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!

Garden RIP 2008

Well, the inevitable happened Monday night ... after the dramatic passage of the phenomenal cold front on Sunday (and all that brought with it), we had a killing frost. I did look out this morning to see how the remaining toad lilies had fared, and believe it or not, they don't look too unhappy just yet, so we may get some more (abbreviated) bloom time from them yet, as they usually don't give up the ghost until the first hard freeze because they are planted so close to the house. But as for the other tender perennials and annuals more out in the open, they have pretty much said farewell for the year. Officially, according to the Weather Underground (my favorite weather site), it dipped down to 28 F/-2 C last night, thus putting the brakes on much more color for the remainder of the year.

Right in time for Halloween! Although I took these two shots a week ago, you can already see the evidence of just how much things have been winding down around here, as the spooky season barrels toward us ... Fernymoss had already placed several tombstones around the garden in anticipation of Halloween, though ironically, he had to bring them all in on Sunday, lest they blow away with the wicked winds we had on Sunday ... yep, those winds that put an end to our aged maple out back. We're going to replace them today and add some more bones to the display, but this should give you an idea of what goes on in the garden right before Halloween. This shot was taken in the front boulder bed, and the following is a view up the small path to the house in the Woodland Garden.
Here you can see that our magnificent Ostrich Plume ferns have already packed it in for the season and gone brown, though one of our courageous Hellebores (to the left) is still looking quite perky, as are the hollies (see the berries?) and the ivy covering the side of the house. It remains to be seen how much green we'll have in the next few weeks, but I'll try to document the descent into winter deliquescence as it proceeds, as depressing as it may be.... I do think there will be some surprising remainders of color to show off, but they may come from odd sources, because even as I surveyed the wrath of last night's frost today, there are still some bright spots to be seen!

UPDATE ON THE WIND STORM DAMAGE: I've been talking to our insurance company the last couple of days and it looks like they are going to pay for the removal of the tree debris as well as replacement of the section of the chain link fence that was destroyed in Sunday's storm. At least that was somewhat of a relief, because honestly, I've been stressing out way too much about this particular event. In fact, I also seem to have picked up yet another(!) intestinal bug that has made me miserable for the last two days ... fortunately tonight, it seems to be on its way out (so to speak), so I'm feeling a bit better than yesterday. Hearing that the insurance will cover most (if not all) of the clean up and repair from this incident did go a considerable way to putting me more at ease. Now if we can just get the rest of our Halloween decorating done (which should have happened Sunday!), we both can rest a little easier as this week marches on....

And, of course, we are Hoping that we can sleep a whole lot easier come Tuesday night next week. If things go as we all hope they will, it won't be so bad seeing Winter take hold and put the garden to rest for the next several months until Spring....

PS: I'll get back to answering comments from the last few days tonight, and I appreciate very much the kind words of concern and encouragement everyone has been sending! They've made the stress of a very stressful situation much more bearable! So thank you, one and all!

Early Halloween Greetings From Her Highness Devil Dog Pepa

As a comedian from my childhood Flip Wilson used to say back in the days of Laugh In, "The Devil Made Me Do It!," so in anticipation of the upcoming holiday, Queen Pepa (approximately) reminded me that she wanted to make one more appearance here as her alter ego 'Devil Dog' just to reinforce how cute she is when she gets dressed up. So, here she is from Halloween 2006 showing off what a fetching bitch she can be when she puts on the horns and cape to greet Trick or Treaters. I'm sure she's happy to retire this particular costume in favor of her much more comfy fleecy skeleton hoodie, but I've always loved how devilishly cute she is when she puts on the horns and cape, and, believe it or not, there was a time (well in the past now) when she really did live up to being a Devil Dog! But for anyone who has ever owned a Terrier, that should come as no surprise, because in their younger years (when she acquired this, her first Halloween costume) they can really live up to the reputation!

As you can see here, she really rules the roost at Casa IVG, and will continue to do so as long as she's with us, which I hope will be for a good, long time to come!

This Is Halloween!

