It's Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, I hope everyone had a great day!

We were invited to a Thanksgiving Feast last weekend and today it's just us. Can't say I wasn't tempted to blow the whole thing off! I knew I wouldn't miss the cooking and cleaning but the thought of not roasting a turkey felt a little strange - and I don't even like it that much!  

"Please don't make me cook the turkey, it's five times bigger than me!

So the preparations began with His Madness turning a pumpkin into a pie.

While I made the easiest thing on the menu.

We stuck with the traditional dishes because we knew if we didn't make the same dinner we have been making for all of the past Thanksgivings, we would be completely confused about what holiday we were actually celebrating. Who knows what might happen next, we might forget to go shopping!

It all worked out in the end. We got to talk with Andy and Kristin over FaceTime and now, much like everyone else, we will be eating leftover turkey for weeks. How do we always make too much?

Of course, no Thanksgiving is complete without falling asleep watching the afternoon rerun of the Macy's parade. It's hard to believe it was colder in New York City than it was here, burrrr!!!

Thanks for stopping by! Sorry for being late in sending out good wishes to everyone.

To all of you who don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a great Thursday!

Some Silliness on the Change of Seasons

HM and I went for a walk one day,

to enjoy all the autumn color.

We were a little late for the show

but that's how it goes,

at least it was beautiful weather!

Fall leaves disappear in the blink of an eye

but crabapples stay around forever.

Their bright colors attract lots of critters, in fact,

which turns out to be really quite clever.

It's been a lot colder than normal this fall,

although that's not really something I dread.

It brings out the autumn colors quite well 

and all of the mosquitoes are dead!

Dark clouds usually hang in the sky overhead

so the bright blue was quite a surprise.

For now I'm quite happy with things as they are  

but it's kind of hurting my eyes! 

Leaves float on the top of the Frog Pond,

eventually to sink in the end.

Bare trees are reflected on the surface

and photobombed by HM. 

Sometimes you can't see the forest

because there are too many trees.

That's what's special about autumn,

we get to them all differently.

It's nearly the end of this season, 

another one soon will begin.

Mother Nature is laughing her ass off

 and planning a do-over again.

Though the gold of the birch and aspens

was swept away weeks ago,

the oaks and maples around,

kept our spirits from getting down,

about the inevitable snow. 

Back at home there was still lots of color,

unfortunately, primarily in the street!

Then white arrived on the scene, 

putting an end to the green,

and poor orange was overcome with grief!

As this very strange blog post is ending,

there's one thing that's important to know,

this can't be a good start to winter 

 with leaves on top of the snow!

Thanks for stopping by and

THANKS FOR VOTING!!!!

A Long Rant on Why it's Important to Vote!

Uncle Madness wants you to

VOTE TODAY!

There used to be a joke going around that if you had a Mom there was at least one person reading your blog. In the summer of 2014 I began this blog as a way of keeping my mom up on what was blooming in my garden. After my dad died in 2007, she spent several months living with us and for the first time in my memory, started to take an interest in plants and flowers. To be honest, my mom and I never had a great relationship but at least it wasn't contentious. As long as I did everything the way she wanted and didn't offer up any resistance or opinions of my own, we were cool. Long ago, I had resigned myself to the fact that we would never be one of those cute, super close mothers and daughters I so envied but that was okay because I did sort of have that with my wonderful grandma. Luckily, there was one thing we could always agree on and that was politics! When it came to equal pay for women and reproductive rights, we were of the same mind and she was as excited about the possibility of our next president being a woman as I was.

Unfortunately, by 2014 her severe osteoporosis had confined her to an assisted living facility. It was important to her that she remained in the community where she had spent her entire life but it was a five hour drive from where I live. Thanks to the internet she was able to keep up with what was happening in my garden through my blog with an iPad and some very sweet care assistants. She never warmed up to Burt, though she liked that he played the piano, ha! 

