Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween!

Better Half and I spent the evening watching television and handing out candy. When did we turn into our parents?

I keep some traditions from my childhood. Pumpkins should be gored and then mutilated into bread while their seeds toast in a hot oven. The bread came out of a box this year (boo hiss, flavorless) but I had fun with the carving.

We had a good turn-out of costumed candy fiends despite the rain and cold.

Some of the dogs were banished to the kitchen where they were less apt to annoy us with barking; Don't pity them. Both are evil. I don't know how to break them of their barking habit. It is obnoxious and they do it for no reason.

Better Half and Nutmeg manned the door. She was very well-behaved and stood by patiently while Better Half dropped candy into plastic bags and pillow cases. (A trick-or-treater asked Better Half what his costume was. He responded, "a stay at home dad". Fitting, considering he was wearing manky pajama bottoms and an ugly shirt. It would have been better if he said "crazy old veteran" but the kiddies wouldn't understand the joke.)


We ran out of candy and closed up shop at 8 PM. Better Half has promised to mail Mum's package tomorrow (and then cook smelts for me!)

It's 3:30 AM and I'm having a deja vu moment like none other, replete with the War of the Worlds radio broadcast that I listen to every year. I have no idea why the human brain experiences these but I will swear that I lived this moment before, perhaps in the fading tendrils of a departing dream. Meh. It lasted less than a minute but was vivid. Nifty.

Where was I?

Sammy crashed out most of the evening. (I was going in a different direction but the moment unnerved me. Am I asleep? Do I have brain cancer? What causes this ethereal weirdness and is it actually important that it be acknowledged? What if I don't mentally chant "deja vu, deja vu, deja vu" the next time it happens? Will the horrid things that are supposed to follow actually follow? Is the premonition nothing more than an anomaly of memory?)

Truth be told, there are some days where brain farts make better sense than the real world. There are also days where I wish I could pile all the couch pillows over my head and glare at passersby.

(Nobody does the glare as well as Zombie Zephyr.)

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Events

This is a running list of local activities.

Shakerwoods Festival 
August 11-12, 18-19, 25-26 2012. 
"Here we will carry on the tradition of hosting more than 200 of the best juried craftspeople in the country. Each craftsperson will be dressed in Shaker period clothing while demonstrating and selling their remarkable handmade wares.

While on the grounds, bring your walking shoes for a journey down the rustic paths throughout the beautifully manicured woods, while enjoying the aroma of great country cooking over open fires and the sound of free entertainment located at three different stages throughout the woods. If rest and relaxation are your desire during the day, enjoy one of our extraordinary man-made gardens that only Shaker Woods can deliver. It’s simply relaxing."  $7.00 per day per adult, 12 and under are FREE, parking is FREE.

Antiques in the Woods
Sept 8 & 9 2012

An Exquisite Fall Event Located on the Shaker Woods Grounds. $6.00 per adult per day, 12 and under free.

Old-Fashioned Christmas in the Woods
2012 Dates unknown
"Old-fashioned Christmas in the Woods at beautiful Shaker Woods in Columbiana, Ohio is back for its 17th season, and it's bigger than ever! Here's your opportunity to shop for hand-crafted holiday gift items from some of the country's best craftspeople in a setting that only Shaker Woods can deliver.

The woods will be transformed into a holiday wonderland with each booth beautifully decorated in an old-fashioned holiday theme. Each craftsperson will be demonstrating their unique skills and fashioning those precious gifts right before your eyes.

Craftspeople include woodworkers, floral designers, blacksmiths, potters, tole painters, basket weavers and many others.

There will be plenty of delicious foods including some holiday favorites cooked in the old-fashioned way. Live entertainment will help make it an event for the entire family! Come and have an old-fashioned good time!

Hours for the festival are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. General admissions tickets will be on sale at the gate. Admission for adults is $7.00 per day, and children 12 years old and younger are admitted free. Acres of FREE parking, too! (No pets, please.)

For more information on attending the show or becoming a participant in future events, you may send us an email, or call (724) 774-6341 or fax (724) 774-6351. If you wish to receive this information through the mail or in a fax, please tell us your mailing address or fax number."

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Snapshots

A new snapshots taken on the way home from Wheeling:

I finally remembered to pull over and photograph this sign.

Barges transport coal along the Ohio River. This one is headed south, towards Wheeling.

Mallards at the marina. I wonder what the female said to capture their attention.

Bridge. It's a theme out here.

Various fire departments were at the marina. We weren't sure if they were flushing out the tanks or conducting a burning river exercise. 

Forlorn and forsaken, a crumbling boat ramp's rusted sentinel.

Another view of the bridge.

There is always something to see even if only we take the time to look for it. 

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The Spider's Meal

I love my yards most in the early hours of the morning and at twilight. Wildlife is most active during these times, a beautifully orchestrated symphony of insects, birds and plant life.

This morning, I had hope to digitally capture the humming birds that had (finally!) returned to feed off of the memosa blooms. I wasn't very successful and occupied myself by photographing a few stills of my budding tomatoes and pepper flowers. A sudden, violent movement caught my eye.

