Well, September 1st was a promising start to the month. Chillier temperatures for sure but the sun was out and there was nary a cloud to be seen. First order of business was walk with cats.
Then we set off to Lester's Farm to get some veggies and what turned out to be some amazing local lamb. While there I saw the first ads for Pumpkin Fest 2018!
Another walk, by myself this time, and more mushrooms!
Ended the day with bar-b-que and that amazing lamb from Lester's!
It's been rather...eventful. Weather wise it's been up and down. Started out promising during the first two weeks of a sunny and warm May but then it got cold and gloomy and stayed that way till the end of June. We had my husband's parents with us for several days which was nice. One morning, while having our breakfast, we heard a big boom which, I assumed because of the overcast skies, was thunder. Found out later there had been a gas explosion at a garage not far from us that blew off the sides and ceiling. Luckily not many people were there and no one was killed although there were a few injuries.
Last few days of June, summer came back with a blazing sun for a couple of days before more rain and gloom. Which is how things seem to be going this month. Been windy too. Been getting weather systems from down south including the remnants of Hurricane Chris and now Beryl, I believe. Despite the overcast skies and some rain today, it is rather warm and muggy.
I'm not complaining about the rain because it's been a pretty dry winter and spring. So much so that fires have been breaking out. Last week there was a bush fire not far from here that had us a bit worried. Watched the water bombers do their work and it was doused within a couple of hours. But not before heavy smoke forced part of a nearby neighbourhood to evacuate! Luckily damage was limited to the woods with only a few houses suffering melted vinyl siding and scorched fences / decks.
Our house is back onto a green space and though I often see the remnants of people's illegal fires in the woods, I'd still rather have the woods back there then a new housing development. Do you see how close together those houses are? And nary a tree on any lot unless the home owner plants one. Unfortunately, in April we discovered there are plans for a commercial/residential development behind us :(
The current weather is not boding well for trick or treaters. We are experiencing gusty winds, fog, and drizzle...which has thickened to rain, at this point.
However that is supposed to stop by mid-afternoon. In fact, Environment Canada's forecast is for sunny periods later today and clear all through the evening. Wheee! The witches may fly after all!
We're going to take a brief break from the Colorado blog posts, because I had to share some photos of tonight's Harvest Moon!
I'd taken some pics of the moon last night, thinking it was full at that time. Then I read that tonight was the actual Harvest Moon. So I planned to get out there again. It was pretty overcast when I looked out there tonight.
But after waiting maybe a half-hour, I eventually saw something glowing behind the clouds. It looks almost like there's a skull-type face in the clouds, hey? Complete with a few teeth.
I mean, that's pretty eerie. I'm really seeing a face looking down here, complete with lower jaw this time.
I was cheering the moon on, hoping it would make an appearance.
And then, for a brief moment, it did.
Then the clouds glided back over it and it began to rain! So that was some pretty lucky timing.
And what could be more appropriate music for tonight than this?
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Yes, even way out here in Newfoundland we are experiencing heavy rains as a result of Irma. (See previous post for the flooding fun as a result of Matthew last year and Igor in 2010.)
Over the past several days we have broken two records for rainfall. There has been flooding in downtown St. John's and elsewhere, accidents on the highway...seriously I'm so glad we bought a house on high ground (I still well remember Igor!). Trudeau is currently in St. John's so...that must be fun for him.
Today the rain finally let up...although no sign of the sun yet. Lots of mushrooms around. The weird frilly ones growing in a corner of our front rock garden area have all been shredded by the cats.
So I finally got around to watching John Carpenter's The Fog after finding out about it in 2011! I noticed it had taken me six years to see it after linking my recent fog themed blog post to one I wrote in 2011. In that older blog post, I mentioned seeing a trailer for The Fog. To my surprise, I said back then that the trailer looked lame. I say I'm surprised because since then I got it in my mind that I wanted to see The Fog. Who knows. Sometimes a movie can appeal to you when it didn't before. Anyway, I'm glad I gave The Fog a chance, because it ended up being a pretty good old ghost movie.
I'm going to give a short review with my thoughts on the movie, and I'll try to keep it spoiler-free. That shouldn't be too difficult since The Fog rotates around a pretty basic theme. This is a classic ghost story of shadowy figures that have come back from the grave to exact revenge.
In fact, this movie so fits that classic format that it actually starts with a man telling a ghost story to a group of children around a campfire. John Houseman plays the older, man-of-the-sea type and he's perfect for the role. You get the whole premise of why there would be ghosts laid out right away and in that dramatic, campfire manner.
