Halloween

I'm kind of sad, because this is the first year since 1994 that I haven't gone trick-or-treating. DS has his last football game of the season, so I'll be going to that while DD goes TOT with some friends. I'll tell you what the hard thing is when you have a 12-year-old girl who still wants to dress up: finding and agreeing on a costume that doesn't make her look like a hooker. (Cue rant on American society's early sexualization of our youth.) We added the white t-shirt underneath this Queen of Hearts costume. (And no high heels. High heels+knee socks=slutty schoolgirl look.)



I think it's Halloween empty nest syndrome that compels me to dress Baxter up. I miss when my kids were little so I treat him like a little baby. Or I just like to torture him. Either way it's a sickness.

Happy Halloween

More candy corn

From my day playing with candy corn. I actually took these quite a while ago but was saving them for Halloween week, although I'm not sure how I feel about them.
Plain:

Not plain:


To answer a couple of questions from yesterday: The ghost is about 8 inches tall. I got it at a local crafty gift shop, but it says "Made in China" on the bottom :-D. And do I have a lot of Halloween decorations? A few. This is the top of my entertainment center. I've added a couple since then.

Halloween ghost

My most recent Halloween decoration purchase:

Candy Corn

Some candy corn macros:





Shot with 100mm macro lens at various apertures and SS.

Halloween graveyard

I have so many weeds in my yard it was easy to turn it into a Halloween-y scene.

Graveyard fence

Grave markers

The Source

This is the original spring house of Poland Spring bottled water, also known as "The Source." As I was writing this post, I was thinking that "The Source" sounds like the name of a cult. So I decided to Google "the source" "cult" and lo and behold, there was a cult called The Source Family back in the 70s, led by some dude named Father Yod. So if I ever decide to start a cult, I guess that name is already taken. I also learned that "the base" or "the source" is the English translation of Al Qaeda, so I REALLY wouldn't want to use that name. Of course, I grew up Catholic, so some people believe I'm already part of a cult.
I love Google.

Graveyard and politics

A graveyard shot:

It's a historic time around here. This is the very first political sign DH and I have ever had in our yard:
We know absolutely nothing about this person (not our district, actually). DH just stuck it in our yard because Cameron is our son's name. :-D

A graveyard shot and white pumpkins

If I could only have one word to sum me up on my gravestone, I could live with this one (pun intended ha ha):

Another one of my favorites from last fall. I love white pumpkins, but I haven't found any good ones this year.

Pumpkin Still Life

Autumn leaf

Pumpkins and Gourds

Taken at the local farm stand where I buy my pumpkins and gourds (where my cheater photo from yesterday was taken, but these are new ones).The pickings weren't as good this year. The farmer said it was a poor year for pumpkins.





I can't resist posting another one of my favorites from last fall:

Pumpkins and Pink Flowers

This is a cheat. It's actually from last fall. Since I'm behind on editing my new photos, I thought I'd post it just because I like it.

As long as I'm posting old photos, here's a couple from this summer that I never posted.

Colorful chairs

I want to thank you all for the kind comments about my recent fall photos. :-) I'm glad you enjoyed getting to see a little of the beauty of fall in Maine. You can see why I have a 'rule' that I don't leave the state in October. And if you're one of the people who felt jealous, just remember that you won't be jealous in late April when I'm still dealing with snow. There's always a trade-off, right?

Another "Hey, pull over here!" photo op:
They were in the yard of one of those manufactured home businesses.
This one is actually from last fall, but it's one of my favorite "pathway" photos (theme photo!). It was taken in a cemetery--maybe I'll post it again next week when the theme is graveyards. :-D

Covered Bridge

Who doesn't love a covered bridge?
So I was standing in front of the bridge on this side (in that pine needly area), camera up and ready, when a car pulled in right in front of me and blocked my shot. WTH? Not to disparage any out-of-state tourists, but we were completely NOT surprised to see their license plate--they were what we call around here "Massholes." I kid, I kid. I'm a native Masshole myself. Apparently they were in a rush (or they heard the passive-aggressive remarks I made to DH) because they got out, snapped a photo, then jumped back in the car and sped away. Then all was quiet and peaceful and photographable again for the rest of us.

Here's a pathway (theme photo!) looking from one end of the bridge to the other.
The river the bridge crosses:
And another pathway (theme photo!)

More leaf peeping

A bunch more from my leaf-peeping drive.
The ski slope you can see on the left in this first photo is Sunday River in Bethel, ME.

That old gas pump from yesterday? There were actually two of them:
And I tried a cool new texture I downloaded on the photo from yesterday. It's called "Ominous Clouds" by ghostbones (free on Flickr).
I feel like my landscape photos never capture the real beauty I see with my eyes. Landscapes are always so much better in real life. I love living in Maine this time of year.