All Hallows' Eve

front stoop in Fanwood

It's October. Halloween is a few weeks away. And yet there are none of the usual cues to help get me into the spirit of the spirit world. The crisp chill in the air. The sound of raking leaves. (Can't stand the unfortunate racket of the leaf blower however!) The spicy smells of autumn baking. The yellow, red and orange splendor of the turning autumn leaves.

front stoop in Manhattan

Bittersweet, corn stalks, pumpkins and gourds. Purple and orange mums. The haunted graveyards set up on people's front lawns. Candy corn and caramel apples. The pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks.

They would be out of place here. It is spring in South Africa. But unfortunately purple jacaranda, orange birds-of-paradise and magenta bougainvillea do not conjure up Halloween for me.

our unworn 2012 costumes: a small game hunter & lions

Halloween is my hands-down-favorite holiday of the year. (I know I say that about every holiday but this time I mean it!) I think it might be because I am a scaredy cat in real life. Can't watch horror films or read murder mysteries. Too real. I like "controlled" fright with a guaranteed safe outcome. Fun houses, Disney's Haunted Mansion and Halloween.

I especially love dressing up for Halloween parties and masquerades. Going on ghost walks and haunted house tours. Pumpkin picking and hay rides. Decorating for trick or treaters. Watching the Greenwich Village Freak Parade. Carving Jack o' Lanterns to light up the stoop on Halloween and then to float candlelit on the lake the next night.

Last year we were totally ripped off by a be-atch named Sandy who came roaring into the the tri-state area of NY, NJ, and CT with punishing winds, driving rain and crippling storm surge just days before Halloween. She left us all flooded and powerless, with dangerous power lines and branches dangling over sidewalks and roads. The Wicked Witch of the Nor'east.

The Governor of New Jersey canceled Halloween! The Mayor of New York canceled the Greenwich Village Parade! Justifiably so because it was too dangerous to trick or treat, much less be out on the street, but still ... it was a cruel Halloween Trick!

This year I will not be in the northeastern Unites States for Halloween. :( But nor will I be in Africa. I will be "out of Africa" on Halloween so I won't be even be able to see how - or even if - South Africa celebrates my favorite holiday. (They must. There are so many English people here!) So I guess Halloween 2013 will be another non-event for me.

This is when I wish I had my library of photo albums so that I could reminisce with my photographs from Halloweens past. I have great pictures from the celebrations at home and in "Halloween places" like Salem, MA and Sleepy Hollow, NY. I will just have to be satisfied with perusing my extensive Facebook cache of pictures to get my Halloween fix this year. (Thank goodness I uploaded all those pictures on Facebook. They have been fueling this blog!)

Here are some ...

w Lauren & Susan

Autumn bounty on display at Gramercy Tavern after a Big Onion Walking Tour of Gramercy Park.

Autumn display at the stable where my niece Aly keeps her horse and takes her riding lessons.

Serge & the autumn leaves.

Guy Fawkes Day bonfires on the beach with the British expat meet-up group in SF.

I like to visit cemeteries such as Pere Lachaise, Recoleta and Alexander Nevsky when I travel (but never alone!) One of the most beautiful and peaceful spots is this one, America's first garden cemetery, the Mount Auburn in Boston.

It's always Halloween at the Edward Gorey House on Cape Cod!

 A favor from a Gorey-themed Halloween Party.

I loved our annual leaf-peeping trips to Vermont with the boys.

Happy Hallo-wiener

the first year we had the puppies, of course they were hot dogs!

London's Corinthia Hotel Halloween Tea ...

scanned leaves from my favorite Japanese Maple tree

front row @ the Greenwich Village Freak Parade

 I was a pumpkin!

Thriller! On parade!

An early Halloween in Lyndhurst: my sister Cheryl was a bunny rabbit; I was Ringo and my brother Bob was Robin Hood.

Aly and me

A couple of cowgirls @ the St. Barnabas October Tails Halloween Puppy Parade in Verona. Serge and Lou were Texas Wieners that year.

@ a Halloween Party: Elvira (Adria), Countess Dracula (me), Count Dracula (Mark R.), Church Lady (Dede) and Billy Joel (Mark McM.)

St. Michael's Halloween parade: Babydoll (Karen), Witch (me)

@ the Macabre Flashlight Tour at the Mutter Museum at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Lots of skeletons and weird things preserved in formaldehyde. In the dark!

@ "Sleep No More", an interactive performance of Macbeth in NYC; afterwards I didn't sleep for days!

More Halloween party: The Draculas, Church Lady and the Ghost of Elvis Presley (Vince).

Halloween dinner was traditionally Baked Ham and Colcannon.

and for dessert, skull cupcakes with frosting brains!

Bloody skull shots.

treats for the neighborhood kids: Siamese twin gingerbread men.













The Dachs-hounds of the Baskervilles keep an eye out for trick-or-treaters.

Autumn bounty on the back stoop.

Wet leaves on the conservatory roof made great decorations.

Treats.

The glorious Highlands of NJ.

Cobwebs and spiders come as free Halloween decorations with a 200+ year old house.That's a real one in the center who came to join his mates affixed to the glass on the front door fanlight.

@ the Day of the Dead celebration, the Mission District, San Francisco.














Ready for the Fanwood Halloween Parade. A fire hydrant (me), Natasha the Brittany (Nick), Boris the English Springer Spaniel (Alex), Bubble Bee (Tori) with our dogs Boris and Natasha who are wearing Alex and Nick's pajamas. I always "made" - more like fabricated - my sons' and my costumes at home. My favorites are tucked away in my "costume trunk" in storage.

The jack o' lantern float at Echo Lake Park.











Luckily I did bring my copies of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Arsenic and Old Lace. That should do the trick!


Happy Halloween!