Turnip carving

I have done this before. A looooong time ago. I was happy with the results; very rustic, quaint, old-worldy...but, oh boy, it's not easy work! Turnip, or should I say rutabaga, abound here on the Rock.

Mat Night & Spooky Viewing

Because I'm originally from Quebec I still refer to the night before Halloween as Mat Night. And well do I remember how excited some kids, particularly boys, got on this day. In the schoolyard, at recess and lunch time, there were many whispered consultations as plans and plots were hatched for the evening's mischief; egging cars, TP-ing trees, or placing poo in brown paper bags on people's doorsteps and then blowing the bag up with fire crackers, ugh!

I never participated myself. No, really. But I was always excited and full of anticipation on this night. Kind of like Christmas Eve...but spoooooky!

As an adult I still find Mat Night particularly exciting. It's got all the quality of Halloween night going for it but I don't have to hand out candy. So I can do whatever I want by way of soaking up the atmosphere.

On this Mat Night I plan on the following. If the weather is good, we'll go for a walk in our back woods around sunset. Then we'll be in the kitchen carving pumpkins and roasting seeds. And then, candles lit, spooky lights on, we'll be settling on the couch to watch three special X-files episodes.

I mentioned before that we've been re-watching the X-files. Well, through our re-viewing we have watched every single episode...except for three. I skipped these because I consider them among the scariest and, naturally, wanted to save them for tonight. (I have another favourite classic scary and ghostly X-files episode, but I save that one for Christmas.)

So tonight's viewing will include first, a double header. "Squeeze" (Season 1, episode 3) and "Tooms" (Season 1, episode 21)



And then the classic 'Home' (Season 4, episode 2). Many agree this is one of the top 5 episodes of the series. And it features Newfoundland actor, Sebastian Spence!



Will I survive the night?

Halloween and Autumn Scenery around Town

The area where I live is all dressed up for Halloween, and I'm going to give you guys a tour of it! I'll start with some very cool yard decor. Those floating ghosts look genuinely spooky when the wind blows, and that was luckily happening as I took this picture. I was reminded of this:

That's the way they were moving in the wind. There was a whole cemetery of ghoulies next to the flying ghosts.

Parked across the street from this cemetery display, was The Mystery Machine!

As in The Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo! Just parked on the street. Someone actually painted their van to look like this! That's a lot of work and I think they did a pretty good job.

I'd love to know who this van belongs to. Probably someone who owns a Great Dane. :)

This autumn has been a beautiful time to walk in the park.

Thanks to Lorelei, I know this is a Burning Bush.

I just learned this is The Spindle Tree. The pink part is a little fruit that opens up to drop those orange seeds. I had thought these were flowers, but it turns out the tree's flowers are very small and light green.

A little heart-shaped tree.

I can almost hear the leaves crunching looking at this.

Check out this fallen hornet's nest! Doesn't this look like a head? You see the little nose and the frowny mouth?

And check out this one! It's like a little monster with eyes, a nose, and a mouth. He's a little more friendly.

I was so thrilled with how these two photos turned out. Although, this looked even wilder in real life. I wear sunglasses with a real red tint, so from my view it was like the leaves were on fire.

Actually, it was just the good timing of seeing them at sunset as the light was hitting the bright leaves in the background.

I took this picture looking down from the side of a bridge. It looks like a Monet painting, doesn't it?

There are lots of colorful berries out at this time of year.

I love how this photo turned out! They're like miniature oranges.

I'm not sure what these berries are. I'm calling them the little honeydew berries.

Anyone know what kind of spider this is? It's new to me! It almost looks like it has a spiny little armor on.

The trees here are in full color.

I love this tree. It has a little bit of everything going on.

The village where I live has some nice autumn decorations up. You might remember seeing the Christmas decorations here in one of last winter's posts.

This is kind of a little pickle gourd, although I suspect it's missing a part. Maybe something chewed on it?

This mysterious jug of Witches' Brew was sitting outside a shop. "Witches' Brew to grow warts" it says. Because everyone wants to grow those, right?

And then there's Skull Maggots, "to enlarge your brain". If you look closer, it says "eat five maggots before dinner". Eww... Actually, the more you think about this, the less sense it makes. Wouldn't you lose a bit of brain with the maggots in there?

This bicycle display looked so cute. You'll see more of it later on.

I loved this black iron piece behind the spider! There were some very nice displays out, and when you crop in on a favorite part, the picture becomes more enjoyable somehow.

This is so clever. The mohawk pumpkin was in the window of a hair salon. If you enlarge this pic, you'll see that he's covered in glitter with rhinestone eyes.

A few flowers were still out, like this black-eyed Susan. At least, I think that's what we're looking at here. 

A bluebird was browsing the shops. I don't have more of an explanation.

There were some exotic pumpkins around town. I felt like this was Cedarburg-lite. You know, the way Cedarburg goes all out with the decorating.

A warty one.

This is nothing I've seen before. An exploding brain pumpkin? A waded up piece of chewing gum pumpkin? Anybody know what this is?

Some kids were carving pumpkins and setting them up on bleachers. I think there was some charity involved, like they'd pay for the pumpkin and that money would go to charity. You'll see these pumpkins again in a bit.

Now we'll revisit the village at night. This is outside that same store with all the cool outdoor decorations. The jugs of Witches' Brew and Skull Maggots were sitting around this trunk before. Pretty spooky. I didn't think to open it at the time, but I'm thinking about it now. Wonder if anything was in there?

A little silver tea set in the window. It's funny how something like this can look spooky at night, like something out of Disney's Haunted Mansion.

This too! What I'm assuming was some light reflecting on a dirty glass window looks ghostly at night.

I wonder who this lady was? Her picture looks right with this typewriter. She looks like someone who would have been typing away.

I should go in this place when it's open. I'd like to see more of these pieces in the light, like that cool mirror behind the little Steampunk girl.

There's that bicycle again.

And here are those carved pumpkins I showed earlier, all lit up on display.

As you can see, there were a lot more of them at this point. They're all lit up by a string of lights. A girl was threading the lights one by one into each pumpkin.

This photo is the wallpaper on my computer right now.

That one with the jagged teeth is my favorite. I always like the wicked looking pumpkins.

There was something wholesome about seeing rows of pumpkins that kids had carved. This hasn't happened around here before, so it was a neat surprise. I hope the pumpkin carving and lighting becomes a tradition in the village.

Have you guys been seeing any good decorations while you've been out and about? I'd love to see some of your pictures!