Halloween And Other Stuff

I don't decorate much for holidays.  Once again, I bought a pumpkin and didn't carve it.  But no kids knocked on the door again, either.  It's been like 15 years.  I saw a couple outside, but they didn't stop here.  I was even wearing my wizard costume.  And I had good treats...  Oh well...

I'll set the pumpkin and 4 orange Mums out on the front doorstep to note the season, though. 

The Mums were cheap from Walmart.  The blooms all died, but I cut the seedheads off and they are re-blooming.  They will look good in 2 weeks, but I will have to bring them inside to escape the freeze predicted tomorrow.

I'm thinking of trying to cover and warm the tomato plants.  There are finally a lot of fruits getting ready to ripen.  Next week, the night temps are going to be warmer, so if I can protect them them for this one frost, they might mature.

Covering the whole bed of them is awkward, but I have a roll of 16' wide black plastic I could place over all the plants like a loose tent.  And a single standard light bulb under the plastic would keep them warm enough.  Anything for a few more ripe heirloom tomatoes!

Spread grass seed over the lawn 2 weeks ago.  They need water to germinate.  The forecasts kept saying it would rain, but it never did.  I watered the lawn with a sprinkler and the missed spots by hand yesterday.  Hopefully, some will germinate.

My compost bin is finally heating up.  Not as it should, but at least it is finally hotter than ambient air temp.  It was very imbalanced and dry.  So I soaked it, mulched and bagged lawn leaves and layered them.  Should start heating up seriously soon.

I need more earthworms in the compost bin.  I recall my Dad used to put plastic sheet in a clear ground area that encouraged earthworms to the surface.  He was doing that for fishing bait.  I'm doing that to encourage composting.

 

Halloween Decorations.

Not mine; the cross-street neighbors...  They really decorate for holidays.

 The picture isn't great.  My camera doesn't do well with little bright lights at night from a distance.  But you can get the general idea.  There are strings of small orange lights all around.  There are 2 large inflatable pumpkins upper left.  The bluish thing on the right is the head of a witch (otherwise draped in black).  The upper middle thing is a ghost.  The white light is just their sidewalk lamp.

I'm just going to put a regular pumpkin (carved with a cat face) on the front steps along with 4 small orange Mums I found cheap at Walmart.  I'm just doing that for neighborhood friendliness.  Kids don't do "trick or treating" anymore (around here at least).

I haven't had a knock at my door for almost 15 years.  Actually, I almost never see kids playing outside at all.  I know they exist here because when I am working in the front yard, I see the parents getting them into cars to take them hither and yon...  But they don't play outside.  I suppose outside (or "trick or treating") is just consider to dangerous these days.

I bet if you asked a kid about kickball or tag, they wouldn't even know what you were referring to.  But that's really a subject for a future post.

But anyway, I always have a box of Lindt truffles around for an occasional treat, so if some kid did knock on the door at Halloween, I can oblige...

Halloween

 I almost carved a pumpkin this year.  I even bought good one (cheap - $3.99).  And I found 2 nice cat designs online.

The 1st looked a bit complicated.  I would have cut off one of the legs or something.  And it might have been interpreted negatively.  I mean, who would approach a door where the pumpkin is "mooning" you?

So I thought maybe the 2nd would be better.  Lots of small cuts rather than a big one, more immediately-identifiable from a distance, and much more friendly-looking.

I only considered it because there are new (but trick-or-treating age) kids next door and across the street.  I haven't had a trick-or-treater knock on my door (or seen any out visiting other houses) for 15 years.  But then it occurred to me that I didn't have any suitable treats (loose unpackaged Sweet-Tarts that I keep in a jar didn't seem appropriate).

So I decided not to bother.  I usually just keep the house dark on Halloween these days anyway.  So I decided not to bother carving a pumpkin.

Then, just before dark, I realized I had some candy safe to hand out.  I have Lindor truffles in mil-chocolate hazelnut, white chocolate, and extra dark chocolate.  

And I do  have a couple of costumes I could wear.  One is a wizard outfit I made 2 decades ago.  Black cloth, sleeves draping at the wrist, iron-on shapes of moon/sun/stars/comets, etc.  But it is kind of awkward to wear.  I also have a kind of cowboy outfit.  Boots, vest, gambler-style hat.  But I also used to collect T-shirts.  Weird ones!  I used to wear them to the office on Casual Friday.  One is covered with tarantulas.  I decided that was easiest to wear and appropriate to the holiday.

So there I was.  House lights on, uncarved pumpkin at the front door, Lindor milk chocolate/hazelnut for kids and extra dark chocolate for the adults, dressed in tarantulas.

Not one trick-or-treater showed up!  Again...  

Do any of you still get trick-or-treaters?  Or is the holiday dead now (for door-to-door visits)?

[Edited to add:  "Mark's Mew's is temporarily offline.  Google has locked it for "violating community standards".  I have no idea why (what can be offensive about a cat blog?) but I have asked for a "review" and hope to hear from them soon.  It is very distressing.]