The most Bradbury of months.

Thanks, Dandy. I was thinking the very same thing this morning.

I was born on my fathers birthday, September 30, 1962. Oh, to have been born in Octobers sweet cool harvest breeze. Missed it by that much!


(inference taken from Get Smart, used without permission)

Happy October dandelion!


I'll be posting Halloween pics here again this year! Sadly, no Halloween Tree, tho. I've moved and my new place has no tree.

BUT I WILL be posting an older pic of a jack-o-lantern my sweetie carved a few years ago with Pip's face on it!


Have a fun, rust-colored season!

When I went to his house in summer he had a Halloween doormat at this front door. He is truly Halloween. When my kids were younger, our tradition (beside going out and getting as much candy as we could) was to read Bradbury and Poe stories in the days leading up to the big day. We also carved jack-0-lanterns (not original, but very fun). Some of my favorite pictures of my kids are pictures of them proudly holding their hand-carved and personally designed jack-o-lanterns.

Ah, Mr. Dark. I share your Autmnal reading rituals and agree regarding the photos. The SMELL of cut pumpkins! And, as I posted on the "old board", around this time, I still get nostalgic feelings when I see black and orange construction paper.

quote:

Originally posted by Braling II:
...I still get nostalgic feelings when I see black and orange construction paper.

Wow - blast from the past on my senses!

Thanks!

When our boys were first old enough to help out, we began decorating an annual Halloween Tree. Pumpkins, compliments of Grandpa P's always wonderful garden, were plentiful. The flowering crab apple tree that received the honors reliably bloomed each spring with magnificent white and pink blossoms. Many a baby and friendly-neighbor picture was captured beneath the tree at any and all times of the year. The fruit of the tree's summer efforts became delicious jams to be enjoyed throughout the winter months. The kids climbed into its limbs, and our cat escaped next-door dogs by scamping up just high enough to see another day.

A few years ago, the tree contracted a serious leaf and bark bacteria that diminished both its arboring effect and fruit harvest alike. So, when a home project began that required some heavy equipment on site, I reluctantly decided the time had come and ...

School had just begun, so October was right around the corner. Walking home from their afternoon dismissal, our boys made the discovery immediatley. Devastated, tears began to stream down their cheeks. We had never considered the emotional affect the tree's departure would have on our children. Their reactions were clear and powerful. They had lost a friend!

The story ends happily. We had planted a small oak tree sapling and nurtured it to the point where transplanting was possible. It has since grown beautifully and now already stands about 20' tall. Last fall the oak was filled with orange orbs. Time is approaching again to load the trunk of the car so that the tradition of the Halloween Tree can be carried on!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,

I just received this nice Autumnal scene that's been, apparently, floating around on the internet the last few Octobers.

Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin eater, he was so fat he couldn't keep her. What is this rhyme that I am trying to remember?

Loved the photo. Definately very autumeny! [Is that a word?]

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater
Had a wife and couldn't keep her.
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.

(Having grandchildren helps keep nursery rhymes alive.)

http://www.rhymes.org.uk/peter_peter_pumpkin_eater.htm

I remember Halloween as a kid in L.A., the night was always dry and windy and warmish, and the streets were full of kids trick or treating. So much fun. It really is an electric time of the year.

I think I need to watch The Halloween Tree this weekend ( animated special).

Many thanks Braling II for bringing me up to date with the rhyme. I wish my grand kids were closer. Actually they are. They are in Minnesota now--a lot closer than when they lived in California, but then they were closer to Ray.

• I Love Autumn, a photoset by Elan Photography.
• How Leaves Change Color, from the USDA Forest Service.
• The Joy of Fall.
• Autumn Poetry & Quotations, compiled by Michael P. Garofalo.
• Anniversarium: The Autumn Poems, by Brett Rutherford. "Autumn on Mars" is a salute to Ray Bradbury, "the King of Autumn."
• Hallloween Village 2003, an lovingly detailed variation of the Christmas village concept.
• Pumpkin Nook: Everything About Pumpkins.
• Antique Hallowe'en Postcards.

I was on the road very early this (Sunday) a.m. The sky was cloudless and a brilliant, clear blue. Today had to be the "PEAK" of the autumn foliage. Utterly spectacular! Walloon, your Wisconsin is much like my far upstate NY. I am minutes from the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Most of my travels to friends and family, and other places between here and there, require drives through the foothills or High Peak regions:
Have a glimpse:
http://adirondacks.com/fallreport.html

(The map at the end of the page that opens - "My stompin' grounds!")

"Way out in the country tonight he could smell pumpkins ripening toward the knife and the triangle eye and the singeing candle. Here in town the first few scarves of smoke unwound from chimneys..."

Indeed!