Saturday, October 30, 2010

Happy Hallowe'en!


Hallowe'en is one of my most favourite times of the year, I think it always has been.  Even back in grade school, when dressing up for Hallowe'en was not something to avoid for fear of insulting someone.  Although I do remember wanting to create my own costume, but my mother would instead buy the costumes.  Back then, the costumes came in a box:  a paper 'apron' style costume with a painted plastic mask held in place by a thin elastic stapled in place.  Sometimes, the staple would grab hold of your hair and tug, other times, it would let go of the elastic at an inopportune time.  But Hallowe'en was still fun.

In music class, we would listen to the tale of the Headless Horseman (definitely pre-Johnny Depp), and if you had an imagination, no director could match the visions you yourself produced to convince you that going out after dark could be detrimental to a major body part.  And one song...classical music, and I had forgotten it till very recently when out of nowhere, a tiny portion of a tune started playing in my head.  Without knowing the name, and without even being able to hum much of the tune to anyone to ask for help, I was overjoyed to finally find it.  The song, Danse Macabre.   I'm listening to it now as I write this--only about the dozenth time in a week.  If dozenth is a real word...

And I still like carving pumpkins, even scooping out the messy, eew-y, goopy innards.  I have to admit, I can be creative other times, but I've always had a hard time figuring out just how I wanted to carve my pumpkin.  I've been in awe of the jack-o-lanterns that have been so intricately worked until they're not jack-o-lanterns, but pieces of art.  I try for them, and fail miserably, and wind up with a simple jack that doesn't look nearly so nice as the traditionally carved ones on neigbours' porches. 
But this year was different.  An idea hit suddenly, before I'd even looked at the pumpkins, and this little fellow is the result:
I guess even pumpkins like gum.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Beautiful Fall Day

We went camera shopping the other day.  Nothing fancy, although I did see a camera I'd love to have if we did have $300-$400 to throw away.  And not exactly what we had gone looking for, which was a Wal-Mart special.  For only $70, it wasn't a bad deal, a Kodak Easyshare...but we were looking for one with the settings on a dial on the top, like we've been used to for a few years now.
We did find one, just under $100, with advanced video features (hey, we can ZOOM while in video mode now!!), with the settings on a dial on the top.  I was hoping for a viewfinder other than the screen on the back, but the cameras we were looking at didn't have that.
I am happy with the camera, though, I took it with us this morning when we took the dogs for a short walk.
Some shots from our walk with the dogs: