Halloween

I really like Halloween.  It's one of my favorite holidays.  Candy, tacky decoration, candy, dressing up in silly costumes, candy...  

 You should see this at night with all the orange lights.  People drive by just to see this house.

And living on The Edge we're right next door to Salem Massachusetts, home of Halloween!  

But we must remember the True Spirit of Halloween - celebrating the poorly understood creatures that people used to fear.

Things like this Garter Snake.  A great garden resident.  People used to be irrationally afraid of snakes but now we recognize that they are important in pest control and fascinating in their own right.

And creatures like the bat.  [Sorry I don't have any bat photos, this necklace I picked up in Salem will have to do.]   There used to be a belief that bats will dive bomb you and get caught in your hair.  As if!  What would be their motivation?  Are they frustrated reincarnated hairdressers?  Now we know that bats eat a lot of nocturnal insects like mosquitoes.

How about black cats?  Bad luck?  Well, this is our diabetic cat so she's been bad luck for our budget but she is daddy's girl and is very sweet and affectionate to him.  Me?  She tolerates me.  [Maybe I should rethink this black cat thing...]

Spiders frighten people even today.  Again, I'm not sure why.  Most spiders don't have big enough fangs to do damage to a person and even if they did they wouldn't bite someone unless they were picked up.  Hopefully soon we will be able to put this fear behind us as a society.

And, we can't forget, witches.  Salem has a high concentration of witches as defined by either those who practice the Wicca religion or those who dress in silly hats for Halloween.  Neither of which are fear worthy.

So what is the spirit of Halloween?  Reminding us of things that we don't really need to be afraid of.   [Please don't spoil my optimism by pointing out that some people are still afraid of certain types of animals.  We don't need to be afraid of them.  We need to be afraid of Politicians.  They're Real Evil!]

And the annual pumpkin carving contest.  See entries below.