I'm getting there . . .

So today I put two coats of the gray solid stain on the top rail of half of the deck railing and one coat of the stain on the bottom rail of half. I expect the entire staining will take three days of work.

It looks good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stands up to our winters better than paint.

Once I'm done with the staining, I'll paint all of the vertical elements of the railing black. I may or may not get to all of the painting this season.  I'll be happy with just getting the horizontal surfaces stained this year and paint on the verticals next year, if that's how it works out.

How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun?

Can you believe I'm thinking about fall already? Fall front porch decor plans

When the light begins to shifts, here, my mind starts thinking about fall. It's still hot during the day, but the light changes trigger my subconscious.

I thought I'd share what I have planned for my revamped front porch for fall.

the remaining marigolds after moving several to larger pots

I started a bunch of autumn-colored marigolds from seeds in spring. I've been growing them in small pots for the last couple of months.

Over the weekend I transplanted some of them into a couple of terracotta-colored pots. Since my coleus is still doing well in the lime green pots on the front porch, I'll leave them in place. But in front of those I'll put these slightly smaller pots of autumn marigolds in front or alongside the coleus. I have some small terracotta clay pots that I will move some of the other marigolds into as well, to cluster around the base of the taller marigold pots. Other folks use mums as a fall flower. I'll be using my homegrown marigolds.

current front porch, with nothing in wall planters

For the wall planters -- I never did plant them for this summer. By the time I got them painted, I had my surgery and then wasn't doing very much except what was necessary at the time. So that meant any gardening I was doing pertained to the vegetable garden. But now I'm ready to do the wall planters.

I came across this photo on the internet. I plant on doing something similar with Dollar Tree faux flowers, greenery and pumpkins. (It will have to all be faux, as the squirrels get into everything, and there is no sunlight that hits the wall.) One of my daughters was in Dollar Tree this even picking up some poster board, and she said they had all of their fall stuff in already. I'll be going over in the morning to see what I can find.

I also have some faux pumpkins that I will add to the front porch.

I will update you later this month when I have something pulled together.

How about you? Does a change in the sunlight trigger you to think about fall? Is there anything that you're looking forward to about fall? I'm looking forward to fall-inspired meals, cozy evenings, raking leaves with my family, and a last cook-out in early October.