It’s the first of November. And it’s snowing. Beautiful, blustery snow day! A good day to write a catch-up post, since I’ve not been blogging much lately.
Yesterday was Halloween and the rain stopped in the morning, and the sun came out, and it was a perfect crisp evening for trick-or-treaters and for watching fireworks from our deck. Which we did. Twice.
One of our neighbours set off fireworks in his backyard earlier in the evening – have you ever been this close to fireworks going off? It’s nuts. And awesome. But don’t do it, kids, it’s dangerous and almost certainly contravenes town bylaws … still, pretty awesome!
We actually got trick-or-treaters this year. Not the hoards that we saw a little deeper into town, where the streets are better lit, but we had some. We already made plans for ways to decorate tastefully next year to attract more kids. It’s like a bird feeder, only with fun-sized candy bars. When I was a kid, Halloween was a simple home-made affair. Costumes were things like hobos and gypsies, witches and ghosts, things you could do by rummaging through your parents closet. There was a woman in our neighbourhood who was famous for her homemade popcorn balls every Halloween. It’s too commercialized now, for my taste.
In between handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and watching the fireworks from our deck, we hustled down to the Pumpkin Walk. I went to the first Pumpkin Walk 18 years ago, when it was a very wonderfully simple, homey things. It’s huge now, loud and flashy, crowded and commercialized. Quite amazing for a town of this size to pull off, quite frankly, and very well done. But I personally was happy to get back to my quiet deck to sip hot spiced apple cider with my hubby and my sister and watch the official town fireworks and do some star gazing (we can see SO many stars up here, even the milky way, right above our house!) Far from the madding crowds!
I sound like a cranky old goat! “back in my day, we didn’t have these fancy store bought costumes . . . too loud! . . . uphill both ways! . . . ” It may be because I spent a good portion of October in relative isolation, frantically writing stories for three important short story competitions all ending…well…yesterday. I made the deadline for 2 of the 3. Yah! This month I have committed to NaNoWriMo, which should have me in possession of a finished rough draft novel by the end of November. Let’s hope I don’t end up completely de-socialized, complaining about Christmas carols (never gonna’ happen!)
SweetEsther tucked in for a long winter nap. Sweet dreams of adventures that await us in the spring!
#SweetEsther
