This is an amazing creation by artists Matthew Kirscht, Greg Rozeboom with music by Jack Hylton and His Orchestra and written by Montague Ewing. Click any pic to link to YouTube site and enjoy!
I have always been fond of Friday the 13th, and as today is the only remaining one of 2021, I thought perhaps it would be prudent to make the most of it and make a witch-wish of the Season ahead. It is now 78 days until Halloween, I see decor and display going up – though the Summer sun still beats a loud thrum. As though the very act of adornment would truncate the heated weather and summon the cooling wisps of autumn through the trees. Well, I suppose it’s a “gather ye pumpkins while ye may” idea. I don’t mind – it’s lovely to see and experience, as it is lovely to anticipate and propagate. I wish you all well in your lead-up to Fall, and if you pass by a fountain or well, make a wish of your own…
Odd that throughout this time of the year anything pumpkin spice can seem like the end of a bad joke, worthy of a suffering sigh. Its appearance in items it should never be uttered in the same breath with, a la pumpkin spice hummus or sausage or salmon create the stuff of ghoulish nightmares. While the pumpkin parade of flavor combinations continues to surprise and revolt – I would like to take the time to point out my favorite go-to for pumpkin enhanced treats that offer no tricks, Trader Joe’s.
Once again, this strange little market offers a delectable dainty for an autumnal munchable in their Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookie Mix. Simple one bowl mixing method gets you a lovely chewy cookie with amazing pumpkin flavor surrounding good-sized dark chocolate chunks that pair well with libation of choice; tea, coffee or milk. I also tried two variations – a quarter cup chopped walnuts which enhanced the cookie to amazing levels of yum, the addition of crunch-complemented chewiness was sublime.
My second variation was to add walnuts and flame raisins and this gave the cookie the trifecta of sweet, bitter and tang and while more interesting was almost too much of a good thing 😉 In any case, whatever variation you choose, do try these at home and tell me what you think. October is a month-long excuse for indulging in sweets and these will see you through.
Ok, put down the pumpkin spice latte, back away from the pumpkin spice bagel with pumpkin spice shmear and stop reading about the rise of pumpkin spice futures from your mobile device of choice. Stop everything, head to your local grocery and purchase these AMAZING Limited Edition Frosted Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts. I can barely stop sampling to type this review, major YUM, major TASTINESS, right out of the box or warm from the toaster. Those mini Halloween candies are for suckers. Stop reading this, GO and Enjoy!!
“Equal day to equal night heralds Autumn’s waning light
and winks of fireflies go bright to guide our paths into the night
But should you find yourself alone, amongst the glooms of darkened home.
Be crafty, clever, sure and quick, and light yourself a ready wick.” -A.E.
I am watching my clock countdown the minutes until this 31st dwindles down to moments and memories. There were a few memorable quirks to the day and the evening, I hope you can all say the same. As the tomb shuts on this Hallow’s Eve, I draw a final breath of cinnamon stick candle wafting up from the scorched insides of gutted gourds, I gather the crinkled remains of candy skins in their bright coverings shriveled and torn, destined for the recycle bin, and take a long last look up and down the street as porch lights dim, jackos darken and light shows blink and die. I sigh, shrug my shoulders, turn and close the door behind me. The house goes dark and here I am at the keyboard…already thinking about Halloween 2018 – I wonder what that escapade will reveal? So much to plan and plot and ply, as the season passes by…so quickly, much too quickly this year. Thanks to all of you who stopped to look around this blog, more thanks to Countdown to Halloween for highlighting another great batch of blogs this year, always so much fun to see what others are up to. I will poke through the leftover candy and ponder…mmmmm….Junior Mints! Rest In Peace Halloween 2017. I will remember you fondly.