A spider had snared a small beetle in her web. It had alighted as I was zooming in on a particularly graceful grouping of young tomatoes and the spider, lurking somewhere under the porch railing, burst onto her web with dazzling speed, snaring the befuddled insect and poisoning him.

It was a fabulous display but I wasn't able to recalibrate my camera to catch the entire dance. I had to settle with a few shots of her struggling with the dying insect before her feast.

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February Musing

The stark grey sky outside my living room window is silhouetted by moisture-blacked branches; both blizzards have bypassed us, leaving only ice and freezing rain in their wake. It is a dreary scene that will be remedied with the arrival of spring.

I love every season, but winter brings with it a penetrating reality unfettered by warmth and leaves. The world is crunchy, a perilous environment with a seemingly brittle coating. It ranks all men as equals despite their social or economic status. A naked Obama running swimming in the snow is just as prone to die from exposure as a naked factory worker. The difference, of course, is the ease in spotting Obama: he’s the one surrounded by five or six naked Secret Service agents.

Today is Ice. The weather moved in yesterday morning, set out before noon, and then the temperatures dropped. All that charming, pliable slush became reflective rivers. The encased streets were rather treacherous. This is the sort of weather that one enjoys from home, in a clean house, with the kettle on and a warm blanket draped across the lap.

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Christmas

Snow whirls lithely beyond the window panes. The robust odor of Stracotto di Manzo permeates the house. An empty bottle of Reggiano Lambrusco litters my coffee table; I swirl sweet, still-effervescent remnants in my glass.


But enough of that.

Our Christmas was serene. We attended St. Stephen’s last night followed by dinner at a lovely restaurant across the river. We awoke to falling snow - an actual white Christmas, oh my!

The rest of the day was merrily spent cooking. My parents are in Colorado so we thought that we would “share” the meal by sharing the same main dish recipe. The roast beef turned out perfectly.

Our evening finished with a nap for Better Half and a movie starring Dwayne Johnson for me. I’m on the downslope of a carb high. Life is good.

Truffle and Piper

White Christmas

 Stracotto di Manzo

Nutmeg would rather not wear the ribbon

French doors into living room

A view from the kitchen



I'm really too tired to organize any pictures. Does it show?

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Summer's End

The season is almost spent and I haven't done much of my usual blogging. I thought I'd add some photographs taken over the summer rather than trying to trace back through memories.


 
Hide and Seek Sweetness




 A mushroom in the tomato pot.



















Zephyr and Daddy















A butterfly visits the last blooms on the memosa

Elusive Hummingbird

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Lesser Angle-winged Katydid

One more for the back porch collection:
Lesser Angle-winged Katydid - Microcentrum retinerve

She paid us a visit the other night.






















This clip is from Youtube. It captures the courtship song (it sounds like “katy did, katy didn’t” at a distance, hence their name) as well as the method used to create the sound. (Turn off the blog music by clicking on the Playlist at the top of this page.)

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Snow Weasels

A glimpse of the snow weasels:

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Back East Ohio Snow | Day One

It is the kind of winter where clear and snowless days are a rarity to be marveled at. The most recent round of snow rolled in hours ago and every last thing outside my windows has been obscured by heavy silver and blue drapery carelessly tossed to the ground by an irresponsible giantess cloth monger.

The conquering flakes have invaded as swiftly and silently as a mythical army; even the tree branches bows towards the earth in humble protest of their combined weight. It is a siege and we are the hapless townsfolk.

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Captured images of my Weather Channel desktop.

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Nutmeg is far too big to be bothered by the light stuff. She runs into trouble around 10:30 PM, when the snow becomes think and difficult to transverse.

These views are important. The first is a glimpse out of the bathroom window. It is the beginning of the siege.

The freshly shoveled driveway

The same view, two hours later.

The snow is almost too deep for the small dogs. They bound around in it, looking like fuzzy snow weasels. Truffle, the Pomeranian, collect snow balls on her underside. She does not like them removed - she saves them for later, and snacks on them as they melt. Piper, the Chihuahua mix, loves the cold.

The bird feeder, groaning under the weight.

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Snapshots From Above

I have survived the mission (of course!) and am penciled in for one or two more tomorrow. While I can not share photographs from the mission, I can share a few personal snapshots that I took between grids. Enjoy.

This is a fuzzy snapshot captured shortly after takeoff. It does have glare from the back window, but I wasn't about to open the little bird's hatch for personal purposes.

Here are the locks as we head north. This is the Ohio River. Ohio sits on the left, West Virgina sits on the right.

This is also the Ohio River, with Ohio on the left. These bridges lead into my hometown of Steubenville. The top bridge is closed to vehicle traffic. The bottom bridge is the Market Street Bridge. For those who know the area, this bridge is a harrowing experience to drive - it is "slicky" if you travel too fast. The bank on the right hand side of this picture belongs to Weirton, WV.

Holiday people and a weirdly (and artificially or chemically coloured) lake.

This is Piper, held by our Fearless Leader, next to her namesake airplane.

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