Mountain-Sprite's Blog

George Winston and Gardening
Oct 18, 2009 | 8:32 PM PST
Tags: Fall , California , San Bernardino Mountains

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. 
- John Muir

 

We don't get any trick-or-treaters on our street, and that's a part of Halloween that I always looked forward to when we lived in the city. So we are throwing the grandkids and some of their friends a Halloween party at our place. The party starts at 12:30. We've got three 2yr olds and two 3 1/2 year olds so I can't make it too spooky. I've been planning for weeks now enjoying the anticipation of the whole thing. I've bought some cute trick-or-treat bags that look like pumpkins and have stuffed them with goodies, coloring books and crayons. So the first thing they'll get to do is "pick" their pumpkins out of our pitiful patch and then I think we'll eat lunch. I'm sure they'll be hungry. Lunch will consist of "spooky" sandwiches cut out in the shapes of pumpkins, cats and haunted houses, monster smiles (made out of green apples and peanut butter), green goo punch, stuffed eggs and a cupcake or two as well as usual garbage you have at a Halloween party. After lunch they can carve their pumpkins. Then we are going to have a trick-or-treat hunt in the back yard. I've bought several bags of those little plastic pumpkins and I'm going to stuff them with candy and hide them in the yard for the kids to find. Then I've also got two crafts for them to do. One is a bat puppet that you make out of a lunch bag and the other is a little bat you make with a cardboard toilet paper roll. Finally we will have story time. I've got several great Halloween books, but my favorite is The Monster's Test by Bryan J. Heinz. The pictures are phenomenal and the artist's name is Sal Murdocca.  I also have Little Witches Big Night which is okay but not as nice as Heinzs' book. I guess I'll have to make a trip to the local library or thrift store to find a few more treasures. I figure after I fill them up with sugar I'll send them home...LOL :o)

I've been puttering around in the yard today getting ready for fall. You know raking all the leaves into the flower beds. Ironic isn't it? We spend most of the year trying to keep them out of the flowerbeds, but now we're pushing them back in. Well, when I took a break and took the dog for a walk here is a pic I clicked with my cell phone. It looks like there's a little autumn color on my street after all. The leaves are finally starting to change in ALL of the trees, and that means that the days are getting shorter. My days just seem to fly by now. It seems there's almost as much night as there is day. It's still cool up here in the evenings but we are back to long sleeves instead of jackets. It's been in the low 40's high 30's. My pumpkins are dying a slow death I'm afraid. I don't think they'll make it until the 26th, but I'm out there watering and feeding just the same. I guess I'm just a sucker for  lost causes. I've gotten out the Halloween decorations and will probably go all out and really decorate the inside of the house and the back yard in a few days. I'll be sure to post pictures.  Oh, I almost forgot I put a lot of pictures of the local mountains changing color in my Autumn 2009 photo album. Take a peek. Now I realize we don't get the flaming beauties you guys in the midwest or east do but it's downright gorgeous for Southern California.