Ok, I know that a while back when I posted the video of "Mr. Misting Skull" I swore that we weren't going to buy any more Halloween decorations this year, due to the overabundance of cool stuff we already have. Well, as you can see in this photo, this weekend we both fell off the wagon with a resounding thud! It all started Friday after work, when we drove out for our yearly visit to Nobbies to see their incredible selection of Halloween merchandise. Talk about two grown kids in an eye candy shop ... Fernymoss spotted the Demon first and just had to have it, while I wandered around a bit and fell in love with this incredibly realistic (but way big) Toad, who seems to be asking "Where are my lilies?" These two new acquisitions will be joining Grizelda the Witch in the annual porch display, along with one of the misting skulls and various other props we put on the table from which she casts her spells enchanting the trick or treaters every year....

Today we had some items to get at Target so off we went, and of course we couldn't resist checking out what Halloween items they had, but weren't that jazzed up about it because the past few years we've thought they've been fairly lackluster (other than some nice gargoyles) in their selection. Not this year! We were bowled over by the abundance of very cool items they have to offer, and really had to try to temper our enthusiasm to drop some serious cash on some of them ... so I sprang for this really cool resin tombstone (it's heavy!) and Fernymoss just had to get this big gargoyle for our ever expanding collection, and both finds should serve us well for years to come ... we also got this enormous black ceramic skull that we're going to put the treats in (better than the cheesy plastic cauldrons we've used in the past ... those will be for the toys this year). Actually, I was the one who dropped some very serious cash for the candy and treats we will be handing out ... I didn't total it all up but it was at least $50-60 for all that stuff. Yes, we like to treat our beggars well, and they remember us ... the house where you not only get candy, chips and stuff, but toys too! Last year several parents from the neighborhood said their kids always want to come to our place first for the spooky decorations as well as the abundant goodies!
We're definitely getting into the mood to decorate and dress up, and even Queen SkelePepa got into the act, as you can see in this second shot. Last year I got her this rather nice fleecy jacket/costume that she actually seems to enjoy wearing, unlike the Devil Dog and Bumblebee outfits she's worn in the past. She looks pretty impressive in the dark, as the skeleton on her back glows in the dark, and though it has a hoodie, it doesn't quite fit her head, so we just roll it back to expose the spiderweb design on the inside. Last winter when it was really cold (and we had no heat for a while when our furnace died) she wore this for extended periods and it seemed to keep her nice and toasty, though tonight she only sported it for a few hours because it was still pretty warm (in the mid 70's well into the later evening hours), but she definitely was enjoying the spirit of the holiday!
As long time readers already know, there are two times of the year we really go overboard decorating: Halloween and Christmas, so as each approaches, you'll be seeing more posts devoted to the art of skillful kitsch ... after all, what's a garden blogger to do when everything is pretty much dead or dormant outside, but you still want to post regularly? So ... in the spirit of the season I'll conclude by plugging one of our all time seasonal favorites, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. If you still haven't seen this, you really owe it to yourself to indulge in this frightfully innovative and entertaining little film! To say it's a quite unusual musical is a gross understatement, but now that Disney has finally released a cleaned up, remastered new edition (after way too many years of neglect), there's no better time than now to experience it once again --or for the first time! (Click on the image below for details from Amazon.)
If you've seen Nightmare before, you likely recognized that the title of this post refers to one of the more rousing songs in the film that always has me singing along ... but perhaps you might not have known that this song has also been performed by none other than Marilyn Manson! Yep, that one. By no means should anyone infer that I'm a Manson fan (I'm not that familiar with his stuff), but he does a fantastic version of this song, which you can see here, complete with most of the original imagery from the film itself. Don't let the performer put you off, because he delivers a quite competent and entertaining version in this short video! Come on, I know you want to click the link....

We harvested the first two fully orange pumpkins (and the third and biggest is starting to change color) from the garden this weekend, the cornstalks have been cut down and will soon be part of the front garden Halloween display, so look for those coming soon. Oh, and I still have a few more Toad Lily photos to post, so no, the fat lady hasn't sung yet! Stay tuned....

