Monday, November 03, 2008

A Few Halloween Sights

I hope you all had a great Halloween, however you chose to celebrate! Of course, I'm a bit late, given the stressful, busy week we had dealing with the tree damage and all the preparations, not to mention that little annoyance known as work! So, though late, here are some views of the front garden and exterior, and soon I'll have more shots of the spooky porch display inside .... Anyway, here's what confronted our Trick or Treaters on Thursday night as they approached the spookiest house on the block ... but the one with the most generous treats and prizes! (Note: the three pumpkins to the left of the door came from the garden ... there was another one out there, but it rotted before it was fully ripe, so we only ended up with three, all told.)
Here's a view of the primrose bed to the left of the steps ... I didn't get the tombstone into the shot because I wanted to make sure our garden stone made it in ... Isn't it cool? It was a homemade gift that Shady Gardener brought me when she visited the garden back in August. Thanks so much for your generous contribution to the garden Shady! I think we'll leave it there at least for the time being, though I am planning on putting some of the new crocus and fritillaria bulbs in there, so it may have to move eventually, but it will always have a privileged and visible place in the garden!
I know I posted this tombstone last week, but notice the new addition! Isn't he eerily magnificent? I'm not sure if we'll leave him out over the winter, but he certainly does look at home under the holly amidst the dead ostrich plume ferns, doesn't he? You can also see that despite the killing frosts we had last week, the Hellebore is doing just fine, and may well stay green all winter, even when it's buried under the snow....
Now you know what a zapped Castor Tree looks like after a killing frost! And sometime on Friday, this bony dude decided to drop by and hang around for a while, a sort of Halloween ornament on a spooky dead tree ... and in the shot below you can see that one of his less fortunate friends decided to take a rest at the base of the tree....
As for our usual Halloween festivities, we only unpacked about half of the decorations we had because we were so short on time this year, but still had plenty to go around! One of our neighbors told us that we always have the best decorations and spookiest display, so our reputation goes unchallenged yet again, even though we had much more grandiose plans, but we just ran out of time! We had a smaller than usual turnout of Trick or Treaters this year, which was really odd, because the evening was so mild for a change! Still, those who came by went home thrilled and loaded down with candy and toy prizes! All told, we had about 36 show up, and we had a great time making them squeal with delight at the decorations and treats ... and not to be outdone, Queen Skelepepa acted as a very accommodating "Ghostess" who charmed the little ones and got lots of attention and petting! After it was all over, she came in and just conked out for the night ... she was clearly pooped out but content with her contribution to the festivities!

We had our annual small Halloween Bash for a few friends and co-workers Friday night, and it was a very pleasant evening among friends with lots of good food, drink and spooky tricks. We were both wiped out with all the preparations and vow that next year, we're going to skip the party entirely so we don't stress ourselves out like we usually do. Next year, I think we'll just have a quiet Halloween at home watching spooky movies and snacking, without all the preparations we usually put ourselves through. All in all though, it was a great Halloween Weekend, and now it's on to the Election on Tuesday, which we're hoping will be a great celebration as well ... we will all know Tuesday night, won't we?

I hope to get back to a somewhat more regular posting schedule after the election, so keep stopping by and again, thanks for all the kind comments and positive thoughts you've been sending our way during these past stressful weeks! They really brighten our day!

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey there! Good to see you up and about. I got your wonderful email and I haven't replied yet because I'm horrid about email replies at this time of year. Mostly due to Danni's color guard schedule. She won the championships at UofO this weekend so we have some time off now.

Oh, and do feel free to use my halloween yard photos I sent ya. :) Might need some election night mojo. :)

Family Man said...

Hiya IVG and Janet.

Great decorations as usual IVG. Did you and Fernymoss dress up again this year? I remember last years costumes were pretty spectacular.

As usual I had the lights off and tried to spend a quiet night at home. However, George had other plans and was barking constantly from hearing the kids roam up and down the street. Sometimes you just can't win. :)

Now that Halloween and soon the election will be over, I hope you can get some time to just slack.

Take care

FM

Larry Kollar said...

Great decorations! With both kids out of the manor, we never did quite get around to decorating this year… but we don't get more than one or two sets of people coming by either.

Good to hear that Her Highness is still mellow enough in her old age to accept the adoration of the younger subjects…

boran2 said...

