"When Ghosts and Goblins by the score, Ring the bell on your front door, you'd better not be stingy or Your nightmares will come true."*

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, and the day after Halloween is always a come down, much like the sugar crash you have after binging on your horde of assorted chocolate bars, gummies, and lollipops. (Growing up, we had a “post-collection” tradition of dumping out all of the candy on the kitchen table, sorting through our loot, and then trading each other for our favorites. Brother B always ended up getting more than he gave; he was a shrewd negotiator.)

I was sorry to hear this Halloween season that there is a movement out there trying to get Halloween changed from October 31 to the Saturday before October 31. My response to that is: WEAK! Now, the costumes are fun, but the things that really make Halloween great are 1. candy and 2. spooky, and part of the spooky includes running around your neighborhood after dark on a school night when you normally would be at home.

Kids are already “trick or treating” in highly adult supervised environments from the trunks of cars in church or school parking lots; where is the challenge in that? Part of the fun of Halloween for me was the risk. You’d go up to someone’s door (you may know them, know them slightly,  or you may not know them at all depending on how far you traveled while still technically being in “your neighborhood”), ring the bell, and then wait and see. They may open the door; they may not. And you had no idea what they were going to give you for candy. But you’d better yell that “TRICK OR TREAT” as loud as you could to earn that Snickers bar or Reese’s pieces. My dad tells stories from growing up that trick or treating meant going INTO neighbors’ houses and having them admire your costume and “won’t you have a homemade cookie?” before getting their candy and moving on to the next house where the same thing happened all over again. With trunk or treats, everyone who shows up gets a candy whether they even say “trick or treat” or not. AND whether they say “thank you” or not, which is a massive pet peeve of mine. [And don’t get me started on the older middle school/freshmen in high school teens who think that some black on their faces and a hooded sweatshirt counts as a costume because IT DOESN’T. (You don’t have to have a homemade costume, but at least make an effort.)]

This year I went trick or treating with Sister K's family; her two boys were the Hulk and Superman. While we were out, she had left a bowl of candy on her front steps, and we returned to find it virtually untouched. No one else came after we got back relative early (7:15ish). This morning at work several people were talking about how they didn’t get any trick or treaters at all last night, despite the relatively warm temperatures (mid-60s). I wondered aloud if maybe parents were just ready to be done with neighborhood trick or treating after all the activities at schools, the trunk or treats, safe space trick or treating, and Halloween parties and other events put on by communities in an attempt to make Halloween safe for kids. Which seems really controlling and disappointing to me when I compare it to all the fun and freedom I had on Halloween growing up in the 70s and 80s. I don’t have kids so I don’t know firsthand about the fear and concern that parents have sending their kids off to trick or treat by themselves in the neighborhood, but I do think that a there has got to be a corollary with how well we know and trust our neighbors. (An aside: Sister K and her husband know ALL of their neighbors, and their neighbors know their kids. Sister B knows a couple of her neighbors, but they have LOADS of kids in that neighborhood and kids are so good at bringing people together. I have met all but one of my neighbors.)

Last night, one of Sister K’s neighbors related the following anecdote. A friend of hers who lives in Dallas can expect as many as 4,000 trick or treaters on Halloween night; they load up the whole dining room table with candy to prepare. The kids come in on buses. That is the complete opposite of what happened here last night. Can’t we meet somewhere in the middle? Maybe this is just nostalgia, but wouldn’t it be nice if Halloween could go back to the way I remember it: herds of neighborhood kids, prowling for candy, sharing with each other which houses had the good stuff (our parents always had full size chocolate bars), and then heading home: cold, sugar coated, and happy.

*Walt Disney's Trick or Treat

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,"*

Back in August, I went to the Lavender Pond Farm in Killingworth,CT and took some snaps. It's the only lavender farm in CT. They also keep bees, but weren't selling any honey (can you imagine how good that would be?) while we were there.

I also got some really good advice about pruning the lavender I have been try to grow am growing at my house (cut back the soft new growth only - not the woody bits). Not only are my plants still blooming, but for the first time ever, I think that the lavender I planted in the front of my house is going to make it through the winter.::fingers crossed::

"But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days"*

My favorite time of the year is just about to start: FALL! Cool, crisp days; apple cider; chrysanthemums in bloom; red, gold, and orange leaves on the trees and crunchy under foot; pumpkins; Halloween; apple crisp. It always feels to me like the start of something new rather than the end of something. (This is probably tied to the academic calendar and was ingrained at a young age.)

