Nicht o' Hallowe'en

 

 This is the nicht o' Hallowe'en when a' the witchie may be seen

Do you believe in ghosts?

BOO

Charles Addams

H A P P Y   H A L L O W E E N

Let's burn some wicker

Fans of the 1973 British cult film The Wicker Man will dig this. Just in time for Halloween, too.

I've just learned there is a huge alternative music festival on a farm in rural Scotland every year that parties for three days and then burns a 30-foot wicker man as a sacrifice to the festival gods. The Festival's site is very near to various shooting locations in the film.

Called The Wickerman Festival, it's an odd mix of Woodstock and Burning Man, with acres of campsites and trailer parks. (The UK calls them caravans.) It's called the Glastonbury of Scotland.

The event is held at the East Kirkcarswell Farm, Dundrennan, Scotland, south of Glasgow and north of Manchester, near the Irish Sea. Dates of the Festival vary.

http://www.thewickermanfestival.co.uk/

A Jolly Halloween

In the news

It's been revealed that Cherie Blair, the wife of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, likes to shop on eBay, and is purported to have a history of buying high-end merchandise there, bypassing London's expensive shops. British tabloid reporters hacked Ms. Blair's eBay account and blabbed.

A British dating website for unattractive people has its first engagement. Selling itself as a site for looks-challenged people, TheUglyBugBall.com celebrated its first anniversary this week by announcing that a Welsh couple met and will be married. There is a U.S. version, if you're interested.

In Sri Lanka, an Indian man swallowed three condoms filled with 2,000 diamonds, estimated at $670,000. He was caught by airport security acting on a tip. Police recovered the diamonds.

A man in Boulder shot himself in the knee with a 9mm handgun while sleepwalking. He does not remember the incident but remembers hearing the shot go off. Police said he lives alone and there was no evidence of an intruder.

A young man from Angola has set the Guinness World Record for the widest mouth. At seven inches wide, he can fit a can of soda pop in his mouth with room to spare. He was spotted performing his talent at local markets in his hometown.

For the record book, McDonald's has lost a lawsuit down in Brazil. A former store manager said he gained 65 pounds in the 12 years he was employed by the chain, claiming food testing and free lunches unfairly packed on the pounds. McDonald's was ordered to pay the man $17,500, unless, of course, there is an appeal.

And that's the news for today. Be careful out there!

Syndicated cartoonist Pat Bagley

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Bagley
 http://www.cagle.com/politicalcartoons/PCcartoons/bagley.asp

Alpaca in a puddle

Bluebird Hills Farm, Springfield, Ohio

http://www.bluebirdhills.com/index.html
Owned and operated by Tim and Laurel Shouvlin.

Grant Wood

Fall Plowing

The dance of death

An artist's rendering of the bubonic plague that
swept across Europe and England in the 1660s.

A former cultural icon

Remember Twiggy 1965 ?

Halloween treat

Community beautification

Bucyrus, Ohio

Before

 

 After

Pablo Picasso

Portrait of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky

Learn more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Stravinsky 

Spiral staircase

Baron's Palace in Heliopolis, Egypt.

 http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/baronspalace.htm

Charley Harper

Bassett Hound

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Harper

Woodcut by Robert Patierno

Autumn Wind

2007

http://www.davidsongalleries.com/artists/patierno/patierno.php

Brontë Sisters Power Dolls

Quote of the day

Louisa May Alcott

A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well.

To find out more:
http://www.louisamayalcott.org/louisamaytext.html

Himeji Castle, Japan

Himeji Castle started as a fortress in 1333 during the feudal period and was completed in its present state in 1609. It is an excellent example of Japanese Midieval architecture.

It was defended by three moats, making it nearly impossible to conquer:
"By the time the enemy had gotten past the third moat, their strength and reserves were considerably lessened...The wandering passages of the castle are intended to confuse an enemy unfamiliar with the layout."
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/ealac/V3613/himeji/military.htm

It has survived earthquakes, wars and typhoons. It was named a National Treasure in 1931. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. It has 85 buildings and is the largest castle in Japan.

The castle was featured in such movies as James Bond's You Only Live Twice, The Last Samurai, several Akira Kurosawa movies, and in the U.S. television miniseries Shogun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himeji_Castle
http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/travel/himeji_castle.html
http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/japan/himeji/himejicastle.php

How Halloweeny

My groundhogs are alive and well

Saw my groundhogs yesterday. 

It's been a few weeks since I last saw them.

To Serve Man

The Kenamits apply salt and pepper to taste.

1962

Today in 1983

"At the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures, the length of a metre was redefined as the distance light travels in vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Halloween goblins

Sequoias and redwoods

Sequoia trees

Redwood trees

Sequoias and redwoods are very different trees. They live in different climates and geographical areas. Sequoias are found on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, while redwoods grow along the Pacific coast. Sequoias are the oldest trees, redwoods are the tallest.

Redwood trees are found along a narrow corridor 470 miles long and 50 miles wide that follows the Pacific coastline from Monterey Bay to Oregon. Sequoias flourish inland at higher elevations where there is more precipitation.

The oldest living sequoia is over 3,500 years old. The largest sequoia, in volume, is 42,500 cubic feet. The widest is 26 feet in circumference. Known for their height, coastal redwoods grow over 300 feet tall.

Both trees are fire and bug resistant, which accounts for their longevity. The foliage begins so high off the ground that insects are not a threat.

Seedlings can reach 65 feet in 20 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_sempervirens

Ziggy

African-American Halloween card

Strange sights are seen on Halloween

Dark Shadows

Jonathan Frid as vampire Barnabas Collins

ABC 1966-1971

 Dark Shadows also featured werewolves, ghosts, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel (both into the past and into the future), and a parallel universe.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Shadows 

Breaking the sound barrier

The vapor cloud is created when a sudden drop in air pressure causes water to condensate and form a cloud.

At Mach 1, the speed of an aircraft is equal to the speed of sound — 720 mph or 332 miles per second. At Mach 2, an aircraft is traveling at twice the speed of sound; Mach 3 is three times the speed of sound, and so on.

In May of this year, the Air Force broke the Mach 5 record to reach Mach 6 for 200 seconds.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/0527/Scramjet-powered-X-51A-Waverider-missile-breaks-Mach-5-record

Painter Peter Stimeling

Autumn Shadows

Watercolor

http://www.peterstimeling.com/index.html

Pumpkin contest winner

"Ron Root of Citrus Heights, California shows off his first place ribbon next to his 1,535 pound Atlantic Giant Pumpkin during the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California on October 11, 2010. Root pocketed more than 10,000 dollars for his colossal cucurbita." UPI/Terry Schmitt

http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/Features/The-Great-Pumpkins/3935/

Vintage Halloween card

Incognito

Chateau de Chenonceau

 

Built in 1521, Chateau de Chenonceau

  sits on the River Cher, Loire Valley, France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Chenonceau

Mist

Liz Cutting

Middle-age Barbie

Trick or Treat

Old farmhouse, Texas

Synapse

The retreat of Dr. Doom

Actually South Fountain Avenue in Springfield, Ohio is a good place to look for one of these, if you're in the market.