Of the after Halloween celebrations~~~

Hello Darklings,

Well Halloween has come and gone, and oh my!  Did we have a  lot of trick or treaters for a school night,  it was a good thing I loaded up on a lot of candy. 

My party went very well, not as elaborate as previous years but then I tend to go all out when it's on Friday, Saturday and even Sunday. 

But everyone enjoyed the party, I even had a fortune teller to read tarot cards for my guests and he was very good and entertaining,  I think I'll hire him for next year or even for New Years Eve.

The skeleton horse and Rider were a big hit and so was T-Rex,  now with the break in the rain the halloween decorations are coming down, I'm glad that after the trick or treaters were gone that Doyle put heavy plastic bags over the heads of the functioning parts to prevent the rain from damaging them. 

I'm debating about having T-Rex up for Christmas with Christmas lights, because if it rains that could damage the functioning parts and with that kind of investment I'd rather not have that happen.

Doyle is making sure everything else is nice and dry before boxing or bagging it, my family is helping out as well.

My elderly house guests, Mr. & Mrs. Rodgers were so happy for the diversion and loved handing out the candy to the little ones, Mr. Rodgers said that it cheered them up a lot.  I've taken them to Target to get some replacement clothing, at this point in time they do not want to know what is lost in the fire, their son and daughter in law are keeping in touch with them, but it will be a while for any forward movement.

I don't mind having them here, Belladonna and Wiener Dog have taken a great liking to them and they enjoy walking the dogs in the neighborhood.  Mrs. Rodgers has said she enjoys the quiet (when it's not Halloween),  I took her to a craft's store so she can get back into knitting, a hobby she finds very meditative.   Mr. Rodgers likes to garden so I may have him putter around in my garden.

When they feel more sure of themselves they said they will use the public transportation to go to different venues like our museum and restaurants.   Sis tells me that it's their way of coping and has had chats with them as well.

Since there is no Spare the Air alert for today or tonight I'm going to be burning a fire in the family parlor to make it cozy and cheerful,  I've been assured by the Rodgers that will not bother them.   Mrs. Rodgers said that my house reminds her of her parents house when she was a girl, a good comforting feeling.

So tonight it will be old-fashion comfort food,  stew with rice, a small salad and french bread, later apple pie.

Then plans for Christmas.

Later Darklings

Halloween was a success!!!~~~~~

Hello Darklings

I had to get a new computer,  the one I had went wonky for some reason that even my computer repair person could not fix it, didn’t have a clue why it acted up.   So I surrendered and bought a new one.

And things seem to be working just fine,  I’m glad I don’t do banking on line,  nor keep phone number etc. on the hard drive,  I still prefer hard copy, you know like address books and paper.

First my Saturday Halloween Party was a success, having everyone come in costume was a big treat,  the fortune teller and the magician were big hits,  and although folks could dance if they liked outside on the patio it was a little chilly and wet.  One of my guests was enthralling his audience with tales of his ghost hunting experiences,  so much so that one of the guests wanted to know if there were spirits in my house,  I said only the kind you drink.

But I wondered, is my house haunted?  I decided not to look into that, no sense stirring things up.

I spent Sunday cleaning things up which wasn’t too bad really, having help from my sister in law and niece Coralline, Betty and her daughter came by as well since I still have the walking cast which will come off in time for the Dickens Fair HooRay!!  But I’ll have to use a cane for a while just to make sure I don’t break it again. 

Halloween was on a Monday and with all the threats of rain I wondered if I would have any trick or treaters,   Doyle was my stalwart guardian at the gates, and we had a huge cauldron filled with Candy,  I had what I thought over bought and thought I’d have a lot left over,  imagine my surprise when almost all the candy was gone by 8:45, by that time the fine on and off drizzle started coming down heavier and all my neighbors had “packed it in” turning off their lights my House was the last hold out.  Doyle didn’t see any more trick or treaters so we turned off the lights to the display  and our porch light,  10 minutes later the door bell rings (we did have the front parlor lights on)  3 older teen ager trick or treaters were there in some semblance of costume and face make up trying to look like zombies,  I told Doyle “Give them what’s left” which they were surprised, after they left 10 minutes later the rains came down.   I thought to myself “I hope they don’t catch cold”.   

I had nearly 300 trick or treaters, children and parents in costume also saying “Trick or Treat” the youngest was 2 weeks old dressed as a Teddy Bear,  Daddy was holding the baby’s trick or treat bag,  I was sure the baby’s parents would carefully check out it’s candy (LOL).

I have not be posting as much lately, only because I have not been finding things that really tickle my Elder Goth Fancy.  

However the latest issue of Reminisce magazine had a whole article about the Soap Opera “Dark Shadows” and Decades TV ran episodes back to back on the weekend before Halloween, I had one T.V. tuned into that, at the party.   Well really it’s an old T.V. Cabinet from the 1950’s and Brian squeezed in a Small Plasma screen T.V. into the old frame making it look retro, and directing the sound bar to come though the speaker system, but not too loud, mostly just for atmosphere. 

