gl.

site feed by atom

Sunday, October 01, 2006

 
6:35 PM: happy halloween! [#] [0]

october is my favorite month, and beginning october 1 i get to celebrate halloween with candy corn, the hp lovecraft film festival, a night in the lonesome october, and handfuls of smooth, cool chestnuts from michael's place.

to start with, this is the littlest pumpkin i've ever seen: and we grew it!



we have three other pumpkins slowly orangen-ing on the south side of the house (in fact, this tiny pumpkin was a complete surprise because i've been so excited about the other pumpkins, and then one day there was a perfect spot of orange to my left!). it's the side that gets the most sun, but unlike the pampered vegetables that grew in the garden boxes, i planted these and paid them very little attention. while we were in canada, they didn't receive any benefit from the drip hose sven wound through the tomatos & kale. the cantaloupes didn't fare as well, but i'm very exicted to roll my own pumpkins!

in addition, several noteworthy celestial phenomenon are happening this week:

* the first night of the lovecraft festival is the full moon! and since this is the first full moon following the autumnal equinox, it's the harvest moon. :)

* by the end of the week, jupiter, which has been vibrant and easily spottable for several months, will begin disappearing into the october twilight. at that point, saturn will be the only visible planet, but since it begins to rise around 3 a.m., it won't be around too much longer...

* and acccording to the sky this week, "Comet C/2006 M4 (Swan) will be drifting up from the northwest horizon below the 'handle' of the Big Dipper. Your best nights to look for it will be the 6th through the 9th, when the comet will be within two degrees of the third magnitude star Cor Caroli. Despite strong Moonlight, the comet will be in the opposite part of the sky and should be visible in binoculars."

i've mentioned before that october will be pretty busy. it usually is even when we just get to attend the portland open studios tour, but this month i'm going to the shakespeare festival, attending the all oregon calligraphers conference, attending several calligraphy workshops, volunteering for planned parenthood during the last month of the election season, possibly attending the stumptown comics festival, visiting the fruit loop trail to find heirloom apples. also, michael's dad & my dad share a birthday, sven's birthday is basically the end of the month, and one of sven's cousins from canada will be visiting. my biggest conflict (other than the open studios) was with the 24-hour comics day, which i desperately wanted to host this year, but it conflicts with the lovecraft fest. and don't forget about the zombie walk on thursday!

there will be a break in november, perhaps, and we have to wait until december to start singing songs from the hp lovecraft historical society's cd "a very scary solstice" but it's worth it. but hey, what's this? "an even scarier solstice"? *gasps in anticipation* i'll bet they'll be selling that at the table this year! hooray! scary solstice for all! (and to all a good night.)