I really like your ornaments/decorations, IVG. I guess that I'll have to wait for next year to see what else you've got.

We got a number of kids but less than years past. Only $10.00 or so spent on candy that we put out on the porch provided more than enough. (We were out with the b2 boy.) And this on a warm Friday night. Go figure.

Shady Gardener said...

Too crazy! ha. At least the youngsters in your neighborhood are used to you! (and, I'm sure, look forward to the booty!) I can't imagine the effort it takes to stage this entire evening. Glad you had a great time!

And I'm glad to see you posting again. Life does get in the way of computering, doesn't it? ;-)

Roses and Lilacs said...

Love your decorations.

Sorry to hear you're working all those extra hours. In a way it's a good thing right? Means your company is going strong. We have a lot of auto industry in our area. Looks like it's about to implode and ruin our town's economy.
Marnie

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

You guys have the best Halloween decorations! I have the same gargoyle as your old one, but your new one is even better. I've been so busy trying to finish staining my fence that I didn't have time for much decorating this year. I'm sorry about your Maple. Looks like you're going to have a lot less shade for a while. I hope things start going better for you soon!

Shady Gardener said...

IVG, I'm glad you could make it over today! Did you happen to read the Nov. 2008 Summer Inspiration post? There's a little something that begins with "M" that might make you smile! ;-)

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey Janet!
No worries about the email, believe me! I'm sometimes not very good abut keeping up with it myself, especially when I deal with all day for work. I know how busy it gets with kids this time of year with all their activities and everything else you have going on. I've been AWOL myself quite a bit lately!

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey there FM!
Nice to see you back again ... does that mean you have a working computer and will be posting again at your place? I hope so! :-)

Fernymoss had a great wizard costume, but he wouldn't let me take any pics of it, and as for me ... I wore a silly horned helmet hat. I had thought of dressing up as a Wagnerian Brunhilde Valkyrie type, but ran out of time. Besides, I had no idea where to get a real pointy cupped bra, lol.

No slacking for me, my friend. Work is in full bore hell mode and will continue that way well into next year, I'm afraid! I envy you and your lazy AL days....

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey there FAR dude,
Thanks for the props on the decorations! We still haven't gotten pics of the Witchy porch display yet, but maybe we'll snap a few before we take it down this weekend, because it was really good this year. Time just got away from us planning the party and then the election and stuff...

Oh yeah, Her Highness has loved kids since I've had her and they love her right back. She literally basks in the attention showered on her, hehe.

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey B2,
It is a lot of work, and we're usually scrambling to get it all together before the kids start coming by, so this year was no exception. Wow, we spent about $50 or so on candy and treats and still have some left (I like that part) but they all did well in the treat dept.

I hope b2 boy had a great time out with dad haunting the streets!

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hi Shady,
Oh they're used to us, and several parents commented that their kids always want to make our house the first stop of the night because they know they'll make out like bandits!

Alas, yes it has been hard to keep posting lately due to work and the election, but now that that's over (unfortunately not the work part) I hope to keep more regular, so to speak. :-)

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hi Marnie!
Glad you liked the decorations! Your Halloween posts were wonderful and I still need to get back over to your place to read the story, because it sounds really good!

Sorry to hear you're taking a hit over there with the jobs situation. I have a bad feeling that it's going to hit us all sometime very soon, and of course that makes us very apprehensive. We just try to keep on keeping on and hope that nothing bad befalls us. It would kill me if we were to lose our house and garden....

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hi MMD,
I know what you mean by lacking time to decorate ... as I mentioned, we only unpacked about half of what we usually have, lol. Glad you liked them, and I may still post some pics of the witch on the porch before we take her down in preparation for Christmas. I loved your spooky post, btw. As for the maple, yeah, we need to get on having it removed and getting the fence fixed before the weather gets much worse. We had snow here off and on all day!

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hi again Shady,
I'll be back sometime this weekend to catch up on your other posts ... I just wanted to leave a sign of life today! I miss my regular visits to my favorite garden bloggers! Blame it on slaving to pay the bills, yet again....

Crafty Green Poet said...

excellent Hallowe'en decorations. I love the 'Round Tuit' and the sculpture near the gravestone.

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hi Crafty Green, thanks for stopping by! Glad you liked the decorations, even though I didn't get shots of everything before we took them down. :-(

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