Of course, it doesn't actually FEEL like fall right now with temps in the high 70s F and nearly 90F predicted for Sunday. But the days are growing shorter and soon enough cooler temps will arrive. I think I might put up my fall decorations around the house this weekend.


When I was a kid, my dad had my siblings and me memorize the following poem as an after-dinner contest. (We were always memorizing stuff. Whoever could recite the whole thing by heart first won the contest.) The second stanza has always been one of my favorites; it perfectly captures how I feel about this time of year. 

When the Frost is on the Punkin*

By James Whitcomb Riley 
 

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere

When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—

Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,

And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;

But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Winter is Here*

Yesterday, it was sunny and warm (over 50F). Today was cold, windy, and snowy, and when the snow finally tapered off, I was outside shoveling and snow plowing for a good hour and a half. (My next door neighbor MJ thinks that we got over a foot, but I didn't measure. I was too busy digging the ends of both our driveways out from the plow. She only has a shovel; I have a snowblower. That's what good neighbors do, and we are good neighbors.)

Anyhow, it is good kind of day to think about better and warmer weather days, and I was thinking about the day in October when I was invited to join Sister K and her husband as they went boating up the Connecticut River. We moored in Essex where we had a delicious lunch at the historic Griswold Inn, and everything was just so charming and Connecticut-y. It was a perfect day, and I got some pretty nice snaps.

 








I am not so keen on summer, but I'll take a sunny fall day anytime.

* Stark family words, A Song of Ice & Fire aka Game of Thrones

"Look, look, look to the rainbow. Follow it over the hill and the stream"*

Yesterday, I drove home from work through intermittent showers and sun and must have seen four separate rainbows. But this one made me stop, turn the car around, and drive back so that I could get out of the car and snap the following photos.

It was like something you'd see in Ireland. Stunning! (Although there didn't seem to be a pot of gold lying about.)

* lyric from "Look to the Rainbow" from the musical Finian's Rainbow

I have "Spring Fever"...

Hay fever, that is.  And a case of poison ivy. So this is pretty much an everyday thing. Who knew there was clear Calyadryl? (Not me! Sooo nice.)

I can't believe I got the poison ivy, which, despite being a rather small patch, itches like NOBODY'S BUSINESS. Urgh.  I made the mistake of pulling what I thought was a small tree out of my holly bush and found myself with shiny leaves of three in my right hand.  I washed up right away with Dawn, but I used hot water instead of cold, and the oil from the poison ivy got into the pores on my forearm all the same.

Since then I have noticed a LOT of poison ivy around the edges of my yard as well as the patch growing in the holly and even in the front island. It wasn't there last year, so I have been spraying pretty much everything with three leaves with weed killer, EXCEPT anything with three leaves and thorns because those are wild black raspberries!!!  YAY!! Now I just need a PI-free path to get to them.

"Call Mr. Plow, That's My Name. That Name Again is Mr. Plow."*

The first winter I lived in my house, I shoveled after every snowstorm. It wasn't my favorite thing to do, but it was good exercise and I enjoyed being out in the cold air.

Until this happened:

Opening the Garage February 9, 2013

Excavating the Walk February 9, 2013

Let me tell you, four foot drifts are KILLER to shovel through. It took me the ENTIRE DAY to get shoveled out, and a kind neighbor ended up snowblowing a path between our houses because we couldn't find the sidewalk.






So after that debacle exciting adventure, the second winter I lived in my house, I hired a service to snow plow my driveway and to snow blow my front walk and sidewalk. But as I was a new customer, despite the fact they were based just around the corner from me, I was on the bottom of the list, and they sometimes ended up coming HOURS after a storm would end. A lot of the time, I would end up shoveling myself out, because the waiting was driving me nuts. And then the city plow dumped a mountain of snow on the sidewalk in front of my house (a side effect of living in a cul de sac that no one mentions when you are buying the house.) The service wouldn't touch the mountain so I had to chip away at it day after day until I reached the sidewalk. Time for a Plan C.

February 9, 2015

So this winter, I sucked it up and bought myself a snow blower, and it was one of the best investments I have ever made. I have been clearing my driveway, my front walk and the sidewalks in storm after storm after storm.

