Happy Halloween!

Halloween celebrations around here these days are not much to write home about.  Being out of town and a quarter mile back in the woods, little ghosts and goblins don't usually find our house.  We used to get the little girls closest to us on the west side coming for trick or treats but now two (no longer little) of them are in college and one is married and living far away.

However, as I was preparing lunch in my kitchen today, out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement by the window box outside the window over the sink.

Slowly a pair of brown fuzzy paws and two ears came up, up, up into view.  I grabbed my camera because this bear turns up at our house every Halloween and I wanted to get a picture this year.

Unfortunately, you can't see how cute the bear was because my picture taken through the window screen leaves a lot to be desired.  (Someday we've gotta find out who that bear really is!  Hee-hee.)

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Perhaps it was because we have no Halloween candy in our house and I'm a little big (and old) to go out trick or treating, but I had a wild craving for cherry turnovers today.  I finally got around to making them right before dinner tonight.

First off, I cut the pastry rounds way too small.  The turnovers measure only about 3-1/2" lengthwise and I was envisioning something more like 6" long.   (About 100 years ago, when we were first married, Pepperridge Farm made frozen fruit turnovers that were to die for.  It was when commercially prepared items contained real ingredients.  Like real butter and very few preservatives.  And they actually  tasted good!  The pastry was unbelievably flaky and the fruit tasted fresh and not overly gloppy sweet.  Anybody but me remember them?)  Anyway, for these of mine, I'd better find an improved way of crimping the edges as much of the filling tried making an escape.  (Oiy, you should see the cookie sheet they were baked on.)  I pictured eating the turnovers out of hand, but the ooey-gooey-ness of them requires a plate and fork.  Oh well, I'm betting they'll get eaten anyway.

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One more picture in honor of Halloween.

This is what happens when you walk into the end of a 2" x 12" sticking out of the back of a truck.

Dear daughter, Chicken Mama, loaded her truck with some things to bring in to her new little cabin abode from Swamp River Ridge last Sunday.  Then after dark, she went out to do night time close up chores.  She was rushing through the crisp, cold air shining her flashlight in front of her so she could see where she was going.  Unfortunately, she didn't remember the large wooden structure sticking out of the back of her truck right at her head height.

She was very, very lucky contact wasn't made with her nose or directly into her eyeball which could have caused a much more serious injury.  She hit it hard enough that she saw stars (actually one big flash of white light, as she describes it) and the whole side of her face was swollen for a couple of days.  I'm surprised she doesn't have more of a shiner than she does.  Moral of story:  Ya gotta watch out for large pieces of lumber on a dark night.

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Boo to you all, and Happy Halloween!