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!