So where is this long story going exactly? Well, our unscrupulous Governor and his gerrymandered State Legislature, passed a law to combat our totally non-existent voter fraud.  According to the new law, a person who wanted to vote had to either have a valid Driver's License or a special photo ID. Mom had stopped driving years ago so in order to keep voting she needed one of the new ID cards. Now this is where it gets insidious. Supposedly, in order to balance the budget, the DMV site, the place that issues the IDs, was closed in her town and the next closest place was only open on the fifth Wednesday of the month, that's just four times a year!

Sadly, she passed away before the 2016 election but I would have made sure she had an ID. Still, could it have been any more impossible? How long would those lines have been if you needed to renew your driver's license when there was only four chances each year? What about all those other people in assisted living? Why does the party that's always screaming about patriotism want to keep so many people from voting? Trump won our state by just 22,000 votes, I wonder how that happened. 

   

Do you every wonder why there are never any laws passed that would require background checks on individuals purchasing semi-automatic weapons? Even after hundreds of people have been murdered at concerts, the movies, schools and houses of worship, no significant legislation has been enacted to control the sale of firearms. 

The guy in the middle is Scott Walker, the Governor of Wisconsin. He's happily embracing two accused Russians spies at a National Rifle Association convention. Yeah, how many things are wrong with this picture? One Wisconsin Now has reported  that he's had a 25-year relationship with the NRA, beginning with his 1993 State Assembly campaign. Their contributions have now added up to $3.5 million. Sounds like they felt he was a good investment. 

Alexander Torshin, the man on the left, is a member of the Russian government and the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia. He is currently under sanction by the US Treasury Department. According to reports by McClatchy, the FBI is investigating whether he funneled money to the NRA during the 2016 campaign. The NRA spent $11 million dollars supporting Trump and $20 million attacking Hillary Clinton. 

As for Maria Butina, she is accused of trying to cultivate relationships with the Republican Party's presidential candidates and the NRA in order to gain access to those individuals with the best access and influence over the Republican Party. She remains in federal custody awaiting trial for not registering as a foreign agent. She reportedly used her NRA connections to cosy up to quite a few politicians and even managed to attend Walker's invitation-only announcement of his presidential campaign.

Scott Walker has always been a controversial figure in our state. Lately he has been running ads saying he will protect people with pre-existing conditions from losing their health care. Funny thing, according to the New York Times, Walker joined a lawsuit with 19 other states that could destroy major parts of the Affordable Care Act and allow insurers to deny people coverage because of their medical history. Ok.

Living in a democracy gets to be hard work every so often and it's not going to be easy to clean up the mess Trump is making of it. It's up to each of us to inform ourselves, make responsible decisions and to vote on them. As for the 52% of women in my demographic (college educated white women) who voted for Trump, all I can say is, this is your chance to redeem yourselves. So get your heads out of your asses and do the right thing!

Most polling places are open until 8:00 pm tonight and if you are in line at 8:00 pm you will still be able to cast your ballot. In Wisconsin you can register to vote at your polling site. If you have already registered but there is no record of it, you need to ask for a provisional ballot, or maybe demand it.

Thanks for putting up with my rant, or not - as the case may be!

Burt and Ivy will be back to their silly stuff soon.

Thanks for voting!

It's All Hallows Eve!

The big day is finally here!

We've put on our Halloween hats, some of us are more enthusiastic than others,

. . . brought the pumpkins up from the basement

. . . and went to work!

Now they're all lit up and ready for the Trick or Treaters to arrive!

A couple of years ago I found these LED lights that flash different colors. They have definitely saved the day (or night) when the candles wouldn't stay lit because it was raining or snowing or both. The weather is pretty decent tonight, sure hope I don't run out of candy!

While we wait for the trick to treating to start, Kibitz has decided we need some fortune telling on this spooky evening. 

He brought Ivy and Burt one of Edward Gorey's Fantod Packs from his recent travels. It's a set of cards that will tell all the dreadful things lying in wait for those who ask what the future might bring.

To have his fortune read, Burt takes the pack in his left hand and. . .

. . . flings it into the air, while keeping his eyes closed.

Then he picks up five cards from the floor, keeping them in order.

The cards are laid out starting with first card in the center, then top, left, right and bottom. According to the interpretive booklet, Burt first card, The Stones, indicates he is currently subject to falling sick with a sudden affliction, possibly anemia or paralysis. He could also suffer strife due to a forged letter, false arrest or a loss of teeth. There's also a chance that a misconstruction of evil communications could lead to an estrangement or even worse, a distasteful duty. Yikes!  

The Urn foretells harmful rays that attacked him in his past may return. On an upcoming Friday he should watch out for a forged invitation or perhaps a low fever, it's a little unclear. As for his inner self, The Blue Dog means that throughout October he's susceptible to weltschmerz or an accident in the garage. As for the outer world, The Waltzing Mouse says to expect corruption and brawls. (Guess that could apply to almost everyone.) Finally, The Plant forecasts that in July he could be afflicted with bad credit or worms. Hmmmm . . . that's probably more than we need to know . . . ever.

Was that someone at the door?

Maybe it's not a good idea to let Zombie Boris and Natasha answer it.

Now the real fun begins, let's just hope they don't meddle in the election!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Many thanks to Marfi at Marfi-topia for creating and hosting Haunted Humpdays.

She is the Queen of Halloween!

The Dilemmas of Decorating

The skeleton crew is joining Marfi at Marfi-topia for some spooky fun leading up to Halloween.

It's only a week away, which means that it's time to finish up all the holiday decorating and spruce up the place for All Hallows Eve!

Can you ever have too many pumpkins? Then again, how many is too many?

Is it possible to have an excessive amount of Halloween decorations?

Well, it might be fun to find out.

Even though we've had most of our Halloween decorations for quite awhile, when we start to think about autumn (even if it's only August), it gets harder ever year to wait until October to put them up!  

Every once in awhile a decoration or two will get misplaced but eventually they turn up. Burt's ancestors somehow got put away in the piano bench but have been gracing our mantle since June when we accidentally came across them. I don't think any of our visitors have even noticed their unusual characteristics and Burt's been very happy to have them back.

In the past our shopping for Halloween decorations usually took place in November. Let's just say some of us are prone to procrastination. Shopping after the holiday meant the selection wasn't th best but you really couldn't beat the prices. Then a couple years ago, in the middle of October, while picking up candy for the Trick-or-Treaters, we noticed all the spooky stuff was gone! Except for the costumes everything else had been replaced with Christmas ornaments! It was horrible!

After that frightening experience, we finally learned our lesson. Plus, it's a great excuse for getting out and doing some early shopping and who can resist the lure of new treasures anyway?

Of course there's always the issue of where to store all that new stuff.

Earlier this year, while being trapped inside by an unprecedented hot, humid summer and then hoards of mosquitoes, we spent way too much time watching the endless Christmas in July sales on the shopping networks. (When did they start devoting an entire month to them?) Anyway, every once in awhile a Halloween goodie was slyly sandwiched between an angel and a snowman. Eventually we caved and ordered this Jim Shore Kitty. I wonder if there will ever be Halloween in June sales?

  

It's about the size of an actual adult cat which came as a surprise when we unpackaged it - as is the case with most of the things we purchase online, ha! It's huge size may be why our kitties have not felt the need to knocked it off the chest of drawers onto the floor . . . yet.

This is the newest addition to our Halloween hoard and it makes our whole house smell wonderful! It was a gift from our goddaughter. Thank you, Katie! She sent along the cool spider rings, too. 

Ivy found a great place for her new pumpkins. It's funny how just a few new things will give new life to older decorations or sometimes just moving the old stuff to a new place transforms it completely. Then again, Ivy's been rearranging the curio for about a month now and it still looks just awful! Maybe we need to do a little more shopping?

As you can see all this shopping and decorating has taken quite a toll on poor Burt. It's always important to take a break and relax awhile to reduce the stress of the holidays, even the most fun one! Hope they don't get too comfortable, there's still pumpkins to carve, garland to put up and lights to string before the Trick-or-Treaters start ringing the door bell!

Thanks for stopping by!

Are you ready for Halloween?