November 15 … 66 degrees with an amazing sunset.
Photography
Halloween Costume Parade
OK, let me warn you right off the bat – this is not the parade in Greenwich Village or anything. Nothing like it. Just a very small town parade held each year with prizes for various age groups, cider and doughnuts for everybody, and people getting together. Almost all kids in the parade, but the whole town participates. I’m just posting a few pictures because I thought they were kind of cool, and it’s fun to see people getting involved with the costumes, especially the little ones.
This scarecrow is a little hard to see with the busy background behind him, but what was funny was his face kept moving around all the time in some bizarre way. Turns out, his hands are behind the burlap of his face and the arms aren’t arms. He made the costume all on his own. (His Grandma next to me swore it.)
This age group, below, had a pretty good assortment of creative costumes in it – they were 6-8 year olds, I think. But I was just fascinated at how effective the plain `ol ghost was, and he or she was my definite favorite.
Then we had some younger kids whose moms and dads were very creative in putting together costumes that were definitely not from Party City or Wal-Mart. These two – Little Bo Peep and a cowboy with chaps and that long coat they wear, (uh – forgot what they call that) – were real cute.
And then … what put a smile on my face was a really clever homemade costume … on a dog. (Well, yeah – of course that made me smile!) Her owners also had a head piece they’d made of the same fabric as the inside of the banana, but said the Doxie didn’t like it on very much so left it off. Wow! People that really care about their pet!
This costume and the presence of about 10 other non-costumed dogs prompted me to ask the master of ceremonies to consider including dogs in costume next year, and he thought it was a great idea and announced it immediately. (Now why do I think I’m somehow going to get roped into helping form guidelines as to pets in costume and how old a kid has to be to have a dog on a leash, etc.?)
Anyway. I started thinking if there was a children’s book story somewhere in all of this. If there is …. for me …. it’s going to be about that ghost or the Dachshund! Maybe both ….
Fall – Just 2 Days Later
Autumn is on her own schedule. She seems to pay no mind to temperatures, to incoming storms; she just pulls out her paints and brushes, and in her own time gently strokes the trees with gold, oranges, crimson and amber. Here, just 2 days later, is the same tree that appears in my last post.
Fall Within 100 Feet
I have had a 100 things to blog about, all swimming, swirling in my head. But at the moment am coping with something else, and the thoughts are just not solidifying. (One thing I want to write about, having just seen Where the Wild Things Are and finished reading Coraline, is about what happens when children’s books become movies. Stay tuned …) So when inspired writing fails and I still have a ton of work on my desk, what to do? Take a few pictures …
These photos are taken without me walking more than 100′ from my front door. The first, my neighbors across the street, taken from my front porch. Not much wind today, but Old Glory always looks so nice in all the seasons.
My caddy-corner neighbors …. their fence is always lined with some kind of blooming flowers, daffodils, lilies, and in the fall, white shasta daisies
My front porch … have to have something of fall there! Each year the local deer inevitably take down whatever live flowers I put on the steps, but I will prevail! Or at least I’m trying – my neighbors had success in protecting their Hostas with Deer-Out, (nothing horrible in the way of ingredients), which is no small accomplishment, so I’m giving it a try. Doesn’t bother next door’s cats, so it must be deer-specific. Time will tell.
Looking down my short block from in front of my house … I’m on the corner. At the very end, if you look carefully, you will see a spot of blue/grey. That’s the Delaware River. I’m happy to live near a river, near any water, really. I’m very happy for the little town I live in and how un-modernized it is. Real people with real small stores and local friendliness. I’m lucky. Grateful, too.
Summer’s Last Breath
As the sun and the earth dance through the Equinox, summer exhales and shares her final gifts.
The last perfect rose of summer blooms, defying the empty, withering stalks of Hosta and drying grass.
The tall grasses in the backyard bloom in bursts of sunlit wheat.
The praying mantis I’ve been getting to know, mated, and the next day climbed high up on my office window. That evening she captured and devoured a large moth in the same spot, her last meal. Thereafter, she remained low, near the water spout. I watched, as each day, she became a paler brown and atrophied before my eyes. I thought to take one last picture of her, but could not be so disrespectful as to photograph her as her tiny life faded. In 3 days she was gone, her work on earth completed.
Despite the temperatures already dipping into the 40’s and 50’s at night, my potted petunias and torenia continue to glow in the afternoon sun, holding their beauty `til the end.
Still A Dreamer 