Frugal and Free..That's For Me

I try to go for a walk either for a half hour or an hour everyday that it's not raining. Usually I go by myself but on occasion a friend will join me. Some days when it's cold and windy it takes more persuasion with myself to get out the door but I usually win the argument with myself. I use my mother as my example as she used to try and get out most days for a walk even in the winter. It might have been only to go around the block but out she went. I think of mom in her seventies bundling up with a hat and scarves to brave the cold. I argue with myself: "if mom could do it, you can do it." She has passed on these many years now but she still inspires me in so many ways.

As I walk at this time of year I'm looking for branches that the wind has blown off trees or areas where the men from the town have been trimming branches on pine trees, spruce or fir trees. I try and wear an old coat as the branches can still be oozing that gummy, sticky substance that is impossible to get off clothes. That old coat also comes in handy when I'm doing my outside decorating for winter.

The reason I am looking for these branches is that I drag them home much to my husband's amusement to use for decorating my window boxes around the house, also in my old coal skuttle that I decorate out front and hanging baskets at each side of the carport. Hubby will usually drive me out to the country at some point if I can't find enough in town and to look for stems on a bush I've found covered with red berries that survive our cold winters. They go mushy inside the house however.

My hubby used to be somewhat embarrassed to know his wife was lugging branches from all over town home to decorate the ouside of the house but when I informed him how much that would cost at stores I think he saw the light! I used to feel people stared at me somewhat askance from time to time, seeing this very mature women dragging branches along the sidewalk but sometimes other women will ask what I'm doing. When I tell them some will say: "what a good idea, I should do that"...so you see I might have started a trend.

Mother Nature always provides me with all the free greenery I need each November. As I also love using grapevine branches to wrap around my little picket fence or around the front deck I've been seen dragging long brances of that home too. But Mother Nature being who she is, has provided me with lots of grapevine now right across the street from my house. I think we are kindred spirits.