Jack's Lantern Company

Tomorrow is Halloween and I've been dismayed with my porch. It's been looking pretty raggedy of late, and I don't want trick-or-treaters to avoid the place because it looks ghastly! I hate spending more money on plants that will be replaced soon by Christmas decorations, and I'm soooo over those little scarecrows from Michaels. So I rummaged around the garage and dug up a fall wreath and clever sign that I bought at an estate sale years ago. I totally forgot I had them. Eureka! Now I just need to get some candy for those trick-or-treaters...

The mums and the burning bush berries saw me out on the porch taking pictures and screamed, "Hey, you! Get over here and take our pictures. We're gorgeous!"

 

I had a little fun with the 'posterize' button on Picasa.

 

Happy Halloween!

***

Attention Novelist Friends! Can you write a novel in one month?

"The fog lay thick on the harbor this October morning. She stood on the pier, clutching her passport excitedly and scanning the horizon. Her gentleman-friend handed her his spyglass. "Is that your ship?" he inquired mildly. He was skeptical. The very thing that he loved about her, that wonderful imagination and sense of adventure now threatened to  pull her away from him. "Just a month," she'd told him when she announced her plan. But still he wondered how she would fulfill this lifelong dream in only 30 days. 

 She removed her spectacles and put the glass to her eyes, adjusting the lens this way and that until an image appeared on the dense gray seascape. Squinting, she could just make out the name of the vessel...N-O-V-E-M-B-E-R. Yes, November was coming, and with it the hope of embarking on a great new adventure."

If writing a novel is your idea of a great adventure, visit www.nanowrimo.com. The challenge is to write a novel in just one month. Yep. One month. 50,000 words. The ship sails in November so y'all better rush over to the site and sign yourself up. Did I mention it's free?

I'm not going to bore you with all of the details. All the info you need is on the site.  Besides, I need to save up my creative inspiration for the process. See you on board!

***

 

Leaves... Quiet Dance

 

 

I walk in the woods at the break of dawn.

 

The leaves are falling silently.

 

Dancing.

 

Whirling.

 

Quiet.

 

 Flittering to the ground.

 

 

 

Hush.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*** 

A Sunny October Day in the Country

What a glorious October day in the country!

Just the day for a stroll around the old Hovander Farm.

The sun was warm on our backs, the air pungent with the smell of fallen leaves,

 and the sky so very blue!

 

Sunshine in October is a luxurious, lavish gift from Mother Nature here in the Pacific Northwest.

 

I hope your weekend was filled to the brim with Autumn!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October's Bright Blue Weather

O SUNS and skies and clouds of June, And flowers of June together,

Ye cannot rival for one hour October's bright blue weather;

  When loud the bumble-bee makes haste, Belated, thriftless vagrant,

And Golden-Rod is dying fast , And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When Gentians roll their fringes tight To save them for the morning,

  And chestnuts fall from satin burrs Without a sound of warning;

  When on the ground red apples lie In piles like jewels shining,

And redder still on old stone walls Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things Their white-winged seeds are sowing,

  And in the fields, still green and fair, Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks, In idle golden freighting,

  Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts, By twos and twos together,

And count like misers, hour by hour, October's bright blue weather.

  O suns and skies and flowers of June, Count all your boasts together,

  Love loveth best of all the year October's bright blue weather.

Helen Hunt Jackson (1831-1885)

For Worry-Warts...