Graveyard smash

Halloween is clearly a favorite of my neighbors who enhance the sidewalk with art. In years past, they’ve had a spiderweb that stretches from the ground to their roof, with a couple of creepy-crawlies on it.

They upped their game this year with this addition:

(I’ve been using one of the eyeballs as my O365 avatar at work all month.)

Here it is at night:

And here’s a close-up of its maw. I considered using this shot for my avatar, but decided nah. My colleagues got upset when I had a close-up of a cicada.

Anyway, this brings me to today’s earworm. Which is, of course, “The Monster Mash.” Crank up the volume. 

 

Oooer

Okay, we’ve had our vegetables on the previous two days; time for the scary stuff. Here’s a sampler of how the folks in the 'hood are ushering in Halloween.

 

That's the fact, Jack

More on pumpkins today—more specifically, on jack-o’-lanterns. Here’s a crop of carved beauties from around the ‘hood.

The first one I’m calling Janus, because he has faces carved front and back (I couldn’t get round to the back to shoot the second one):

These were pretty artful:

This one went the extra mile:

These were imaginative:

And I noticed that some of the artists put out the scooped-out guts for the critters:

Win-win all around.

 

Pumpkinmania

As you know, we’re creeping stealthily up to Halloween. While I haven’t noticed quite the seasonal front-yard extravaganzas I used to see in the Valley They Call Silicon, residents of the People’s Republic are starting to step up.

Today, let’s talk pumpkins. Pumpkins seem to be the table stakes of Halloween; possibly because they port over to harvest and Thanksgiving pretty well, unless you convert them to Jack O’Lanterns.

Here are some examples:

It would appear that some night critter stopped by for a little supper at this arrangement:

One of these looks like it has Plans for Sunday:

But my primary interest today is this collection, because yesterday morning I met the artist, who’s possibly about four years old. Pretty impressive, no?

I especially liked the stickers on this one:

 

 

Gratitude Monday: new and old

I’m working on a personal project for the next few months. Part of it involves taking better photos than I’ve been doing. I mean—my mobile is fine for those what-did-I-just-see shots, but I want to do better.

So I asked my friends who are professionals to spec me out a camera and lens that will give me the tools and power to achieve that. Not only did they do that—Nikon D780 with a 24-120mm lens (although, in the end, I opted for a 28-300mm lens because of the better (for me) f-stop range)—but TM called round to Ace Camera in Ashburn to reserve them and then spent an hour with me last Thursday, picking up the body and lens and adding on filter, twin memory cards, extra battery; the whole megillah.

Then he assembled everything for me and patiently walked me through the major food groups of its operation. Listen, folks: this camera’s bells have whistles and its whistles have bells; this is going to be a long learning curve. Also, it weighs 3.675 lbs (1.67 kg), so I need to work on my upper body strength.

Since then, I have progressed from being able to turn it on and turn it off to actually going around yesterday afternoon to take a few shots. I have it in your basic point-and-shoot mode, but I’m quiet pleased with the results.

That’s my gratitude for today, the new toy, the new goals, the old friends. Nothing better than that, IMO.

 

 

Pink hotel

My usual morning walk circuit takes me up the W&OD trail, where just before I hang a right, I see what the People’s Republic of Boston Properties is pleased to call Reston Town Center. It’s an appalling sight—an ugly, badly-designed conflation of concrete high-rises pretending to be meaningful. 

That ugliness is not helped by the knowledge that every retailer and restaurant in the place is part of a chain; like the “center”, they’re nothing you can’t find in scores of other places. Really, it's a gigantic middle finger thrusting up out of the quasi-wild greenery that used to be this whole area. And it's so full of itself. There's a pink-ish hotel, the afore-mentioned chain-store boutiques, but no swinging hot spot. The People's Republic does not do swinging hot spots.

So of course today’s earworm is Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”.

Man, Joni called it right way back in 1969.

 

 

Unexpected

A couple of weeks ago I was taking an afternoon walk around the corporate campus behind me. There’s one pond where a heron hangs out—almost always at the far side from the path. So I very nearly missed this guy, because he was about five yards away from me and doing his “you cannot see me because I am a reed” imitation.

I love close encounters.

 

Signs of change

Nature’s starting to hunker down for the winter; I’m seeing the signs on my morning walks.

These fur-covered seeds, which looked to me like a hedgehog:

These leaves, fading from the outside in:

This zinnia tinged at the edges:

This flamed-out maple leaf:

I do love seeing the changes around me.

 

Vegetable matter

Remember last week when I shared pix of the neighbor’s squash vine? Turns out I lied when I said that there was no squash, because looky what I saw yesterday afternoon:

That’s enough squash for an extended family. I was tempted to harvest it, but didn’t, even though I love squash.

You're right: it was broad daylight and I couldn't disguise what I was doing. 

 

 

Gratitude Monday: finally

Last week’s weather was not bad—low- to mid-60s for my morning walks, and 70s to the cusp of 80 during the day. Not exactly Autumn in the District They Call Columbia, but not bad.

Saturday morning was a good walker. I overheard a couple of cyclists meeting up for a spin down the W&OD Trail commenting that they should get going “before the impending rain”. So, I checked WaPo, and sure enough, the forecast was for blustery showers in the afternoon, followed by a drop in temperatures.

This is precisely what happened: some wind, then gentle rain most of the afternoon, then a 20 degree drop. I closed the patio door and considered turning on the heat.

Yesterday, it was 50 degrees when I walked over to Whole Foods; it felt well and truly like Autumn. And I am so grateful to welcome it.