Thursday nights. My sister and I take a weekly nighttime walk round our neighborhoods during the Fall, we do this specially to see the decorations in yards and on porches. These “spooky walks” serve to heighten our anticipation for Halloween, but they also create a wonderful shiver up the spine tingle that propels us one week to the next during September and October, even when décor and haunts are slow to emerge. Our own imaginations are enough at these times, the usual sights and sounds of a suburban street transformed into intriguing murmurs of “malevolent mirth”. Long shadows thrown from streetlamps and porch lights, the far-off sounds of garbled conversations or t.v.’s drifting from second story windows, creaking gates from indiscernible sources and erratic gusts blown through trimmed trees and banks of fallen leaves, pushed into swirls like slithering snakes across our path. We encounter random “haunting” objects; a pumpkin on a porch awaiting its fiery grin, a lone shrouded figure hanging off a scraggy tree, or the odd string of orange lights wound haphazardly on rooftops or fence lines. Dogs bark and growl at imagined slights, cats slink along drives, undaunted and furtive. We step quickly by the garages with opened doors and darkened interiors, and laugh nervously at a car door slamming shut in the distance. We remark on the absence of folks out walking, the too quiet traffic on the roads and the general pervading stillness. As though the whole neighborhood was blanketed in the anticipation we feel, and the sense of tethered thrill wasn’t just a flight of fancy but actual and waiting to be realized. Eventually we turn homewards and we whisper inspired plots and plans back and forth, heads twisting to continually observe our surroundings. Our pace increasing along with the knowledge of time running down, elapsing steadily towards that night of madcap and mayhem, these walks the long breath drawn in, till the eventual exhale into Eve.
I was just leaving my place the other day to do some shopping and driving up the highway noticed two jack-o-lanterns decorating some porch steps. They caught my eye for a number of reasons, that I am on the lookout generally this time of year for folks to begin setting out pumpkins on porches as they bring them home from lot, farms, markets, etc. and because these particular ones had already shrunken inwards. I determined that they were in service from the night previous (otherwise I am certain to have noticed them before) and thought it an odd thing considering its quite early to be putting these winter squash under the knife. It left me wondering just why they’d been sacrificed so soon. Early celebration of Autumnal glee? Birthday party? General exuberance? Dry run? I suppose I will never know – just another Halloweenesque mystery that will remain unsolved. I do however appreciate the effort. It is just a simple thing, really, whether in abundance from your favorite pumpkin ranch stand or picked up as an afterthought as you roam a supermarket, the bright orange beckons and betides. A definite herald of the Season. Whether sitting alone atop a mantelpiece or countertop or in mass upon the porch steps. Minuscule or jumbo, tall, fat, round, smooth, pebbled, even white, gray or cinderella, this annual tribute to the Eve is welcome in its forms and prized in its function. Though diminutive in comparison to grand displays of Haunters everywhere, it remains the definitive measure of Halloween involvement, maybe even more than the porch light. The superlative harbinger of mischief, mayhem and madcap.
This one I will preface by saying you may have noticed in my header the lines from a poem that I change occasionally. I post it here in its complete form, I hope you enjoy it. The work was inspired by this stamp image that I once purchased after customizing with a line from my poem. I am getting these again this year for my Halloween invites, you can purchase by the sheet, these are a great product offered by Zazzle.com go online and pick and choose and edit to your hearts desire. Can’t wait to use these again. Enjoy!
“Stroll with me beneath the Moon,
for surely They’ll be coming soon
to share with us the deepening gloom,
that must be Halloween.
Fellow Revelers walk this Night,
as They awake from yearly plight
deprived til now of sweet delight,
that must be Halloween.
Mischievousness the only goal,
for these few hours on parole.
And none but They could be so droll
that must be Halloween.
Sorry am I that They must wait,
upon the Eve to cross the gait.
Alas that is Their yearly Fate,
that must be Halloween.
All too soon the Night will fade,
and All shall pass into the Shade
to wait upon the next parade,
that must be Halloween.
Perhaps you’ll stroll with me once more,
when Gate stands wide and Spirits tour.
No other sight stir’s my hearts core,
that must be Halloween.”
-AE