Halloween Never Fades Away!

At least around this house, something from Halloween always fails to get put away, and the same goes with Christmas ... so I guess you could say that we've always got a bit of the Nightmare Before Christmas (or after) lurking around! So, if you don't mind, I'll be extending the spooky season just a day or two more ... I had considered a commemorative post for el día des los muertos, but didn't get it together in time (sorry Manny!), but I have another overall shot of the Witches and Wolves lair I featured the other night in more detail. Though you can't see the witches' lair in great detail, it's the (last) house on the left, with the stream bisecting the path to the wolves' lair, and finally the country spooky barn and people celebrating.

Though Fernymoss ran out of time to set up the entire Spooky Village this year, I think he did an outstanding job of incorporating our new piece for this year (the wolves' lair) into the overall country themed display. Oh well, so this Halloween wasn't as elaborate and detailed as usual, but due to our overall lack of time I think it did come together pretty well in the end. At least this year we won't be spending two weeks putting everything away! We're vowing (at this point) that we'll bring up the Christmas stuff we're using for the porch display early and storing it there till later (we don't spend much time out there in the fall and winter anyway!)

I hope everyone had a relaxing and (if you're into it) appropriately spooky Halloween! We didn't get around to Baby Jane after all, but I did receive my 10 disc Twin Peaks: the Definitive Gold Box Edition in the mail today! As I mentioned in a previous post, this is the ultimate Peaks fan's wet dream of boxed sets and we can't wait to dig in! It used to be our countdown to Halloween to watch an episode a night, but now it looks like it may be the lead-in to Christmas this year ... What better kind of seasonal time marking than a David Lynch creation?

Happy Halloween!

In honor of the harvest and the spookiest season of the year, as this cycle winds down to its close, what better icon than the pumpkin to commemorate this day?

This year we didn't get around to carving the pumpkins, but we still like to have them around gracing the steps ... and as you can see, the morning glories are still hanging in there at this late date. I took a few other ambient light shots along with this, but most of them didn't turn out ... I should have known better and used the flash!

In any case, however you celebrate the big spook day, I hope it's an enjoyable one for you! We usually just take it easy (now that the annual haunted open house and big trick or treat night are past) and watch a favorite scary movie, and I think this year's choice will most likely be Robert Aldrich's classic Bette Davis -- Joan Crawford guignol fest Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? the special edition (2 discs!) which I just received the other day. It's one of my favorite guilty pleasures and if you've never had the experience of watching Davis and Crawford tear each other to shreds, you should definitely treat yourself this Halloween. (Or any time you're in the mood for some grand guignol high octane theatrics!) It's a shocker you won't soon forget, during which you will find yourself chuckling at inappropriate times ... only one of the charms of this fine example of black comedic camp cinema.

Trick or Treat! As Hosted by Queen SkelePepa ...

Blogger finally seems to have gotten over its hissy fit from earlier this evening ...

I thought I'd post a few shots from our hometown Beggars' Night. Des Moines has a somewhat odd tradition: instead of a trick, kids are supposed to tell a joke, most of which barely register on the groaner scale. Most of the time, with the smaller ones, you can barely understand what they're saying, while some of the older kids try their best to come up with something a bit more risqué. Which also usually registers but a bit higher on the groaner scale.

We did have one particularly vocal little girl (about 3 or so) tonight dressed as a cat who was quite insistent that she tell us a joke ... she arrived chiming "I've got a joke for you!" and repeated it (and repeated it) until she made her turn up the cauldrons of candies and toys. "So what's your joke?" I ask her. She proudly declaims: "What does a dog eat?" "I don't know, what does it eat?" I oblige. "Dog food!" she proudly exclaims as she realizes she's accomplished her mission and the candy and toys are hers now. She was amply rewarded and left with a big grin on her face ...

Though the weather was great tonight, we had a lower than usual turnout this year, which seemed odd given the balmy temperatures. Last year the temperature plunged about 40 degrees from afternoon and evening accompanied by a fierce wind and we only had about 55 kids (a lot fewer than the previous year). Tonight seemed especially sparse and we ended up with just 42 in all, most of whom arrived in groups. In any case, those who did come by didn't leave disappointed!

