HALLOW'S EVE is soon upon us and ghoulish scenes mingling with images of autumn have crept into our West Coast lives.
This is the season of fields sprouting pumpkins and pumpkin paths. The orange melons rest like bloated balloons on haystacks and overflow the huge boxes that house them at stores where they are sold.
A type of squash that seems like a vegetable but isn't, the fruit spills out onto the streets and into our homes. As a child I loved the fun of carving pumpkins and eating the delicious salted seeds my mom roasted in the oven as a treat.
Halloween has grown like pumpkins in popularity perhaps because it gives people a reason to get creative. There is a range of costumes to check out, from sweet to sinister, at my earlier post
here. A Halloween event would not be complete without characters like the Grim Reaper, a
harvester of souls.
Fascination with faux danger and hints at our demise are fostered early. The Grim Reaper's skeletal hand waved a realistic scythe at kid's on a ride at the local garden centre recently.
A gigantic spider also lurked on the train with toddlers inside. Since humans seem to innately fear spiders, lookalikes of the creepy creatures appear in odd places this time of year.
I sometimes wonder ... why do we fabricate frightening images when there is plenty of real horror to see in the world? Homes that are normally cheery like this one at Crescent Beach ...
get into the Halloween spirit with decorations that are comically eerie.
Many people have at least one grouchy hollowed out pumpkin with a candle inside called
Jack-O-Lantern sitting on their doorstep.
Some lawns are littered with skeletons ...
and headstones.
It is not uncommon to see bats, witches and goblins swaying on tree branches.
Someone is peering out the window of this home. Is he crying for help to get out or waiting to pounce on someone who goes in?
This leggy spider draped over the mailbox seemed to wink as I walked by.
A real spider looking for warmth dangled outside my own window.
A small chill crawled up my spine when the flash went off on my camera and transformed the spider into a fuzzy ghost in front of my eyes.
Life seems to hang on a delicate string sometimes. As I conclude this post my thoughts are with the people that were shaken on Saturday by a
7.7 earthquake in Haida Gwaii in the northwest coast of BC as well the people hurt by a hurricane now threatening the east coast.
As children plan to go
trick-or-treating on Wednesday night, it is not the little ghosts but a monster storm named Sandy that is howling through towns giving people much more than a fantasy fright.
To explore sights from around the globe, link to
Our World at the sidebar
.
Copyright by Penelope Puddlisms
See more BC scenes at
Penelope Puddlisms: BC Life Is A Whale Of A Ride.
Great Halloween post. The spiders, pumpkin and other shots are great. This will be a scary halloween with the storm ripping through.
ReplyDeleteI ....well the spidies are the scary part for me, lol. Not a big fan of any kind of them at all.
ReplyDeleteIt's a huge holiday here now, and each year getting bigger.
Jen
Terrific post for Halloween! I love your photos! I'm afraid this may be a scarier Halloween for some people this year with that witch Hurricane Sandy on the loose!! Have a good week!
ReplyDeleteHope everyone in BC is OK!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
ReplyDeleteThanks for showing your part of this world. very creepy to me.
ReplyDeleteI have often wondered why Halloween has become so popular. You may be right that this holiday does unleash our creativity. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat images! In my 55+ community, Halloween is not much, no kids around. Nice to see your world decorated for the holiday.
ReplyDeleteGreat Halloween collection -- the spider sequence (real and fake) is really neat.
ReplyDeleteIt is more fun to think about imagined horrors than to dwell on real ones I guess. Lately, there are years when I hate Halloween and years when I think it's funny -- totally depends on my mood and what's been happening in our lives at the time.
Wonderful post for Halloween ~ Great shots! ~ (A Creative Harbor) ^_^
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting festival Halloween is!! It's a great fun! Because I love to be scared very much!! In Japan I have seen many shops have Halloween decorations such as witches, spiders, bats, bloody candles, Jack-o-lanterns and mor!!. And I am enjoying viewing them.
ReplyDeleteDo pumpkins have special meanings?
Happy Halloween to you!
keiko
Not a huge fan of spiders though a good post on Halloween.
ReplyDeleteThere are going to be a lot of photo opportunities this holiday!
ReplyDeleteLove the 'ghostly' spider... very halloween!
ReplyDeleteMollyxxx
What fun Halloween shots!
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments. Snowwhite poses an interesting question. After a little research, I discovered that a hollowed out vegetable (like a turnip) with a candle inside, called Jack-O-Lantern sometimes, has roots in an Irish legend. As one story goes: a fellow named Jack trapped the devil up a tree by carving a religious cross on the trunk. Jack was cursed for his actions so this might partly be why Jack-O-Lanterns have scary implications and faces to this day. A carved vegetable with a flickering candle inside was also thought to ward off evil by some.
ReplyDeleteAs time passed immigrants found during harvest that the pumpkins flourishing in the farmlands of North America were easy to carve and turn into lanterns. Eventually pumpkins emerged as a key symbol of autumn celebrations.
A ghoulish post.... happy halloween.
ReplyDeleteYou found some eerily creative Hallowe'en decorations, Penelope, and none more so than your own personal ghost-spider :) I really enjoyed seeing how people in your "neck of the woods" celebrate. Quite different from Yaletown, where the many high rises have at best a token pumpkin in the lobby. Very little trick or treating here. You will be glad to know, however, that our fitness instructor asked us all to bring pumpkin/medicine balls to class tomorrow, and I've heard there will be free "Moon Dance" instruction in one of the classes. I plan to try that :) My thoughts, too, are with victims of Sandy. It's not over yet but hopefully, is at least on the wane.
ReplyDelete