Yesterday Granny and I traveled back from South Carolina and arrived home here in the Valley, just in time to sit down to a wonderful meal the girls had prepared to welcome us home. Aahh...home again. Nice.
We took a planned detour on the way back and stopped by our hometown of South Boston, and I visited my long-time friend, Carolyn, who had invited me to stop by for dessert, a tour of her yard to see her 75 - 80 gorgeous fall mums surrounding her home, and some front porch "Southern talking." Right up my alley, for sure!
Here's Carolyn standing in front of her lovely home which was vividly decorated for fall: 
Oh my, the mums were beautiful! This is just a portion of her side yard: 
And here's a different angle showing lots of mums about ready to burst into full bloom:
The side yard next to the driveway was full of mums and pumpkins, too!
After the tour...Carolyn prepared some hot wassail for us...so fallish!: 
And she baked a cake! How beautiful...and oh, my, how delicious! Doesn't this look good enough to be on the cover of Southern Living magazine? 
So we took our hot wassail and fall-themed chocolate cake and headed to the front porch to chat: 
Thank you so much, Carolyn, for such a fun afternoon of "Southern talking!" Friendship is indeed a blessing! 
Now...excuse me while I go outside and plant some yellow mums and raid Hannah's pumpkin patch for some bright orange color to add to our yard!
~Deb
Wow, what a gorgeous yard. Looks like you two gardeners have a lot in common.
Blessings,
Victoria
Posted by: victoria | Thursday, October 02, 2014 at 09:18 AM
your friends house is gorgeous with decorations. Loved the cake and tea cups.
Glad you have Granny home with you.Tell her I said hi.
Posted by: Tammy C | Thursday, October 02, 2014 at 04:37 PM
What beautiful flowers! Does she plant those each year or are they perennials? I would assume perennials....
Posted by: Joanna | Thursday, October 02, 2014 at 09:53 PM
Beautiful mum gardens. And that cake looks fantastic.
Posted by: Susan Ramey Cleveland | Thursday, October 02, 2014 at 10:13 PM
Hi Deb, Making my first comment using my new blog info to register for leaving comments. I've started a new blog recently and am figuring out the ins & outs.....have had some issues when trying to leave comments and sometimes they vanish.....must be my google acct or whatever.
Connie
Posted by: Connie H | Friday, October 03, 2014 at 08:31 AM
What a beautiful home. And yes, the chocolate cake looks beautiful. And tasty :)
Posted by: Nic | Friday, October 31, 2014 at 03:29 AM