Since the Halloween Gift Exchange is happening, I guess I'd better start thinking about prep for Halloween and the trick-or-treating that is likely to follow...
The thing I hate most about Halloween, tbh, is all the useless little 'stuff' that is sold - spray spiderwebbing and suchlike. Hard pass, thank you. But I like the colours and the themes and the idea of the world dying and going into hibernation before springing back up into life. More of a Dia de los Muertos kind of celebration than the spooky and weird. Life-Death-Rebirth is an important symbol to me.
However, the autumnal theme is very much out of step with the present season here in Australia - we are SPRINGing right now and everything is growing. Still, there are some traditions that probably need to be adhered to...
Halloween/Dia de los Muertos List
1. Curtains on the front windows. Black and fall colours? A 'sugar skull' pattern? A pattern with Tula Pink's De La Luna collection (penny patch pattern)?
2. Jack O'Lantern. They sell the bright orange ones in the shops now. Gonna have to learn how to carve them.
3. Marigolds...well, I have tulips by the door...maybe that'll do? I had marigolds last year, but I don't think it's presently the season for them here...
4. Pumpkin display? I only have two pumpkins left from last summer, and they're pretty small...
5. Cookies/lollies for trick-or-treaters.
- Pumpkin Tres Leches cake
- sugar cookies (perhaps with icing)
6. Costume. Maybe try Wonder Woman this year with a blue-leather skirt? Have to think about this.
--
I should know better than to venture into FFA for too many days running.
--
I have a feeling that the Tamil family are going to be deported anyway. It just...it breaks my heart that they did all the social things right, but they'll be kicked out because of an ideology.
This would be what happens with the children of undocumented persons in the US, right? Born, raised, bred in a country, but not really people - not legally. Or with marginal rights that can be taken away when someone needs to "get tough" on something - a pawn so easily sacrificed.
I've made my calls, posted my requests to FB and here. I've prayed. I can't drag that family off Christmas Island and give them sanctuary. I wish I could. But there's no 'underground railroad' anymore, no ability to truly hide people in your basement when everything you do can be tracked or traced.
--
This weekend is so busy with gardening things and sewing things. I'm trying to make a knit dress for Saturday Night and I have the lingering feeling that I've cut it with the nap the wrong way...
Everything needs to be planted out. Everything needs to be sown. The beds are kind of prepped, but not really - not the way that I'd like them to be, and I'm not going to get bed frames in before November at the very least. I can make kind-of-wicking-beds so that I don't have to use so much water, but they may not work as well as I hope they would.
--
Looks like a guy from council is coming around today to look at the jacaranda that we're trying to remove. Could go either way, but at the least, we'd like to do some major trimming on it - take a 'second trunk' out.
Hopefully all the trees that I've planted around the other parts of the property aren't going to prejudice him against removing the jacaranda...
The thing I hate most about Halloween, tbh, is all the useless little 'stuff' that is sold - spray spiderwebbing and suchlike. Hard pass, thank you. But I like the colours and the themes and the idea of the world dying and going into hibernation before springing back up into life. More of a Dia de los Muertos kind of celebration than the spooky and weird. Life-Death-Rebirth is an important symbol to me.
However, the autumnal theme is very much out of step with the present season here in Australia - we are SPRINGing right now and everything is growing. Still, there are some traditions that probably need to be adhered to...
Halloween/Dia de los Muertos List
1. Curtains on the front windows. Black and fall colours? A 'sugar skull' pattern? A pattern with Tula Pink's De La Luna collection (penny patch pattern)?
2. Jack O'Lantern. They sell the bright orange ones in the shops now. Gonna have to learn how to carve them.
3. Marigolds...well, I have tulips by the door...maybe that'll do? I had marigolds last year, but I don't think it's presently the season for them here...
4. Pumpkin display? I only have two pumpkins left from last summer, and they're pretty small...
5. Cookies/lollies for trick-or-treaters.
- Pumpkin Tres Leches cake
- sugar cookies (perhaps with icing)
6. Costume. Maybe try Wonder Woman this year with a blue-leather skirt? Have to think about this.
--
I should know better than to venture into FFA for too many days running.
--
I have a feeling that the Tamil family are going to be deported anyway. It just...it breaks my heart that they did all the social things right, but they'll be kicked out because of an ideology.
This would be what happens with the children of undocumented persons in the US, right? Born, raised, bred in a country, but not really people - not legally. Or with marginal rights that can be taken away when someone needs to "get tough" on something - a pawn so easily sacrificed.
I've made my calls, posted my requests to FB and here. I've prayed. I can't drag that family off Christmas Island and give them sanctuary. I wish I could. But there's no 'underground railroad' anymore, no ability to truly hide people in your basement when everything you do can be tracked or traced.
--
This weekend is so busy with gardening things and sewing things. I'm trying to make a knit dress for Saturday Night and I have the lingering feeling that I've cut it with the nap the wrong way...
Everything needs to be planted out. Everything needs to be sown. The beds are kind of prepped, but not really - not the way that I'd like them to be, and I'm not going to get bed frames in before November at the very least. I can make kind-of-wicking-beds so that I don't have to use so much water, but they may not work as well as I hope they would.
--
Looks like a guy from council is coming around today to look at the jacaranda that we're trying to remove. Could go either way, but at the least, we'd like to do some major trimming on it - take a 'second trunk' out.
Hopefully all the trees that I've planted around the other parts of the property aren't going to prejudice him against removing the jacaranda...