A Frightfully Delightful Halloween

     Newly carved, this  unconventional but very simple Jack-o-Lantern is lit with a votive candle and ready to greet trick-or-treaters.  Placing the plastic spiders atop the pumpkin did not bother me but looking at the photo is slightly unnerving. Spiders are my nemesis, the only creature on earth that scares me, so I understand the dismay on Jack's face!

Entering My Haunt

     Nothing in the front of my home screams of a modern Halloween - no inflatable monsters or robotic zombies. Rather I prefer strategically placed suggestions of All Hallows Eve, the dead and their spirits (all in good fun, of course), like the small tombstone rising alone among the shrubs and plants at the beginning of the front walk.

     A little further along the walk, a bleached skull rests among the dead leaves and the last struggling flowers of the season. One immediatedly wonders where the rest of the skeletal remains lie.

     And lastly on the front porch next to the door is an ordinary potted fern on an iron stand. But wait, what dwells beneath the fronds? A menacing blackbird, perched on the top half of another skull, peers at visitors and guards his haunt. Perhaps I have been inspired by historian Steven Loud's interepretation of the holiday - the festival of Samhain, meaning Summer's End, was by far the most important of the four quarter days in the medieval Irish calendar, and there was a sense that this was the time of year when the physical and supernatural worlds were closest and magical things could happen...

Felt Fellows for Halloween

     These retro Jack-O-Lanterns were fun to make (and small enough to be easily portable for moments snatched from lunch hour). Each was easy to cut and assemble with a few basic embroidery stitches, including a blanket stitch for the outline and french knots for the eyes. I remember working with felt as a child - simple projects and ornaments - so this enterprise was nostalgic and somewhat comforting. Pop even admired the tallest pumpkin's smile, pictured below.



BIG Pumpkins

     A big pile of big pumpkins is put in perspective by adding a little girl to the scene. No problem here -navigating the pile is fun - an orange obstacle course!

c. 2005

"and it was all yellow"

     The lyrics to a Cold Play song came to mind last week when I looked up into an ash tree in the back yard. The sunlight filtering through the boughs rendered the color even more brilliant. When viewed from another direction (below), the yellow ash leaves were remarkable in their contrast to the silver maple just beyond, which was still cloaked in green. Interesting changes and beautiful surprises appear almost daily during autumn's tenure.

Cupcakes with Caramel Apple Frosting

     Boss's Day coincides with apple season so these cupcakes were a no-brainer. A quart of apple butter in the refrigerator was begging for some use other than biscuits or toast, so I combined and adapted a couple of recipes and the result was Caramel Apple Frosting. Cooked butter and brown sugar provided the caramel aspect, and then the apple butter, cinnamon, milk and confectioners sugar were stirred in. The cupcakes were simply homemade vanilla, a good foil for the flavorful frosting. The cakes were pretty on a red serving plate with a fall theme and the boss loved them!

(Didn't notice Miss Molly inching into the photo shoot till her inquisitive little nose was over the plate! Hmm maybe she thinks she's the boss.)

Sharing a Cool One

    Newest little neighbor, Makayla, and nosey husky, Nikki, have had a cautious relationship even with a fence between them. (Children, and some adults, are quick to ask if he is a wolf, or if he bites - we forget that his looks may be intimidating because his nature is so sweet.) Anyway, on a recent warm day, Nikki was interested in Makayla's drink and I explained to her how to share it with him by drawing water into the straw and then ejecting it. Whether he was really thirsty or just enjoyed the game is debatable, but Makayla got quite a kick out of the exchange and of her new-found friendship with Nikki.

Adventures with Sourdough - Pretzels

     The sourdough starter was ready and waiting, but we didn't need any bread or rolls today. Our St. Louis Cardinals will play in Game One of the World Series tonight however, so pretzels seemed to be a good choice - a snack for the seventh-inning stretch. After the dough was mixed, kneaded and proofed, we formed the pretzels and dropped them into boiling water, thirty seconds on each side. Placed on an oiled cookie sheet, the pretzels were then sprinkled with coarse salt and baked in a hot oven. They turned out quite lovely - crusty brown with a soft interior, and best warm from the oven. The signature sourdough essence added an interesting punch of flavor, and served with a dip of melted cheddar cheese, these chewy fellows were pronounced a hit!

Mums - Overnight Sensation

     Sunsets and thunderstorms are magnificent flourishes of nature but sometimes the smaller displays are just as miraculous. This chrysanthemum resisted the brutal summer heat, growing considerably larger than in past years. I photographed it one day because I thought the number of buds was stunning, but the real surprise appeared almost overnight when every single flower popped open. The massive mound of color was breathtaking and the cheerful little blooms inspired smiles and delight. I can't remember a more welcome autumn gift.

"If you would be happy for a lifetime, grow Chrysanthemums." (a Chinese philosopher)

Discovering Cross Stitch

     Grandmother introduced all five of her granddaughters to various types of sewing projects. As the only one who continues to enjoy embroidery, I have amassed several boxes of floss and aida cloth, books and patterns, needles and hoops. When I started a Halloween project recently, Rissy was present while I hunted for the correct color of floss. In one of the boxes, she found some squares of cotton fabric stamped with simple cross-stitch designs and immediately asked if she could have them and if I would teach her. I was rather dumbfounded but extremely pleased at her interest. I was even more thrilled when she persisted at her project for the better part of an afternoon and several more in the following weeks. Growing up and growing away from her own Grandma has been delightfully postponed for a short while.

Tiny Melon

     This is the sum total of my watermelon crop. Rissy and I watched the vine and its only fruit for weeks for signs of growth and as the summer waned, we gave up hope. At the first frost, however, she insisted on picking the miniscule melon and cutting it open to see what it held. We were quite surprised to find a juicy red interior containing black seeds, a typical but compact watermelon, so I guess the joke was on us. The average-sized apple in the picture below was included for scale.