Things That Make Me Smile: Halloween Style
Here are some of the things that made me smile this last week as I celebrated Halloween, Samhain and Dia de los Muertos.
Teddy bears in Zorro masks trick or treating…they forgot their swords.
Happy ghosts and happy pumpkins floating in front of a diaphanous curtain (perhaps) hiding other ghosts!
An understated cemetery (it’s not a graveyard because it’s not in close proximity to a church).
Over-the-top decorations. I think they bought out the store and emptied their basements.
Ghosts and witches hanging out together gossiping about mortals (this is the same house/yard as above).
Tall trees in which a tall red and black dead pirate whom needs more bling swings menacingly. (Again, same house/yard as above).
Halloween marketing (see last year’s post here for the Crush Soda Halloween editions).
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Then there were the words that made me smile:
Stacey was Freshly Pressed with very pertinent sentiments from this post titled I Wish I Were A Ghost:
I would visit some folks… I would visit the ones who would welcome my company, the ones who loved me, or lonely ones who felt forgotten or invisible to the world. I’d stay with them while they sat in their kitchens drinking coffee in the early morning. Time would mean nothing to me and I’d visit lots of them. When they went to bed that night, they’d be a little bit cheered, without knowing why.
Adam Rex writes poetry and on the 31st I read Frankenstein Makes A Sandwich, one of his collections. The book discusses Frankenstein’s story and other stories you’re sure to like because they’re all about monsters and some of them are about food. You like food, don’t you? Well, all right then.
Adam’s Frankenstein has a second book and Tor.com posted one of the poems out of it on Halloween which I read the next morning. It’s by the Headless Horseman and it was perfect to read the day after Halloween.
These are the things that made me smile, Halloween style. What made you smile this Halloween?
A Poetry Interlude
Brown Bear is glaring because s/he did not want to pose for a picture.
If No One Ever Marries Me (by Laurence Alma-Tadema)
If no-one ever marries me–
And I don’t see why they should,
For nurse says I am not pretty
And I’m seldom very good–
If no one ever marries me
I shan’t mind very much;
I shall buy a squirrel in a cage,
And a little rabbit-hutch;
And when I’m getting really old,
At twenty-eight or nine–
I shall buy a little orphan girl
And bring her up as mine.
Laurence Alma-Tadema was the daughter of the artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
This poem was published in ‘Realms of Unknown Kings’, 1897.
I’ll eat YOU before you can eat ME!
What if…
You opened a book
About dinosaurs
And one stumbled out
And another and another
And more and more pour
Until the whole place
Is bumbling and rumbling
And groaning and moaning
And snoring and roaring
And dinosauring?
What if…
You tried to push them
Back inside
But, they kept tromping
Off the pages instead?
Would you close the covers?
Bear in the City – Beware!
Not far from where I are there is a bear.
Not a brown bear or a grizzly bear.
I’ve lived close enough to the wilderness to know not to get too close to an actual living, breathing bear.
Unlike Kathy, who blogs from Lake Superior, I don’t get to see much wildlife here in the city.
My bear is greyish black with expressive glass eyes and over-looks a very busy street.
S/he is never bored as there is always so much to watch for and look at.
S/he enjoys dressing up.
The house she guards probably has children living in it as the front windows are an ever-changing art gallery.
(Music here)
The other day I met a bear,
Up in the woods a way up there!
He looked at me
(He looked at me)
I looked at him
(I looked at him)
He sized up me
(He sized up me)
I sized up him
Grizzly Bear, Grizzly Bear,
Where have you been?
Over the mountains -
Such things I’ve seen!
Grizzly Bear, Grizzly Bear,
What have you done?
Eaten blueberries
Made ripe by the sun.
Grizzly Bear, Grizzly Bear,
What have you found?
Ice-cold spring water
Deep from the ground.
Grizzly Bear, Grizzly Bear,
What do you dream?
Sweet tasting salmon
Swimming upstream.
Grizzly Bear, Grizzly Bear,
Where do you creep?
Into my dark cave
Alone, let me sleep!
If you go out in the woods today
You’re sure of a big surprise.
If you go out in the woods today
You’d better go in disguise.
For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic.
The Bear Went Over the Mountain
The bear went over the mountain,
The bear went over the mountain,
The bear went over the mountain,
To see what he could see.
And what do you think he saw?
And what do you think he saw?
The other side of the mountain,
The other side of the mountain,
The other side of the mountain,
Was all that he could see.
Big paws,
Big black nose,
Stubby tail,
And growl he goes.
What is he?
Well, who knows?
He sleeps all winter
When it snows.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Textured
The WordPress weekly photo challenge, this week, is texture.
Texture deals with the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface. Bear is soft, nubby, and roughly sweet.
Texture can also deal with the look of Art, especially to impart desirable surface characteristics to some thing, to change the appearance of it. In the following photos I am experimenting with the settings of my digital camera using my teddy bear as the subject because she knows how to stay still without dying of boredom.
This is Garbo. Yes, she is named after the movie icon. Ms. Garbo’s most famous quote is “I want to be alone” and since bear & I are both solitary creatures we understand this want of Ms. Garbo’s perfectly.
I was restless on my recent very looong train ride so I decided to fiddle with my camera settings. I have a very basic click and shot digital camera. It suits my needs well since all I usually want to do is capture an image in its simplest form.
Here is Garbo in basic black and white. It is a very classic look but tells you little of her personality. In this picture she looks inanimate.
Here is a picture of Garbo using a blue filter which brings out the colour of her tiny, beady eyes and adds a twinkle to them. However, it also makes her look like she has a tummy ache!
Here is a picture of Garbo using a green filter. You can tell she’s definitely becoming motion-sick here. She really should be eating tea and toast not chocolate coated almonds!
Here is a picture of Garbo using a negative filter. This is my favourite. I will be using the negative filter a lot from now on. Doesn’t the picture look a little bit like an x-ray picture. I wonder what an x-ray of Garbo would look like. Too bad I’m not much younger (or ancient) then I could sneak Garbo to my next medical appointment and get an x-ray taken of us both.
She’s definitely motion-sick, don’t you think? Good thing, the train soon stopped so that the smokers could have a smoke break and the rest of us could look for bears.
I hope you liked my whimsical look at texture. Which photo is your favourite?