Of course Pepa played exceptional greeter and (g)hostess to all, and seemed to earn quite a few fans with the kids. Why, you could even say she was glowing (she was)!

The first shot (not the greatest but the one that turned out acceptably without the flash) is Fernymoss the Crowboy and Queen SkelePepa lying in wait for the kids who were soon to arrive. As you can see, we were well stocked, with chips, candy and two cauldrons of toys for the lucky beggars .... They made a decent dent in the loot, but in previous years these would have been virtually empty by the end of the night. Maybe kids just aren't trick or treating like they used to, or the ones we used to see in previous years have grown up too much to find the activity "cool" anymore. Whatever the case, we've got a reputation to keep up in the neighborhood for some kids, who tell us each year we're the first place they go ... that always makes it worth it for us, so we'll keep on doing this each year until the kids quit coming.

Harvey, Pepa and the Mammoth Castors

Just a few quick shots of Queen SkelePepa and her friend Harvey, posing late this afternoon by the Mammoth Castors in the back yard ... all ready for the trick or treaters soon to arrive! The poor kids here only have a window of opportunity from 6-8 p.m. so this will be an abbreviated, photos only post for now!

Now who ever said IVG didn't like bunnies? Pepa likes this one and so do I!

Well, this is an update of sorts ... I tried to upload the photos to Blogger hours ago, but it was acting up at the time. So here they are, after the fact, as it were.

Trick or treat blogging will follow shortly!

Halloween Preview: The Wolf Lair

Well here we are, one night away from the big event, and we barely (and for us, sparsely) got it together in time ... This year, Halloween just came too soon, barreling at us and caught us unaware and unprepared. Instead of spending much of late September decorating (as we usually do), this year we were in the big clean up and rearranging mode, which took up much needed Halloween time. But anyway, with a manic push last week, we got the house cleaned up, a lot of Halloween decorations up and threw our annual Halloween Haunted Housewarming party last Saturday. Though hastily organized and not as big as previous years, we were quite content with the results and had a fun, relaxing evening with friends, topped off by watching one of my all time faves, William Castle's The Tingler which for me is always a treat, no matter what time of year. (Recommended seasonal viewing from a previous post)

The Wolf Lair is a new acquisition this year to our collection of Halloween Houses, and though Fernymoss didn't have the time to put up the whole displays (alas, the cemetery didn't happen this year), what he did with the Witch/Wolf Lairs I think is pretty remarkable. Perched atop the newly installed media centre, this particular display contains the witches' lair house and a spooky country scene integrated with a haunted barn and various people celebrating Halloween ... all guarded over by this pack of watchful wolves lurking in the nearby woods. I particularly like the reflections captured in the 'river' that leads up to the Witches' Lair (coming soon), which at least justifies having had to use the flash to take these shots. Unfortunately the flash also cancels out all the cool spooky lighting the pieces themselves emit (nifty LEDs, you know!) but it seems to be the only way to get the detail these pieces demand.

I should have a few more of these to post tomorrow (the whole view of this scene, with more detail) as well as some pre-Beggars' Night shots of the Halloween loot we are giving out this year (bigger and better!). We also have to get some good shots of 'Skeledog' (her highness Queen Pepa approximately, in case you hadn't guessed!) to include. She's become quite fond of her new outfit over the past few days and seems to enjoy lounging around in it (see previous post). And soon ... for Halloween Night itself, we should have this year's version of Grizelda's lair assembled on the porch, so stop by again soon ...

Photos and Arrangement by Fernymoss. Taken 28 October, 2007.

Almost Halloween! ... sleeping on the job ...

This could quite likely be the night when we get our first frost or freeze ... though I suspect we'll get a glancing blow or light frost, I think the hard freeze is at least a few days off. So, for now, we still have the towering Castors in the garden, late blooming Toad Lilies and valiant mallows, morning glories, calendulas and other annuals still hanging in there. Amazingly, a lot are still blooming though the garden is clearly in definite decline ... just in time for Halloween.

