Saturday, November 1, 2008

'Allô-Weeyn' Sarthe style...

Well, no Trick or Treaters came to the door last night....siiiiigh....guess I'll have to eat all the candy myself!!...nah, just kidding....we didn't buy any candy....but we did decorate!!Talk about having the work done for you....I had an early morning appointment with an architect here at the house....and no, not a keeper, for those of you wondering.... and this is the stunning decoration nature had prepared for us to celebrate 'Toussaints' or All Saint's Day (Halloween in candy grubbing lands) here in the Sarthe. I got so many amazing shots that just took my breath away with their exquisite intricacy, it was hard to pick a couple favourites for the blog! (to truly see the real shot, click on the pic and it will enlarge) Every which way you turned a web was woven, using even the tiniest thread of grass as support--sometimes nature still astounds me at her capabilities. And these are done every night, but today's dew levels only now let us mere mortals see it--apparently we are in the busy spider season, lucky us. Of course, I'd like to know where these diligent arachnids were when all those pesky flies were annoying us up until recently....ah well, I shall just have to live with the mysteries of nature's timing.

Keeping with the theme of our scary 'Allô-weeyn' (as the French say it) surroundings...check out this cow we met on one of our recent walks....Boo!For once I actually miss the crass commercialism of the U.S. Yes, you read that correctly. I have always loved Halloween--and not just because I was on the world's biggest quest for SUGAR to quench my insatiable sweet tooth--or more to the point, chocoholic leanings, especially of the Peppermint Patty persuasion :) But since early childhood, loved the opportunity to live it up dramatically and be as creative and crazy as our costume trunk, handy supplies & imagination allowed. My favourite is still the year I dressed up us a viking (imagine a blond haired 10-12 year old here), complete with viking attire created from a burlap bag, aluminum covered cardboard sword stuck in belt, drawn on 'beard' with an eyebrow pencil & halloween makeup kit, and viking cap (Anyone remember those bouncy balls you sat on as a kid & hopped around? Well I cut off the top of our old ones as the handles were perfect replicas of viking caps! Talk about recycling...), but the kicker, and extra candy benefit for me on collections, was that I made a perfect matching outfit for my dog Jr. (a black standard poodle & my soul's companion) complete with matching cap...of course she didn't need the fake beard ;)

Today I have to say it makes me sad to see all the kids in their bought costumes, half the fun was the creative process and seeing what people came up with, and planning my unbeatable costume for the next year. Halloween day at school was hysterical every year. I realize now, as an adult, that a lot of the creative aspect came about because my mom just didn't have the money to buy any kind of costume, but that forced frugality of our life instilled a creativity in me that I still harbor today. Yet, as much as Halloween isn't what it once was when I was young, and perhaps commercially it's out of control, I still miss it. But, hark, a small ray of hope emerges as I see the tendrils of commercial teasing reach across the ocean and Halloween creeps into French society, I may just get my excuse yet to dress up again...boowahahahah....(evil laugh)...I know, I know, what am I thinking?!

Happy Halloween, All Saint's...whatever scares 'ya!

1 comment:

scargosun said...

You know that it is only beacuse I love you that I was able to view those pictures with out running screaming from the room.