February 15, 2015

It's actually been really empowering to take on the snow this year.  It's me out there after every storm with all the husbands on the block.  A bonus is that I have been able to do the sidewalk and the apron at the end of the driveway for my fabulous neighbor MJ, who only has a shovel.

But I honestly won't mind when it is time to put this fun new household toy away. Until next winter.


*from The Simpsons.  A work colleague has taken to calling me "Mr. Plow".

On the Eve of Epiphany...

So here we are in 2015. ::looks around:: Seems okay thus far.  2014 left something to be desired for me, which is definitely reflected in my lack of blog entries for the year. My plan for 2015 is to get back into blogging so I am setting a personal goal of 30 posts for the year, a little over 2 posts a month. That isn't a lot. (Actually, it's a little lame, but the frequency of my posts for last year was so pathetic that 30 actually is a reach target.)

2014 in Review: 
On the downside, my health was pretty rotten. My friend MEM had made up this joke about me being her "Sickliest Friend" (which sounds like the title of a song written by either The Smiths or They Might Be Giants), because I kept getting colds, which turned out to be an allergic reaction to winter! But this year, starting just before Memorial Day, I came out with an (as yet) unidentified serious digestive ailment. It ruined my vacation planned in June and spoiled my summer. [I have had a string of tests with no conclusive results, although the big diseases have been ruled out, which is good.](Sorry if that was a bit of an over share. It does explain A LOT about last year though.)

On the upside, I made a new friend (which seems sort of silly to get excited about, but it's difficult making friends outside of work when you are over 35, single, and childless - this isn't just my opinion; it was in the New York Times), and not one, but two, new nephews joined my extended family. [Both boys are cute, but only one is smooshy. The other is a solid little nugget. Henceforth, he will be know as the "Nugget". I don't know what I will call the smooshy one yet; he is the younger brother of the "Sweetpea" so maybe he could be the "Sprout". Need to think on that.]

Big Purchase:
I bought a snow blower, which is new for me as a relatively new house owner. Back in Boston, the condo association handled the snow removal. My first year in Connecticut, I shoveled my own drive and walk. Then we had 4' of snow dumped on us in one storm; if I hadn't laughed about it, I would have cried. Last year, I hired a service plow my driveway and snow blow the walk, but I'd find myself waiting quite a while for them to get to my house and would end up shoveling a lot of the time anyway. So now I have an Ariens' snow blower for this year. I was given a demo by the man who delivered it, but probably should read the manual before the Alberta Clipper scheduled for tonight and tomorrow comes through.

Luckily, the snow we have had up until now hasn't really amounted to much. But it was still pretty to look at.

"Man is in the forest."*

You are clearly a native New Englander when you see a fawn in your yard, and instead of thinking it is so cute and loving the little Bambi-ness of it, you yell and chase it out of the yard because of the ticks. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! (And the eating of the flowers. And the vegetable patch.)

Seriously, Lyme disease is no joke. My doctor even said that Connecticut is known for two things: allergies and Lyme disease. And I already have the first one.

Don't be fooled; this little guy is just WAITING to pounce!

* Walt Disney's Bambi

"Inch by inch, row by row Gonna make this garden grow"*

The volunteers have been hard at work to get the Walnut Hill Rose Garden ready for the Rose Garden Festival, which was this past Saturday. I have been logging hours up there weeding and pruning (although not as many as Sister K), but I didn't make it to the party because I was too busy working in my own yard. (I seriously need a grounds team.) But the hard work paid off and the roses looked amazing for the event. Here are some snaps I took on Thursday evening, just before the drizzle turned into proper rain.









* lyrics from "The Garden Song" by David Mallett

My Favorite Time of Year: Autumn in New England

Sister K & I drove up into the northwest corner of Connecticut and then into Great Barrington, MA on Sunday. It was a beautiful day for a sunny Sunday leaf peeping drive, as evidenced by some of the photos I took.








I am of two minds when we go leaf peeping on a sunny day. I think it is hard to photograph the beautiful fall colors on a sunny day; the camera just can't do the splendid colors enough justice. It is really better to take photos on a gray day to get good contrast, but I would rather drive around on while the sun is shining. Still managed to get a few shots that I really liked. (We've already planned our drive into the "Quiet Corner" for next year!)

"The falling leaves drift by the window"*

I love these early days of fall.







(I especially love them now that the road construction on my street is nearly done.)


*lyric from "The Autumn Leaves". I am partial to the Nat King Cole version.