It's Halfway to Halloween!

Happy Halfway to Halloween!

(Okay, it's not exactly the right number of days, but it's close enough.) 

Six months is a very long time to wait for something that's as much fun as Halloween. So, The Skeleton Crew has decided this is as good a time as any to put some spookiness back into their lives. It's not like it ever really left, except during Yule - but that was fun, too.

Everyone was called in to consult on the decorating scheme, even Spenser. Although he didn't have much to add since he couldn't be bothered to tear himself away from CatTV.

 

For starters, it just wouldn't be spring without The Toad Witch.

To keep the decorations natural, Ivy collected a handful of her namesake from the backyard. 

She was careful to pick the English variety, as opposed to the poisonous one.

Not that it matters to her, but Poison Ivy doesn't survive the winter here. 

 Together with the pansies, the green of the ivy brings in a hint of spring, even though it's freezing out.  

No Halfway to Halloween decor would be complete without a jack-'o-lantern. The only surviving pumpkin from Halloween 2022 met a glorious end last month, so Kib decided to use this black metal one to coordinate with the candles.

 

The end result met with almost unanimous approval. He'll get used to it.

Since it was 38° F. and raining, lighting a fire added the final touch and made it even more festive. Now that the mantle is done, what's next on the agenda? 

Are you celebrating Halfway to Halloween?

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Are We There Yet?

It's still too cold here to get into any serious gardening but Burt and Kib decided to see what they could find stashed in the basement. It's easy to get a little carried away when the dahlia tubers and lily bulbs go on display in February. They really can't be planted outside in our zone until June, which leaves about four months for them to get lost among the holiday decorations or totally forgotten about.

As usual, we're having a schizophrenic spring. It was in the 80's for a week and now it's snowing. That's okay, consistency is overrated - but what a difference a few days of summer makes! 

At least I managed to catch the magnolia before the flowers were transformed into blobs of wet kleenex. It's nice that spring is sort of here, no matter what it shows up looking like. 

For the last two years there has been a movement in our town to increase the dwindling number of pollinators by asking people not to mow their lawns during May and June. It really is the little things that make the biggest difference. Thanks to our eight foot tall hedge, we've been cheating and leaving our backyard to Mother Nature all summer long. Now, it seems to have finally made a difference! Under our crabapple tree, on this small patch of Lungwort (yes, that's actually its name) there were FOUR bumble bees working the blossoms  - the most I've seen in one place in years.  

Some daffodils also opened up during the heat wave, too. Then they were buried by a blizzard but when the sun came out, the snow melted into raindrops and it immediately looked like spring again.  It was still only 38° F. but so far they'e been oblivious to the daily swings between winter and summer. Hmmm, first the bees and then another life lesson from the daffodils this season?

  

Meanwhile, back in the basement Burt and Kibitz have found almost everything they were looking for. The dahlia's may not be able to survive outside for another month but they can get a head start indoors. Now if we can just remember to water them!

It appears that Ivy has found a few things to plant, too.

Just when we were beginning to think that growing our own micro greens was kind of a time consuming hassle and a little on the pricey side, Ivy picked up this package at the grocery store. 

Guess they're not such an inconvenient splurge after all, ha!

It's definitely way too soon to start gardening, considering the current situation but it's getting closer! You have to start sometime and pansies are really tough and like cold weather. I think. We'll find out. As for the herbs, they'll be okay in a window for a couple of weeks or until they're discovered by a curious cat. Maybe we should just eat them now - with those over-priced micro greens.

So how is your spring going?

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!