Thanksgiving

 

As the sunsets on the last of the pumpkins, it's time to embrace the fact that spooky season will be taking a brief pause for Christmas.  

One year we didn't get together with friends and relatives, so we tried to skip the usual Thanksgiving trappings and just treat it as any other day. That threw me off so much I barely got the presents wrapped in time for Christmas.

Now we make Thanksgiving Dinner - no matter what! 

Besides turkey and pumpkin pie the other menu requirement (for me anyway) is cranberry sauce. I like that it's colorful and smells good when it's cooking. Someone must actually eat it, or is it one of those dishes you take a tablespoon of and just push around on your plate?   

This year His Madness also made some pumpkin bread. It was really made with butternut squash but nobody cared. These little pumpkins were hard as rocks and only good for decorations and future compost material. 

 

During the frenzy of cooking, The Skeleton Crew decided to put together the playhouse I ordered for Spenser back in October. It seemed like it would be a good place for him to hideout during the hours of Trick or Treating. 

As these things go, the "universal" directions scared us off and Spenser spent Halloween under the bed, as usual. Once they got started it went together quickly, although Kib was right there to point out all the places where they screwed up.

It's okay, it holds Burt, and that's good enough.

Spencer likes his new hiding house so much he may not come out until Christmas.

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates.

 I'm always thankful that you stop by, see you soon!

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone had a very spooky Halloween.

We had a bit of a challenge in our neck of the woods although we did know it was coming. One of our Trick or Treaters told me "so what if it's cold and snowing, we couldn't miss free candy day".  

This is what was left of seventy-two candy bars after two hours of Trick or Treating at 30°F.  through an inch of snow. They were awesome!  

Our front porch decorations were heavily influenced by a couple of botched jobs the electricians left us with after their visit last week. The Jack-'O-Lantern lamp post did a good job of covering up the missing light fixture and we found enough extension cords to stretch to the back of the house where there is an actual working outlet. Half of the lights on the garland that goes around the door were out so we skipped putting that up. It was kind of a mess but I doubt if anyone noticed.

The one thing I've learned from all the mishaps and annoying problems we've had this fall is to take the time to appreciate it when things do go well.

It's easy to take good luck for granted.

Now, it's probably time to start preparing for next Halloween.

Right after the electricians come back.

Sadly, this was as close as anyone in our household came to a costume this year. The sun came out for awhile yesterday morning, just long enough to cast some pretty bizarre shadows on Spenser. He could almost pass for a monotone Cheshire Cat.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

 

1 Day

 

It's the day before Halloween, is there enough time to catch up?

The weather predictions for All Hallow's Eve are pretty grim in our area. With 38° F. as the high temperature and an 80 percent change of snow, things aren't looking too good for a decent turnout of Trick or Treaters. In fact, I'm wondering if anyone will show up at all!

 

All the pumpkins were brought in yesterday so they wouldn't freeze overnight. It's very hard to carve a jack-'o-lantern out of a frozen one and even worse when they start to thaw out.

His Madness got the job of gutting them while Kibitz supervised. Looking on the bright side, if it stays below freezing, the jack-'o-lanterns will last a really long time.

Meanwhile, Ivy and Burt finally finished the Halloween tree they started decorating last week. It was one of those better late than never situations. 

They decided to wait to decorate the porch until tomorrow, when the weather is at it's worst.

They do love a good challenge.

A little snow would never keep them from going out and terrorizing the neighborhood.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow!

2 Days

Spenser would like everyone to know that today is also National Cat Day.

We ordered him a special present but it won't be here until tomorrow. 

His Madness made a special pie for the occasion.

Spencer really appreciated the kitty decorations, even if he can't eat any of it.

He decided to spend the afternoon snoozing in his favorite chair on the patio.

Unfortunately, Kibitz and the squirrels kept him awake.

Then he had some serious doubts about his choice for a Halloween costume.

Maybe he should he be a pirate instead?

 Finally, he decided it was such a hard decision he had no choice but to sleep on it.

Hope Burt doesn't keep him awake.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow! 

3 Days

Thanks to another dire weather forecast, the skeletal silliness had to be postponed again today. 

After looking at the mums this morning, we realized that the predicted hard freeze never happened and maybe the threat was past. Not forever of course, but for at least a week.

So we headed off to the last outside version of the Saturday Farmers Market.

Since all the vendors were giving away candy, it was pretty crowded.   

Apparently, none of the restrictions were being enforced today.  

While we were checking out these warty gourds pretending to be pumpkins, it started to get very windy and the temperature dropped to 39°F. So we immediately left for home to bring our pumpkins inside before they froze.

Then, in the middle of picking the last cabbages, I remembered there were some pansies I wanted to press. It's always good to keep focused on the important tasks.

This cement Athena was is heaviest thing available, so she's now the official flower press. She lives in the basement, patiently waiting between the recycling bag for the used coffee pods and the box of dead batteries. Someday we will find the perfect spot in the garden for her.

First, these plants need to find another home.

The Crew will be back on Sunday, pending another minor catastrophe.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow!

4 Days

The Crew was all set to decorate the front porch when they saw the weather forecast and realized the temperatures would be going down to 28°F. this weekend and, it might snow on Halloween!

Then I realized that today was going to be my last chance to paint the front door until next spring! Once again, finishing the decorating was put off while we dealt with Mother Nature latest change of plan. At least it's done, not too sure about the color but it will definitely work for spooky season.

The fact that so many plants are still alive is kind of a miracle anyway, but seasons change whether we're ready or not. So we picked the last peppers, took some coleus cuttings, brought the house plants inside and hoped the weather predictions will be wrong.

It was great to have the warm temperatures back for a little while but now . . . 

 . . .  it's sweater weather.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow!

5 Days

 

It's going to be a dark and stormy day that will probably turn into a dark and stormy night.

This is not one of those crisp, autumnal mornings, it's actually pretty warm and muggy outside. The rain seems to have toned down the neon leaves, too. I've always thought some photographers used Photoshop to enhance the color saturation of fall foliage in their pictures, now I'm not so sure. In this photo I tried to desaturate the color so it would appear more realistic, although in person it looks even more brilliant, ha!

Whatever the weather, The Crew likes to spend the morning in a leisurely manner and Spenser is always happy to join in.

Now that we have the correct lightbulbs, Burt was looking forward to making his morning coffee. Life is so much easier when you can see what you're doing. 

Unless there's a problem with the new outlet. Seriously?

So is the pantry possessed now too?

 

Fortunately, there were plenty of other outlets to plug the coffee maker into and Burt was able to make his coffee. At least the all of the light fixtures they installed are working, I think.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow!