“October’s poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter.”
The summer is gone. The irrigation system has been turned off, the outside shower closed and most of the furniture on the deck covered. The backdoor already has the storm door on and later today I’ll do the front. Though the days are still in the 60’s, the nights are chilly, in the 40’s. I snuggle under a blanket to stay warm, and the animals sleep close to me. The house is cold in the morning. Winter inches closer and closer.
The birds are fewer. Gone are the orioles and the goldfinches. The sky is sometimes filled with flocks flying elsewhere, somewhere warmer, but the chickadees, nuthatches and titmice will stay all winter. From my window, I’ll watch them at the feeders. Birds seem hopeful to me. They know winter doesn’t last forever so they’ll stay around and abide the cold knowing spring will return in all its glory.
My house is decorated for Halloween. It has the usual grinning jack-o-lanterns and witches, but it also has monsters and rats. Dracula, Frankenstein and his Mrs., the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Mummy and the Wolfman adorn my mantle, though I suspect adorn isn’t quite the right word. A few rats with beady eyes sit on tables. They’re my favorites because they’re so unexpected.
When I was a little kid, my friends and I always asked each other what we were going to be for Halloween. For that one night, we would be witches, ghosts, pirates or whatever else we could dream to be. Our neighbors always wanted to know who we were behind those masks. We didn’t tell. We were the unknown spirits of the night. We’d even change the sound of our voices. Ghosts said boo and waved their shrouded arms; pirates threw around words like matey and plank while witches cackled. We were, for that one night, our imaginations. That was even more fun than the candy.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
October 14, 2010 at 1:07 pm
It sounds so fun when You americans decorate for Halloween :-)It´s almost so I want to do it myself 🙂 But i hate to have to put all those things away again, like all seasonal decorations so I seldom decorate for anything. Well I do some decoration before Christmas, but very little.
I know they have tried to make us Swedes celebrate Halloween but it seems this is one holiday that never will become big over here. Those who does have a party never knows which date it is, so it can happen from the beginning of October till sometimes in November too 🙂 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
October 14, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Christer,
Halloween is quite close behind Christmas as the holiday when the most money is spent. Pumpkins are on many front steps, scarecrows on the lawn and all sorts of decorations are in the front yards. It’s really pretty.
October 14, 2010 at 4:12 pm
I go to the VA Clinic for a blood draw once a month and we are a rollicking bunch of fools over there. Today we tried to come up with assignments for Halloween costumes and one old vet suggested the one no one would ever guess is to dress up like the guy who got shot with bird shot by Dick Cheney. Go as a lawyer, he said. That made us all laugh. But it also stuck with me and I found on the internet that the old man was in more serious condition than people really heard about in the press back then. I may do a post on my blog because it’s now such a strange story plus it may be what I wear to our costume party but what, how?? Get a fatigue jacket and spray it to look like bird shot? Any ideas?
October 14, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Z&Me,
You definitely need a hat with ear flaps, but I do think you’re stuck in hunter’s green with small black powder burns on the back. I can’t think of much else that would work.
October 15, 2010 at 8:48 am
“We were, for that one night, our imaginations.”
That, is the essence of childhood kat.
thank you!
October 15, 2010 at 10:19 am
Thank you, splendid, for finding the line.
October 15, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Kat, that would work. Thanks!
October 15, 2010 at 7:50 pm
You’re welcome, Z&Me.