Halloween and Spookey Spectacular!

The trouble with most holiday celebrations is that when they are over they are SO over. That has to be the case for Halloween. With decorations quite often going up the day of the eve and so you have this flurry of excitement and it literally is blur of activity and then puff (as in a puff of smoke) they are gone and you almost wonder if you imagined all that fantastical stuff!

We are lucky to live in a neighborhood that is great for Halloween, the older houses lending themselves to spookiness and the people living here get into the spirit with decorating their porches. 

We had a project initated by Isaac and thought that this year we would be 'interesting' rather than down right scary...well you will see how that turned out to be!

But for the first time ever Isaac wanted to make a costume! So he set to work on making a mask. This is something that he found on the internet and then we all copied him and got cracking with mask making. These are templates printed on to A4 paper and then traced onto thick paper/card, stuck together and then painted! It took a long time. I thought they were sort of woodland cute....

Mean while I have been out getting more fall shots and changing leaves. So we will start with that.

this is a kind of a cool shot. The barn door and top window reflecting the sky..and the vines just starting to turn. I was told that this is a grape vine and it is concord grapes....

The thing with color is that it plays tricks and I love this time of the year as the contrast to the color of the leaves and the branches and trunk...they look black and are framed by the color changing 

leaves..

Trees are making all kinds of seeds

The osage orange is just one of many but this signals that Halloween is coming....

I had never seen this before and thought that it was quite specular....maybe someone will tell me what it is...the reminants of a fruit?

I know I have included this photo shot before. But I love the yellow the white and black! and this year the photo wasn't taken in the rain...but this is a quick snap I took in between cars passing infront of the desired picture.

The colors are really hard to ignore at this time and the there just seems so much to look at. You also are aware that they will be gone in a blink, so I have been snapping away.

This is a stand of trees that I took on a walk the other day with Isaac and they just have all the changes going on.

The park on a dull day but I liked the evergreens contrasting

Now this isn't the best shot in the world but I have included it because of the spectacular bank of trees that have turned and were just glorious. We were whizzing along after an early dental appointment and I spied these on the way there. Didn't take a single photo thinking, 'why would you, you're in a car' but on the way back I couldn't resist it and they were just glowing! so excuse the poor composition and look at those colors. Truly beautiful.

Look at that early morning light above the trees

That shaft of light really was atmospheric and it was from the street light...These two are my favorites. They were taken on a morning before the clocks changed and we had had a terrible storm the night before. The wind had literally been howling and the rain was incredible. It was definately one of those mornings that you wondered if anything or anyone had survived! Well we did and luckily not many trees came down. But they did shed leaves and they were everywhere....

These three photos just show again the range and intensity of the color the leaves go.

The red one is my favorite as I managed to get dappled light in it on the trunk!

The park is definately gathering a 'carpet' of leaves

and the ginkos are getting ready for the big drop. Those trees hold a lot of leaves....look how many have come down already on the right hand picture. That was just a tiny tree that delivered that amount.

We have had some bread making and Damian was requested by Louie to teach him. As you can see it went very well and Louie was definately pleased with the results. Us to, that bread I think was the best made ever and no too salty and just right with butter!

People have done some decorating for the season and this though was minimal...They seemed to be waiting for the big event. 

You have your 'stacked pumpkins', that is the classey fall decor and then closer to Halloween people carve pumpkins. But with the squirrels about you might have that eaten by the night and then there is the polyester nylon thing, to wrap your house in cobwebs....for me I use the 'not cleaning thing' that seems to suffice and give the same effect!!!!with no clean up required.

Isaac started us on the project weeks ago. By telling us he was making a mask. It was a highly involved process....painstakingly frustrating and fiddley. I decided that I didn't need to do that...famous last words.

Louie was quick to follow and made a dragon mask. Which was more complex as it had horns on the back of the head. Once painted it was wonderful.

Isaac had also painted his silver fox, not to be confused with the arctic fox..I made that mistake and was corrected, thank you very much. Just sayin' is there actually a difference.?

And of course I followed in short order and made my mask....hours and hours of sitting no toliet brake or tea!

But on the week of Halloween the school did spirit week ending on Halloween..so Isaac wore his mask to school...

I love this picture

Louie also wore his...once he got his dragon under control!

Waiting for the taxi aka Mum, as two buses might have been too much for masks and they had to last until the night!

We didn't leave dad out! Damian got his own mask, made by Isaac and me and I painted it, this was at approximately 4:00pm and halloween was fast upon us! so still wet at this point....

My porch was ready

What I didn't realise is how scary we would look. So the green light bulb really is spooky and then masks...well that's instant freak out and then you talk and it is disembodied voices! yup that would do it. For the wearer you loose all depth perception and can't hear and can't see well and don't even try steps!!!!!

Then a witch flew round!! for added porchey spookey effect! Really she stole the show

She just was in character and did it brillantly...thank you witchy Lucy. What fun we had!!! My godness is that Mr Fox.. I think it is! adding some atmosphere to the photo

I love this picture. Damian is looking back at the house as he had animated the top windows with eyes and Lucy really does look like a little witch on the top steps

How about this for fabulous too! Isaac doing the best pose ever!!!! and doesn't the smoke make it look really creepy

When I took this one I realised that Damian's ears were back lit and glowing, kind of in a demonic way.........

Wish he had taken his hands out of pockets! But then he a Ram and he can do what he wants too....so funny he also was in character! Or was that strange walk because he couldn't see...

Witch and Ram...proper scary....

So the summary is that woodland theme can be down right terrifying, if you have a green bulb and smoke machine and that we managed to scare the pants of most 6 year olds and younger! That wearing a mask means poeple will take your picture but the good part of that, is that they don't get your double chin in the shot!

Happy Halloween!! and roll on the holidays........