What We Wore Today

We finished David's Halloween costume just in time. He was the Norse god Odin.

Odin has two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who whisper in his ears information about everything that happens in the world. We attached the ravens to a cardboard collar that David wore under the cloak. It tied in front, and the cloak was cut so that the ravens could be on David's shoulders.

 It was one of my favorite costumes that I've ever put together.

My outfit was inspired by witches. If I had added a witch's hat, it would have been a costume. But as it is, I would wear this outfit any day of the year, so I don't think you can call it a costume.

I also wore thematic jewelry.

Malinda went as a Halloween cat.

A Halloween Poem

Haunted Houses

All houses wherein men have lived and died

Are haunted houses. Through the open doors

The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,

With feet that make no sound upon the floors.

We meet them at the door-way, on the stair,

Along the passages they come and go,

Impalpable impressions on the air,

A sense of something moving to and fro.

There are more guests at table than the hosts

Invited; the illuminated hall

Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts,

As silent as the pictures on the wall.

The stranger at my fireside cannot see

The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear;

He but perceives what is; while unto me

All that has been is visible and clear.

We have no title-deed to house or lands;

Owners and occupants of earlier dates

From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands,

And hold in mortmain still their old estates.

The spirit-world around this world of sense

Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere

Wafts through these earthly mists and vapours dense

A vital breath of more ethereal air.

Our little lives are kept in equipoise

By opposite attractions and desires;

The struggle of the instinct that enjoys,

And the more noble instinct that aspires.

These perturbations, this perpetual jar

Of earthly wants and aspirations high,

Come from the influence of an unseen star

An undiscovered planet in our sky.

And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud

Throws o'er the sea a floating bridge of light,

Across whose trembling planks our fancies crowd

Into the realm of mystery and night --

So from the world of spirits there descends

A bridge of light, connecting it with this,

O'er whose unsteady floor, that sways and bends,

Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(Potentially haunted places: 1. the Brokaw-McDougall House in Tallahassee, 2. Mission San Luis in Tallahassee, 3. Old house in Dawson City, Alaska, 4. Old City Cemetery in Tallahassee,  5. Cemetery in Micanopy, Florida, 6. Parking lot of an apartment complex in Bloomington, Indiana, 7. St. George Island, Florida.)

Halloween Retrospective

It's hard for me to believe, but David and I have been celebrating Halloween together for a decade now. This picture is from the first time we dressed up for Halloween together, in 2002. We're at a classics party at our friend Julie's house. I'm dressed as Persephone, and David is Tantalus.

These are the first Halloween pictures I ever put on the blog, from 2006. That year we just had one little pumpkin (which I ate on November 1). We decorated our door with spiderwebs, but we didn't get any trick-or-treaters.

 Halloween 2007 was our first one in Florida. We brought our spiders and spiderwebs with us from Indiana. It was the first year that David started the tradition of dressing as a mythological character to teach his myth class on Halloween. That year, he went as Gilgamesh.

In 2008, neither of us taught a myth class on Halloween, so we didn't dress up. But we did get this cool fairytale pumpkin for our doorstep.

2008 was the year that we began our tradition of decorating with tiny white pumpkins (top left picture). We added different things to the tiny-pumpkin display every year: a sphinx in 2009, a sweet dumpling squash in 2010, a teapot and a little black cat in 2011.

 In 2010, we went to a classics Halloween party dressed as Aquaman and Ursula. (The theme was "Heroes and Villains.")

 In 2011, we taught our myth classes in costume. David was Heracles, and I was the Hittite god Ubelluri.

This year, David is going to dress up for his myth class again, but we're still working on the costume. I couldn't find tiny pumpkins this year! But we did get some really great pumpkins.

I think that Halloween 2012 is going to be amazing.

My Trip to Torreya

This weekend I went hiking with a group at Torreya State Park, which is named after these rare coniferous trees that grow there (the little evergreen trees in this picture).

We hiked a trail on the high river bluffs along the Apalachicola River. There was a spectacular view of the river. In the early morning, with the misty hills in the background, it reminded me of 19th-century landscape painting.

 Kind of like a combination of this painting

 and this one.

The 7-mile hike that we did is supposed to be one of the most rugged hikes in Florida. Which is not saying a lot, since there are not that many hills in Florida! But for me, this hike, which zigzagged up and down the bluffs, was pretty tough.

But it was worth it to see the woods. There were some cool Florida trees, like cypress, palms, and swamp magnolias. (The tree with the dark leaves at the left is a swamp magnolia. They have these giant rose-like blooms in the spring.)

Also, we actually saw a few fall leaves! 

 In the ravines below the river bluffs, we saw lots of mushrooms.

And moss.

 My favorite part was going through the pine barrens at the tops of the bluffs. These grasslands are typical North Florida ecosystems, but I'd never walked through one before today.

 They are vast meadows of feathery grass and all kinds of wildflowers.

We saw two copperheads sunning themselves on the trail! I think that this might be the only place in Florida where you can find them. I kept my distance from these venomous snakes, but I did get a very blurry picture of this one as it slithered away.

 Also, I saw a rare Big Cypress Fox Squirrel. It looked like the bottom squirrel in this Audubon print: almost completely black, but with white markings. It was giant, about the size of Malinda, with an enormously fluffy tail.

 I am definitely coming back to this place.

Blue Skies and Other Fall Treats

I think that the sky in Tallahassee is the most beautiful in October.

 This week I tried to capture the way a canopy road looks in the October sunlight.

 From the passenger's side, of course.

 David and I took advantage of the lovely weather to go to Fall Fever, which is an event in Tallahassee's art district where you can hear live music and wander in and out of art galleries.

The galleries are in a quirky little art park full of brightly-painted buildings.

 We had a great time looking at some of the shops there.

Afterward, we went to Lake Ella, and I had a "Baltimore" snowball: half caramel ice, half custard ice, topped with marshmallow fluff. I love fall.

What Our Week Looked Like

1. At a concert, with a book for intermission. 2. A tiny sampling from the millions of acorns on our driveway. 3. Malinda is like a Halloween decoration in the window. 3. I found this in the yard and thought it was a seashell, but actually it's a native snail called the Rosy Wolfsnail. 4. I made raw beet "ravioli," and David made me a beet playlist.

A Day in the Life of Malinda

Malinda had a busy day.

 She slept.

 And slept.

 She shredded her scratching post, scattering bits all over the floor, and then she slept on it.

She slept with her paws over her face.

 

And with her feet in the air.

 And she was getting ready to sleep on the couch, when ...

RIBBON!