MYSTERY FLOWERS AND A HAPPY HALLOWEEN

It is a lazy, wet Saturday and I didn’t open up my front drapes until about 9:30. There, on my door mat was a beautiful bouquet of flowers. The card said, Too The Best Mom, with a rather unintelligible message. But the address was to a house I haven’t lived in for 18 years. I thought, who calls me Mom but doesn’t know where I live? Hmmm!

And, it is Halloween time and this bouquet is in a beautiful glass pumpkin. But, Halloween is a time for tricks and treats and maybe there is a bit of trickery going on here. I decide to call the company that delivered the flowers. She told me, “Our truck broke down on Pennsylvania Gulch Rd. in the middle of the road. A couple came walking by as the tow truck was hooking onto our truck and the driver, with bouquet in hand, asked the couple if they knew me?  No, they didn’t but they walk by the Hanging Tree Rd. address and they offered to deliver the flowers for him. Hmmm!

I call the folks who live at the Hanging Tree Rd. address and they said no one had delivered flowers to them. Aha! The Plot thickens. The people who claimed they didn’t know me obviously knew where I lived. I’ve called the neighbors and no one will own up to delivering me this beautiful Halloween Pumpkin filled with flowers. I’ll eventually find out who sent them and I’ll enjoy them in the meantime. But, since I love a good mystery, double thanks to whoever you are.

And, since I haven’t blogged in quite some time, I will play catch up.  I had a surprise visit from my friend Maril:

We like the Firewood Restaurant in Murphys. Maril loves their fish tacos.

I’m a button collector, and Maril and I tooled around town and acted like tourists, which I love to do now and then. We came across this button festooned jacket collar, but I have too many clothes. I wouldn’t buy it.  I might try decorating a similar jacket.

Calaveras Community Television has purchased the property under the Paul Moeller Studio. (Paul is our founder and it was so named by the County to honor Paul.)  Pam Quyle and I walked the property and found the boundaries that encompass a gold mine.  We have a heritage tree above it also. Just look at those roots.

It’s kind of fun to have a goldmine on your property. But, this one panned out long ago and has no gold. We’ve arranged to have it “fenced” off with wrought iron stakes, (rebar) every four inches apart so no living creature can ever get caught in it. Yet, it allows water to flow through to the creek below.

And, CCTV will be changing hands with a group, under our name, who will have many hands to do fund-raising and support the studio. The only constant is change.

I saw this kid, zooming through a clothing department and stopped to see what he was wearing?

He calls them “Wheelies”. It reminds me of that movie, Back To The Future, as in what will they think of next? Truth to tell, I love it. innovation, surprises, life is good! Happy Halloween.

 

HALLOWEEN SCARES

This is an optical illusion that I got from a website entitled Halloween Optical Illusions. I enjoyed Halloween soooo much as a kid. We liked it when someone would decorate and entice us in and scare us half to death. We couldn’t wait to go back to the same house the following year.

Today, kids are overprotected and  attend chaperoned parties, or closely guarded trick or treating, which is safe, but where is the thrill?  Are the dangers of trick or treating overblown? I don’t have an answer for that. I do know that my son, several years ago, sat on his dimly lit porch with his pumpkin full of candy and he would give a scary laugh as the kids came up to his porch. Some kids got wide-eyed and scared and would hang back. They would watch half fearfully while they grabbed a piece of candy from the pumpkin and ran with their booty.  One mother lambasted him for scaring her daughter and shouted at him, “This isn’t about being scary, my daughter is a Princess.”  Now he turns off his lights at Halloween and no longer attempts to give out candy. He figures the next parent might sue him for scaring a kid.

Another optical illusion. But, if you really want scary, all you have to do is read the newspapers, for me, on-line.

I found a stomach turning video of what goes into cooking oil in China. Shudder. 

You probably don’t want to watch it, but here is the link:

http://www.alternet.org/food/stomach-turning-video-youll-be-grossed-out-what-goes-cheap-black-market-cooking-oil-china

Then there is the Arkansas cop who tasered a woman because she refused to show him her breasts? Well, I had a hard time to believe this one. But, it is scary because it is true.

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/lawsuit-ark-cop-chased-and-tased-woman-after-she-refused-show-him-her-breasts

You kind of have to cross your eyes to see the full skull in this one. Hint-the apron drawn tightly at the waist is the skull’s teeth.

No one is going to be scared by the optical illusions, but they are creative. The news, on the other hand, is definitely scary. But, away with that. How about fifty states, fifty sandwiches?

http://www.zagat.com/b/50-states-50-sandwiches?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=desktoptopperformers#4

Arkansans like a fried baloney sandwich. Maybe that cop ate a few too many.

Hey, Happy Halloween.  BOOO!

 

WONDEROUS CALIFORNIA AUTUMN

I’d forgotten about Halloween until I saw the date on my computer. On our rural road, a trick-or-treater is a rarity. In 33 years, I’ve had six kids, three one year, and three another year, begging for treats. School parties are popular and safer anyway. But, those people living in a house-to-house neighborhood enjoy the fun. This weight guessing contest was set up at our local grocery store. I noticed yesterday it had been moved. I’ll have to go into town and see if I won the guess.

Happy Halloween to you and yours.  In its celebrated form in the USA, it has transformed to a  purely North American fun night without it’s original pagan dark side. My youngest daughter was an exchange student to France during her high school years and enjoyed teaching her French family how to carve a  jack-o-lantern.  With youngsters still at home, the carving, decorating, costuming and begging treats has become, for all of my grandkids, their second favorite holiday.

Yesterday, I spent time in the yard, enjoying the soon to be gone sunny days.

This fuji was past prime  by the time I got off the road. Some cling, looking soft and rotten.

This heritage  Northern Spy, is crisp and good. Keeping in tune with the autumn days, sunny and warm with cold nights.

Foraging in my neighbors garden, some fresh basil, tomatoes, one zucchini, and an eggplant. Enjoying what we can as long as it lasts.

I harvested my walnuts for the first time in seven years. A balance of nature took all the squirrels away. I expect red tail hawks got everyone. In the past, a woman asked me what was growing on my trees. She had never seen walnuts grow. They have a husk, which dries out and the nuts free fall to the ground.

Some primal feeling of comfort envelopes me when I harvest these portions of my own food.

HALLOWEEN WITH FANFARE

Having young children can inspire a person to celebrate Halloween with great fanfare. Thus, my daughter carving the cannibal pumpkin—

—dressing up as a ghoulish, green witch, filling the cauldron with candy,  and in general, enjoying the fun as much as the kids. The whole courtyard was decked out with a graveyard scene complete with fogger and sound affects.

Even Mother-in-law, Olga, got into the spirit of things wearing a witch hat while preparing dinner for all of us. Who can resist the “witchy mother-in-law” cliche, except anyone would be delighted to have Olga as a mother-in-law.

The kids picked their costumes with extra care and examined and adored them for days before.

They practiced their super hero moves with flare.

Encouraging trick-or-treaters to come to YOUR house was fun. Trick-or-treating was gobs of fun.  But, the best part, the very best part, is counting your booty and hoarding it for the days to come.

Yum, Yum.

As adults we remembered the things we didn’t like in our sack. Anything good for you, like apples, walnuts and bananas. The worst was a penny. And a tooth brush from the dentist. Oh, no!
From the look of things, it was a very exciting Halloween. And for me, a new recipe, I’ll share tomorrow.