Time for the bones and tombstones to take over the front bed ... the porch soon to be transformed into Grizelda the witch's lair, along with her ghostly entourage ... yep, we have a lot of work to do and have barely begun! At least we have all the candy and toys stocked and ready to go next week!

Oh, and Pepa has a new costume this year ... after a good 10 years of mostly being a Devil Dog (and sometimes a bumble bee), she's finally got some new spooky threads that she actually seems to enjoy. Though you can't tell in this picture, it's a body length skeleton shirt of sorts ... kind of like a doggie onesie? Anyway, she took to this immediately, since it's more like a cuddly t-shirt than a costume. Cool! And she glows in the dark as well, hehe. And the full moon is today ... hmm.... with it getting cold and windy, it's feeling like the season is truly upon us! I'll have more pics of the decorations as they are installed, so check back soon.

Film programming suggestions we've seen recently and recommend!

The Devil Rides Out -- a 1968 Hammer production with the stellar Christopher Lee fighting nasty Satanists who want to baptize a few of his friends into the dark arts ... it's a good one! Atmospheric and effective, with a great screenplay by Richard Matheson (see below).

The Legend of Hell House -- the 1973 and only (I hope) adaptation of Richard Matheson's Hell House, scripted by the author himself. I bet you're familiar with his work, even if the name is not familiar ... he wrote many classic Twilight Zone episodes, numerous screenplays (including the above title!) A tale somewhat reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting (so inferiorly remade a few years ago, wasting the talents of Catherine Zita Jones, Lili Taylor and Liam Neeson among others), it truly stands on its own in my esteem. And I was a huge fan of the book when I was a teenager (and Matheson in general too) ... it's an extremely literate --and yes, psychologically scary-- (read boring for the less patient modern audience) haunting tale well worth the effort of seeking out and viewing.

For that matter, the original Robert Wise version of The Haunting linked above is one of those haunted house stories that still gives me the shivers decades later. If you've never seen it, turn the lights down low and get ready for some real chills. Interesting lesbian character portrayal for the era too (1963), and Claire Bloom sure seems to love vamping it up as "Theo." I can't recommend this film highly enough ... that abomination remake probably had Shirley Jackson spinning wherever she is these days ....

For fans of the legendary William Castle, TCM recently broadcast an evening of his classics, one of which, Homicidal, I'd never heard of, nor seen ... so that was a real treat, though not quite on the par with his classics The House on Haunted Hill and my all time favorite, The Tingler. It is one to check out if you see it pop up on some late night schedule and unlike most Castle productions, managed to keep us guessing till almost the end of the film. Some see it as a blatant rip off of Psycho, and it does share some details, but it's still a fun, schlocky ride, as only William Castle could do them. I could go on for hours about his films (one of my many guilty pleasures), but I'll spare you for now.

One closing note for David Lynch and Twin Peaks fans out there (you know who you are!). Finally, this 30 October, the "Definitive Gold Box Edition" of the entire series, including the elusive pilot episode (and European version), is being released on DVD. Now, if you're a fan of the Peaks, I'm sure this is exciting news (I've had mine pre-ordered for over a month now, hehe). If you're not, but are open to discovering one of the most innovative and unique oddball soap operas to ever hit the prime time airwaves, you should at least see if this shows up in your local video store. (There's enough of a cult following and legend built up about this series that even FM's local video store might have it. After all he does live in a college town, no?) It also appears that they've included lots of goodies in this 10 disc set, so I'm going to be enjoying this one for a good, long while when it arrives. We used to countdown to Halloween by viewing one episode of Twin Peaks per night up until the big day, but this year decided we'd have to delay it due to the new set. Who knows? We may be marking advent this year by watching David Lynch's work instead ... damned secular liberals that we are.

More Halloween soon ...

Update 30 October, 2007: still barely a light frost and no freeze yet. First Halloween in many years this hasn't happened, to my memory.