tree every now and again with Instagram to show me...so I take pictures of the baby maple here to show her. This is the most recent...

It stands about 4 feet tall right now, and as you can see the leaves are still quite green. They don't change colors but they do fall off sometime in December or January (when it gets cold) then they start to regrow in March or April (totally different from the cycle I was used to growing up). The grass is still green, and it will remain that way. It does stop growing during the fall and winter months, so my husband enjoys that a lot...no mowing. He usually uses that time to trim the big oak trees in the front yard.

I also thought I'd share the photo we took yesterday. It's pretty close up, but you can still see some of the leaves on the trees in the background...and the sun shining. It was a nice breezy 75 yesterday!! Still can't get used to that on Thanksgiving (or Christmas for that matter) no matter how long I live in FL.

I hope you Friday has treated you well. Have a super fabulous weekend (and find some crafty time if you can). Thanks for stopping by!!

Deb