But now I get on line two e-magazines which I talked about briefly in my last post, I'm going to go more in-depth about them now:

  Dirge  Magazine  http://www.dirgemag.com/ This is what they have to say about themselves: 

About Dirge Magazine

Dirge Magazine is the premier dark culture magazine, covering counterculture arts and entertainment, lifestyle, and editorials.

Sifting through generalized sites for things that fit your dark aesthetic can be tedious, and an abundance of redundant horror sites has created an explosive amount of coverage on a surprisingly narrow range of interests. While we appreciate what they do, we seek to expand beyond horror, into the strange, the subversive, and the beautifully grotesque.

We want Dirge to be a place you can come to see things you haven’t seen before, or a fresh take on the dark side of something familiar.  A place where news isn’t robo-barfed at you, but rather experiences are shared in a meaningful way.

We reject the ideas of clickbait and garbage journalism. We keep it smart, sexy, and darkly funny.

And they do,  in their most recent offerings they did an article about Tea Pairing for Discerning Darklings, and some of their tea sets are just wonderful  for example AngiolettiDesigns  did a beautiful tea set with skulls and flowers

https://www.etsy.com/listing/254148919/skull-and-flower-pink-and-gold

Perfect for a Gothic Minded Tea.

The other e-magazine that I receive for free is Blum House http://www.blumhouse.com/    Blumhouse looks at films, scary fun, real life scares and stuff called ‘creepypasta’.    And it is generally pretty dark, some of the odd and morbidly bizarre stories are “The screaming mummies of  Guanajuato” and “The Horrific Crimes of Bruce Pardo, ‘the Santa Claus Killer’ “ just to name two.   But their review of such films as “Friday the 13^th” especially the first one is very insightful.

But Blumhouse’s  focus is to scare “the pants off of you” not only with films but also true, bizarre and frightening events,  showing that the world is a very dark and scary place. 

Some of the articles in Dirge Magazine are light and fun with a creepy twist, while Blumhouse is much darker, but even so I do not recommend these two magazines for young readers, unless you feel that your young teenager can handle it, because some of these articles especially about true events about real people can cause nightmares.

As I said before Gothic Beauty is now an e-magazine that you pay a subscription for, and I really prefer to have the hard copy,  so I’m going to think a while before ordering it.

Next on my list is going to see the movie “Dr. Strange” a friend of mine has said I must see it,  and I will, I need to see it on the Big Screen before it’s gone.

And now it’s time for dinner,  it’s been chilly out and I have delicious stew cooking in the crock pot.

Later Darklings.

Of taking down the halloween decorations~~~

Well Darklings,

In between the rain and such we slowly took down the outdoor decorations, mostly we first moved the ones that were in the front to the back area where we could dismantle them or let them dry out from the rain and we are not done, it's going to take all week.

But I do have Brian to help me and sometimes Doyle, mostly I put things into the plastic bins, and relabel the bins and they move them into the basement into the Holiday area.  

Inside the house I've taken down the spiders and spider webs, but I haven't really tackled much inside except when it was raining, the focus has been outdoors.

A dear friend of mine came by today with 400 tea lights, in huge bags, it seems she had plans to use them for an event but that didn't happen and asked if I had any use, I thought they would be perfect to use in the fireplaces on the no burn days, so I took them and have them in the cool pantry for now.

I'm by myself right now, Doyle is in the City working on a case, Brian is busy with his job and Sis has a late afternoon client who couldn't come any earlier. 

Belladonna and Wiener Dog are snoozing on the blanket that I have covering the couch here with me.   The house is so silent that I can hear the tick-tock of the old fireplace mantle clock and it just gonged the half hour. 

I have stew cooking in the crock pot and doing rice won't take long.  Sour dough french bread and butter, a simple salad, followed by individual hot peach cobblers for dessert.  Sis is going out to dinner with a colleague of hers tonight and Brian has a date. 

It's moments like this when I'm alone with my thoughts and memories that I feel that I could almost fold into the very walls of this wonderful old house,  one of my painter friends has offered to a portrait of me for the family parlor in the same style as the one of my Great-Aunt, I think it would be appropriate for this house, the picture hanging in the place where it would go is a landscape which I can put into the entrance hall there is a wall just right for it.

She studied with a number of artists, and do a number of styles so it would be with a proviso that she could exhibit it for a period of time as an example of her portrait work, I've been thinking why not.

But now my mind is too tired to go beyond thinking about it.   Doyle will be home soon and I still need to chop lettuce.

Later Darklings

Of Halloween~~~~

Dear Darklings,

I'm in a rush today, and it is cold too.

But I wanted to give you just a very short update on the Halloween Party~~~in three words~~~


BEST HALLOWEEN EVER!!!!!!!

And now I'm suffering from post Halloween depression and having my heating system checked and turned on----we are getting very cold weather from Canada---Thank you Canada.

And it rained  late Halloween night and All Saints Day Sunday.   My cisterns are getting full, the garden has been watered, the decorations outside were rained on but we're drying them out in the green house and garage thanks to Doyle and Brian.

But I'm going to hate taking down the indoor decorations---Pooh!!!


But time marches on.  I'll give you the details later, got to dash!

Later Darklings