Halloween Leftovers

October was such a busy month for me, as I'm sure it was for all of you! Now that Halloween is over, I find that I still haven't shared a lot of what happened during that month with you guys. So these leftovers are the bits of fun I didn't quite get a chance to blog about until now.

Starting with our annual trip to The Elegant Farmer to get a caramel apple!

The guy who was dipping the apples did a very careful job, meaning that the caramel was nearly dry by the time I got to the table of sprinkles. So my caramel apple was sitting in a bowl of little jimmies and nuts. Still tasted great!

My mom had the more sensible cut up apples:

The happy face barn

The electric train I've shared photos of in the past. You can see the wiring above it.

A few photos from the trip out there. I loved that these people decorated their crane for Halloween.

I managed to get some pics of those elusive crows I seem to have trouble photographing. I often hear them but can't see them, or once I do they move pretty fast and I can't get to my camera in time. So it was nice of this group to hang around a while.

I got a few quick photos of a cemetery while riding by (in the passenger seat). I was pleased with how these turned out, considering the speed we were moving at. I think the autumn trees look cool with the tombstones.

 

Those cemetery photos were taken on the way to The Irish Cultural and Heritage Center. The center is in an old church, which as you can see has an amazingly huge pipe organ.

Naturally, one of the things that comes to mind with an organ like this is The Phantom of the Opera and that's just what we heard! This generous free concert featured a few spooky old Halloween songs, like "Funeral March of a Marionette". The organist glided in wearing a black cloak and carrying a lantern. He made his way over to the organ and flung his cloak to the side with a flourish as he sat down. It was really pretty cool!

They did a great job decorating the church. Look at this neat floral display, complete with crows! And they probably had all these cool floral and candle holders already for other church purposes.

After the organ introduction, these two sang through the Phantom of the Opera song list. They were so talented and I got emotional like I usually do when listening to this music. I'd moved over to the side of the church and was more or less alone, and that might have been why I was feeling the music in such a direct way. I felt like they were singing it straight to me! Maybe it was that or it could have been the emotional way they were singing it, but I had an actual tear in my eye!

Those candle holders I mentioned:

I loved this - a Phantom mask, complete with big rat and spider crawling around. This was at the front of the stage.

This window in the church isn't spooky, but it's too beautiful not to include.

On the way home, I managed to get a close up shot of the front of The Rave/Eagles Club. It was all decked out with various critters. If you click on this picture you'll maybe see the pumpkins, skeleton, and part of a ghoul. The Rave is rumored to be haunted and I believe it from a brief experience I had there!

Some beautiful fall foliage from "The Autumn Blaze Maple"

A spirited man in a pumpkin hat at our local farmers' market. Some people dressed up on this day and some of the vendors were giving out candy.

 

Me as a scarecrow. Really slimming, right? ;)

A sunny field near the market.

There's an old cabin from the 1800s that is near the farmers' market. It used to be on another side of town and was moved here.

A newer (although not that new) house also stands nearby.

That Norman Rockwell statue in our town was decked out with a few crows.

A particularly Halloweeny shot of the moon
 

Trick-or-treat was actually held on Halloween night around here. I like this pic because it looks like the jack-o-lantern is going to eat the candy.

The skull that is normally in pirate mode was a witch this year. We had our matching net veils on.

I waited for the kids in my outfit, under many layers. It was a cold night, but at least it had stopped raining by that point. It had been storming all day and I wondered if anyone would come by. Turns out more kids came by than maybe ever!
 

I had a lot of little characters drop by. They were for the most part not afraid of me and downright chatty. The standout experience was when a couple of the kids actually scared me. Two actual twin girls who were probably five or six years old wandered slowly up the sidewalk toward me holding hands and outfitted as complete Grady girls. They looked me dead in the eye the whole time and slowly muttered "Come and play with us... Forever and ever and ever..." I was in front of my chair at this point, crouched down as I usually am when I see little kids coming up to me. So these girls were eye to eye with me. They got close. I actually stumbled back into the chair and said "Oh my god. You're so scary." And I meant it! They could see it in my eyes I think.

They got their candy and slowly turned around, still hand in hand. I heard them giggling on the way back and the other kids told them to stop because they weren't supposed to giggle at any point. This was clearly well planned out and rehearsed! The girls got back to the street and I could see them telling their dad what happened and him kind of jumping up like "Yes!" And then I heard him say with satisfaction "OK. I'm good to go home now!" Mission accomplished.

Then there were a few boys who came up dressed in those black spandex suits, you know where they just look like a shadow with no face. The first one I asked what he was and he says "You know, actually I have no idea". Then like a half hour later the second one drops by and I ask what he is. This scary voice creeps out... "I am the darkness". Oooh, these kids were good!

Another interesting moment was when this little boy dressed like Darth Vader came to the door and his dad is behind him holding an iphone playing "The Imperial March" dum dum da dum dum da dum. And the dad tells me that Darth had to have his own soundtrack. :) Then the kid went back to the street and rode down it in a little electric car. No lie.

These biscuits were cut out with Halloween cookie cutters. And that squiggly one is a "snake". (Leftover dough)

 

The annual candy corn parfait:

A nearby neighborhood had a lot of neat Halloween decorations out.

I wish more of this yard would show up. It's really something in the daylight. These people have set up a massive cemetery in their front yard, complete with black fencing. There are so many gross details, like zombies crawling about. But unfortunately, they didn't light up much of it at night.

All that was lit was this super creepy clown at the peak of their roof. There was some sort of moving light going under it.

Yikes!

I've been out hauling at Target, Michaels, and Walgreens, so that After Halloween Haul post will be up soon!