Halloween Beckons…

I can’t believe it, I just can’t.

Halloween looms, it’s here, it’s so near.

Thank you for the extra fun last minute annual Halloween party.

I looooved visiting everyone!

Although, somehow when leaving a comment on a newspaper website, I got signed up for google+ and now everything I do is under google plus.  So if I visited you under google+ I have no clue how that happened or how to sign out 🙂

It was such good fun.

Wasn’t the masked man freaky?

He turned up with the masks without me knowing, we all got a fright.

Pups included, haha.

But now, here we are, the eve of Halloween.

It came too soon, too soon.

I panic with the time fluttering by so quickly.

Wowie.

I have been doing soooo many things around here.

Truth be told, for about 8 days I have been doing major refreshers around here.

Painting (of the wall and ceiling variety), fluffing, rearranging this and that.

Washing curtains, having cable guys move cables.

You know, all that sort of house stuff.

You know how you move a painting, and realize you need to paint the wall behind it?

And then all of a sudden you realize you need to paint another wall, and then another, and then another, and then another?  And all of a sudden you snowball into major home stuff?

That’s what happened to me.

Also, the garden calls us.

It’s bitter sweet you know, seeing the change.

It has been cool in the evenings, low 80’s during the day.

Some plants think it’s spring, others know, it’s time to say good-bye.

The pups and I head out to check on things.

I am still bringing in pumpkins.

There are so many more than I realized.

I have not even started taking pumpkins off of the domed garden area.

There are dozens and dozens there.

And, I won’t take this guy below until Thanksgiving maybe?

Unless we get some really random cold that is.

I am only taking the guys on really dry vines these days.

It’s such an autumnal ritual for me now.

I am one of those people who needs full holiday immersion.

As I get older, it gets harder to feel engulfed in seasons in the way I neeeeeeed.

But the garden helps me with that in a major way.

Thank goodness, for my sanities sake, for pumpkins.

We pass some huge flowering morning glories…

On our way to the back, where the veggie garden is located.

I can’t believe there are still pumpkins growing new and fresh.

Crazy Arizona warmth makes it possible.

There are over 40 of the little guys below.

And boy, they are hard as rocks.

I think they will last for a very long time without going soft.

Last year I bought one tiny pumpkin for 70 cents that had a HUGE long stem.

I couldn’t pass it up because of the stem.

I used the seeds this year outside the domed garden area, and they took off like crazy, and made ever so many babies.  It’s unreal.  I love that sort of nature magic.

There are some below.

The dance of dry and green is happening in every way.

The basil is hanging on.

And there are hundreds of tomatillos happening.

When you walk through the garden you get that wonderful buzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Bees everywhere during this fall spring in the desert.

It’s wonderful.

I love seeing the growing things thinking it’s spring.

Now we go into the large enclosed garden, to take a bunch of punkins that grew in there.

All those marigolds self seeded.

I love them so, they smell sweet and lovely.

I used some of these pumpkins on the porch and others for Halloween party fun.

So many shapes and sizes.

Gotta love those pumpkin creatures.

I roast and puree most of them, and freeze the puree for baking and making all winter, and spring and summer, until there are more.

Off we go through the front garden…

It’s flower power goodness right now.

I just sit out there in the warm sun and chilly breeze.

Butterflies and bees fluttering around.

Dogs wrestling.

Thinking about things I want to paint and make.

And, I am in my own heaven.

I love my little world so.

Simple, perfectly imperfect.

It fills me up.

I can’t explain it.

But now…

Now we must infuse with pumpkin love.

Are you sick of the pumpkins yet??

😉

I love all the varieties that turned up.

Pie Pumpkins, fairy tale, cinderella (rouge vif d’entampes), jack be littles, and a few mid size every day jack-o-lantern styles, to name a few.

We set them up here and there.

I have to confess, I am a bit late for Halloween decorating.

(although I did decorate my front gate a couple weeks ago)

Horse needs a ribbon.

I intend to do it up a little more today.

And plan a creepy meal for dinner tomorrow.

With all my little (and huge) pumpkins lined up for the occasion.

Someone needs a costume.

I don’t know why?

I just LOVE autumn and halloween times.

There is a magic in it for me.

You too?

Memories of goodness.

The scent of a candle inside a carved pumpkin makes my knees weak.

I think of being so excited as a kid, dressing up.

All the adults would dress up too.

We would make caramel and candy apples.

And carve pumpkins.

There were festivals, and costume contests.

Everyone dressed up for school.

It was one day of dress up heaven for me.

Sparkles and cackles galore.

The sights and scents with me, tucked into my heart forever.

So wonderful.

Also…

I think the pumpkin king over did himself at my house this year.

Wasn’t he extra kind as kind can be?

Truth be told.

Regarding Halloween…

I loooove the old fashionedness of it, and I love the commercialness of it.

(is that a word?)

Commerciality?

It’s true, I can’t lie.

But, the thing is…

I love seeing all the Halloween junk in the stores.

I looked forward to it.

I love bags of candy with names I have seen my whole life.

I love hearing witch cackles from creepy battery powered dolls in the drug store.

I love scary movies (even though I cover my face) and haunted houses.

 I love over decorated lawns, glittered faces and plastic pumpkins for trick or treating.

I love fog machines, and over crowded Halloween stores.

I love pumpkins and changing leaves and apple picking.

I love twinkling lights and chilly nights.

I love bon fires and hay rides.

And halloween make-up that won’t wash off.

I love black and orange mixed together.

And I love how all the candy corn gets gobbled up in my house by a man with the sweetest tooth ever.

I love it all.

What can I say?

That’s just me.

What about you??

 

 

Halloween, I love you.

🙂

 

 

 

ps:  Does anyone know how to take a dark sap stain out of white carpet?

I am desperate, I have tried a bunch of things, and nothing will work.

Tips?