33: Dark day
Posted: October 25, 2010 Filed under: 365 Life in the Bogs Challenge, Adventures in art, Adventures in Life, Autumn, Earth, home, nature, Photography, pond, Spirit, Walking, water, weather | Tags: Adobe Photoshop, birds, fall foliage, flowers, Halloween, Holiday, pond, Robin, Trick-or-treating, wildflowers, woods 6 Comments
It’s not really that dark. I went a little extreme in Photoshop. But it seems to fit the season, with Halloween coming up soon.
It is, however, gray and gloomy. I took this view of the pond around noon. There was not a lot of light to speak of. It’s quite a contrast to yesterday’s sunshine.
(Crow in the locust tree.)
Today’s outdoor adventure was pretty uneventful. Or it was eventful in small ways but I can’t think of a thing to write about so I went to Plinky for a prompt. Today’s prompt is: Do you celebrate Halloween? Why or why not?
(Robin in an unidentified tree.)
Well, I don’t, really. We live out in the country so decorating and having candy handy for the Trick or Treating little folks is a waste. Nobody comes by because it can be a long walk between houses. We do have a pumpkin and some mums livening up the deck as a nod to the season, but Mother Nature does such a brilliant job of decorating this time of year that I don’t feel the need to do it myself.
Sometimes I celebrate Halloween as a harvest festival, as another turning in the wheel of the year, and to mark the end of summer. We usually have our first snowflakes by Halloween, a clear indication that winter is not far off. Daylight will continue to dwindle until the Winter Solstice and outdoor temperatures will do the same. Hilgert’s, the local farm where we do our produce shopping when in season, will have an abundance of greens and winter squashes this time of year. Our diet will change to more soups and stews and heartier dishes than we eat during the summer months.
It will be time to put away the summer clothing and get out the cold weather gear. Sweaters, sweatshirts, thermal underwear, coats, scarves, gloves, hats, and boots will replace the t-shirts, tank tops, shorts, sandals, bathing suits, and flip-flops. We usually have the storm windows installed by Halloween, to keep out the winter drafts of cold air. The swim platform and boats are put away for the season, a chore that we did this past weekend and one that always brings a tinge of melancholy with it. I don’t get too sad, though. The trees are still displaying color and once the leaves drop we’ll be able to see and explore what’s behind the tree cover. I like the winter landscape (just as I like the other seasons). We’ll have snow to play in. We can make snowpeople, go cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, and sled down the sledding hill. The pond will freeze and there will be ice skating. There will be warm, crackling fires in the fireplaces. Hot chocolate to drink. And lots of cozy evenings cuddled up with a good book or with my wonderful husband.
Just before the death of flowers,
And before they are buried in snow,
There comes a festival season
When nature is all aglow.~ Author unknown
(The woods aglow.)
How about you? Do you celebrate Halloween? Why or why not? And if you do, how do you celebrate it?
We’ll be doing the drawing for the Give-Away at 7:30pm (eastern time) tonight. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow. See ya then! 🙂
Life in the Bogs 
Sierra will be Katara from the Last Airbender this year and it’s ALL she TALKS about. 🙂 You paint such a beautiful picture of the winter, such a nice, warm picture. I’ve been anxious about it. Summer went so fast! Autumn’s going even faster. I wish it could all screech to a halt for awhile so I can catch up.
My favorite picture here were the soft looking flowers in the rather austere, nearly black and white color-scale. That little hint of yellow, and the shape of the petals was a stark contrast to those lines of dark gray stems against the colder landscape.
Amuirin! It’s so good to see you. 😀
I haven’t seen the Last Airbender and had forgotten about it. I need to put that on my Netflix list as it’s one I want to see.
Summer did go fast. And I agree that autumn is going even faster. It seems like we just put the swim platform in the pond and now the trees are losing their leaves.
Thank you for stopping by! It really is good to see you.
Its been rather gray here today too, although unseasonably warm – near 70 degrees! The first shot is creepy and cool! I also really like the one of the little white ones that look like baby’s breath – the simplicity is really gorgeous.
Some years we go a bit crazy with Halloween. We’ve thrown Halloween parties off and on for years. I’ve got some pretty darn funny shots of the family that I could MAYBE be prodded to share on the blog. The girls are getting older now and trick-or-treating is winding down, so it doesn’t seem quite so much fun as it used to be.
Thank you, Karma. 🙂
It’s been warm here too. Looks like that will be changing in the next day or two with this front moving in. It’ll probably be out your way by tomorrow.
Prod, prod…lol! I’d love to see those Halloween shots. We used to have more fun with Halloween, too, when our sons were growing up and they would dress up.
Your plans for winter sound like such fun, Robin! I’m looking forward to your sharing photos of the winter bogs, throughout the season. I’ll need the snow photos to cool me down, during our long hot summer months…the power of suggestion is amazing!
Halloween isn’t such a big deal here in Aussie-land. My seventeen year old daughter threw a party last year and all of her friends had huge fun, dressing up and wearing black make-up, even the boys! We usually have a few trick-or-treaters dropping by each year.
I love making jack ó lanterns! The candle burning away inside the pumpkin-head is so eerie. (Note to self : buy a huge pumpkin tomorrow!) 🙂
Thank you, Joanne. 🙂
I thought about carving a pumpkin this year but it got lost in the shuffle of all the other things we’ve been doing lately.
I’m sure I’ll have plenty of snow and ice photos for you as winter progresses. 🙂