Boo

Getting ready for spooks and goblins tonight. Or more likely, Batman, Elsa and Anna, and assorted princesses.

Pre-retirement I shared the fun duties of Halloween party planner extraordinaire with a co-worker. Together we planned the day-long festivities with costume contests, endless food, and decorations galore. It took hours to transform our workroom into a spooky cobwebby witchy space to celebrate Halloween. The whole department pitched in. Costumes were discussed or kept secret. The day of the big event everyone from mail clerk to chief executive joined in the festivities. The costumes! Some people were unrecognizable. Some were glamorous, others funny or scary. We outdid ourselves. But what do you expect from a building full of library staff? It was great fun. It was exhausting. Now I'm happy to hang a ghost or two on my front porch.

I was going to stretch some fake cobwebs across the window but discovered I have real ones. Done.

Oh, here's a pretty miniature rose I noticed while hanging ghosts. Not scary.

So while I'm done coming up with costumes like Mary Queen of Scots, Pocahontas, Gypsy fortune-teller, Tourist in Hawaii, Cowgirl, Sacajawea and many others I still feel the need to do a little something. Okay, this is scaring me. I hope Batman and the princesses don't trick instead of treat.

 

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Antlers?

Every blog I look at is featuring some fall decorating. Mantles are big, so are front porches. I did stick a little pumpkin on my porch thus depriving the squirrels of their usual carnage on the large display of pumpkins and gourds. But I decided that probably wasn't quite enough. Maybe a centerpiece for the table? I rooted around in the storage room and found this stuff.

I cut the heads off my red hydrangeas, now a dusty rose.

These antlers have been sitting around forever. Can't think where I got them. Probably at a garage sale.

I must have packed up these gourds and pumpkins from last year. I wanted to add some Indian corn but then remembered the squirrels ate them all last fall.

Add some bittersweet.

Now for something to put them in. I rescued this from the garage - it had been on its way to Goodwill. This will save me a trip to Goodwill to buy it back.

So I plunked the antlers and a big pine cone in there and started adding stuff like little wooden acorns. Aren't they cute? I'd like to see a squirrel bite into one of those. Who am I kidding? They'd still eat it.

And here's what I came up with.

I liked it a lot better before the antlers started reminding me of a stegosaurus. Maybe I should start over? Naw, I'm done. Happy fall!

 

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Baby lettuce

I have a teeny tiny pond. Each year I buy one water lettuce to float around in it. Then the lettuce starts making baby lettuce. They invariably get as big (just like baby birds) as their parents in a very short time. By the end of summer there is no water visible.

I wait patiently for the first baby lettuce so I can pinch it off and place it in one of several small water pots around the terrace. It will get as big as its parent and fill the water pot. But not this time.

In this small pot the baby made lots of babies that stayed small all summer.

Babies having babies!

My friend, the Expert Gardener, has a large pond where the water lettuce reproduce so prolifically that they shove each other out of the pond by summer's end! Mine aren't quite that pushy. Soon they'll all be dead anyway.

 

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