This is one of those movies that has several side plots going at once. So you get to know separate characters and every few minutes you see what they're going through. All the plots relate to events that are happening at the same time.
This movie was made in 1979 and you can see it. There are phones with cords, actual records being played, and radio is a big deal. Also there are situations that while not impossible today, just wouldn't be that common. Like the little boy wandering around on the beach by himself or the casual hitchhiking.
The Fog isn't predictable as far as who the ghosts go after. Well, they're going after everyone, but I mean who they manage to get. Several of the victims were people I liked, while a few annoying characters got through the movie just fine. So it was seemingly random enough in that way.
The Fog isn't going to keep you up at night or give you nightmares, but it's a good, spooky film. John Carpenter says on the commentary that it isn't all that scary by today's standards, but he got lots of letters back in the day telling him not to make scary movies like this. He also mentions that he was asked to make the movie more scary after a preview screening, so pretty much all the jump scares or ghost attacks were added in last minute. I think that might lend to why some of them don't make sense, but that's OK. The Fog is bizarrely enough Rated R. I have no idea why! There's no drugs, sex, swearing, or anything R-worthy. What violence is there is mostly done in silhouette form in the fog. So I can only guess it was Rated R for being scary? (Scary for its day, in someone's opinion)
I just checked and The Exorcist came out in 1973. That was a million times more scary than this! So, it's not like people didn't know what scary was in the 70s. I don't know... The R Rating is as mysterious as this fog.
Anyway, I do recommend The Fog. It has that classic ghost story feel, and some pretty cool special effects for back in the day. I appreciate those special effects, because I know everything took a lot more work and creative thinking before computers. I watched on the DVD's special features how people were walking around on the set with fog machines, shooting this stuff around. And they had lots of backlit dry ice going, drifting around black plastic. The plastic looked like a landscape. It works!
There are some big names in this movie. Jamie Lee Curtis, her mother Janet Leigh, Adrienne Barbeau, and Hal Halbrook. Jamie Lee Curtis is the casual hitchhiker who has the bad luck of hitchhiking through this town. Although, she does get a boyfriend instantly. So I guess her luck isn't 100% bad.
Janet Leigh is some sort of public official in town. Funny enough in the commentary, they couldn't seem to remember if she was the town mayor or a real estate agent! But she's important enough to be giving a speech for the town's 100th anniversary.
Adrienne Barbeau has the cool looking job of being a radio disc jockey for the night owls. Her show broadcasts from a lighthouse that's in a very remote location. She says groovy things like "Ahoy mateys" in her sultry radio voice.
As I say, it looks like a cool job in a cool location, except that it happens to be right where the fog is rolling in. This is the light house, which as Adrienne says in the commentary had 365 stairs leading down to it or something like that. She couldn't remember, but there were a lot. Realistically, if you were out there alone at night, it probably would be scary.
Hal Halbrook plays Father Malone. He did well in his role. I was hanging on everything he said. If I had to give an award for best acting in The Fog, it would go to him.
It turns out there were several trailers and teaser trailers for The Fog. Some of them are not that great, so that might be why I thought it looked lame in 2011. But this one I really like:
Do any of you remember seeing The Fog? I also saw that there was a remake in 2005. I'm not sure if I want to see it since Horror remakes are usually not my thing. I can't think of one good one offhand! I don't mean sequels, but those movies where 30 years later someone redoes it. I just watched a trailer for the 2005 movie, and nope, I'm still not feelin' it.
I'm open to any other classic old ghost movie suggestions you have!
November can be an unpredictable month weather-wise here on the Rock. Usually, if it snows substantially it's an indication that the winter will be long and full of snow.
But there's another kind of November weather that sometimes happens - fog. And lots of it. That's how this month has started. It means milder temperatures, not to mention photo opps, so I am very much hoping it continues.
And I wasn't the only one out there trying to capture the ephemeral qualities of fog with a camera.
At least I think that's what that guy was doing....
A few days ago we had monster rain storm here as a result of the weather systems influenced by Hurricane Matthew. Roads washed out, flooded basements, houses off their foundations, cars disappearing into ditches, states of emergency declared in several towns! The cleanup and repair bills are gonna be massive in a province that is already financially strapped. Eek!
But storms do happen here in September or October. And every few years (5 year El Nino cycle?) it seems to be a bad one. The first autumn we moved back here last time (in 2010) we got hit with Hurricane Igor. At the time we were renting a place right near the Waterford River. This torrent of water was usually a slow babbling brook only inches deep. The water level rose about 6 feet in a few hours and was causing me some concern!
But this time the city was lucky that most of the 160 millimetres of rain were in the central part of the province; where others weren't so lucky.
