The Spirit is Loose in Elora!

In the Afterword to Ray Bradbury's book From the Dust Returned he wrote "Halloween is the time of year for story-telling... I believe in this more than I have believed in anything in my writing career."  And Elora takes this statement to its still-beating, blood red heart!  There are so many great spooky stories being told this month, take a look at these offerings!  

Of course there are more sombre offerings as well, with the films from Alberta Nye and a talk with Shelley Carter about her "Death Perceptions" exhibit from 2016.  

And a handmade market!

So many options!  And there's also a Haunted Woods Walk just a hop outside of Elora that runs from 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28!  Read about it by clicking here.

October is just spook-tacular in Elora!!

Boo season is here!

My favorite time of year!  Finally cooler temperatures and, like magic, everything goes from green to yellows and oranges and coppers and reds overnight!  

Magnificent!  WOW!  Mother Nature is awesome!  

Before we get into the fun of October, though, we have some seasonal house maintenance to take care of, like fixing up our balcony.  The outside door frame and balcony rail needed scrapping, sanding, priming and painting before the weather turned too cold.

I did manage to start the Hallowe'en baking, though.  Here are the dogs' treats... yes, I have my priorities in order and the dogs are first!  Peanut butter bones and ghosts, and the ghosts still will get a white Merkins coating to be extra yummy.  (Also, dog cookies store really well so they're good to make in advance.)   

And I'm thrilled to say I've been invited to take part in the Twilight Zoo!  My bat conservation display will be part of the October 22nd after-Monster-March fun on the Elora Centre for the Arts grounds.  This photo is from the Twilight Zoo website, where you can read all the details about this month of spooky activities!

3 days to Hallowe'en!

The most wonderful time of the year!  Hallowe'en is almost here and we're super excited!  Hopefully the weather will be fair so we can set out our cemetery on the front lawn for the first time ever at this house!    

Inside we're properly spooky, to the delight of our guests.  (Okay, maybe the corpse bride standing in the entryway made a few of them jump!)

Here's my wee Halloween tree! 

And in the kitchen:  has anyone tried these new silicone chocolate molds?  WOW!  They work super easy, I'm really impressed!  Look at those screamers!  (They're screaming because they're not long for this earth... dark chocolate with raspberry swirled in guarantees a pretty short life-span!)

Last Saturday, October 24th, the monsters paraded in the 8th Annual Monster March down Metcalfe Street.  The rain held off just long enough for the parade, which was pretty spectacular with about 100 participants and full sidewalks of spectators.  Sadly my camera doesn't take night-time photos very well, but here are a few of Tim Murton's Twilight Zoo critters!  They are roaming about all over Elora and are just amazing!  

Here is the giant Demon King, at least 1 story tall!

You can see much more detail in this daytime photo... what a scary fellow!  

The dancing demons!  Each demon is at least 8 feet tall, very impressive!  Love the motion captured in these critters.

  

This monstrous lizard is on the side of the Elora Legion, look at those teeth and claws! 

Monsters Marching in Elora

On Saturday, October 25th, at 6:30 monsters took over the streets of Elora!  And we were there and got some great shots!  Enjoy!

The Cadaver Cafe, yum!

A local dance troop, the Fergus Elora Academy of Dance, made "Thriller" come... alive!?

 And this fellow was very dedicated to his job, still giving out candies with quite a headache.

Bees!  How cute is this??








A goat also made an appearance.  Yes, a goat!

As in years past, donations were collected for the Centre Wellington Food Bank... in style, of course!

There was a huge crowd, on a gorgeous night.  

Puppets Elora made a fine appearance, including a pink flying pig! 

There were a lot of canine participants, all incredibly well behaved and cute!

Our favorite:  this amazing "puppet" style costume that reminded us very much of the Day of the Dead!  Cheers to the creator!!!  And there's still the streets of Elora to enjoy, spooktacularly decorated:

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N in Hallowe'en time!

 

I took two vacation days this week and guess how I spent Vacation Day #1? Setting up the cemetery in Elora for Scare Fair! Yes, I'm fully aware that this is not what most people do with their vacations but it was the perfect Autumn day, the colors are glorious and Mom and I got a lot of work done in 6 1/2 hours! Plus we had Willow along so we didn't have to watch the clock. Plus it was far, far away from the computer!!!
  It's certainly not finished but we got the path and 23 graves mapped out and set up some stones and the area is cleaned up and ready for the extra goodies still to come.  Vacation Day #2 will be spent... decorating tombstones!  I love it!

Look at those trees in the last sunlight of the day and all the Zoo critters in waiting!  It's going to fun, hope you can join us Oct. 19-21 for the Scare Fair! 

In print and in process!

So the tombstones are coming along... slowly.  Where does the time go!?

 

I'm using markers to color in the lettering and designs, it's the simpliest and the ink is supposed to be waterproof.  Hopefully we won't be finding out!

 

And imagine how thrilled we were to read this article in the Gorge Film and Art September issue.  Wow, thank you Julie! 

Never too early for Hallowe'en!

I'm sure you don't want to hear this but: there's only 86 days or so before Hallowe'en!  Last weekend Mom and I got our regular stuff done and then took a day to work on our cemetery props.  We're both very excited to have been invited to put our graveyard up in Elora, Ontario, for the Scare Fair weekend, October 19-21.  Thank you Julie and Tim for including us in your spooky fun, we're so looking forward to Monster Month!   

Here I am painting tombstones.  The rat (and other images) were "burned" into the styrofoam using black spray paint.  And I was THRILLED later on when Mom pulled down the welding torch and we discovered that it does indeed melt the foam so I can do all the lettering with this tool!  Awesome!!!   

And here's Mom resurrecting our Corpse Bride.  This Bride was on our lawn a few years ago but vandals forced us to take her in and we didn't use her again... until now!  Mom created a very sturdy neck and shoulders while still having access to the on/off switch at the base of the skull (which lights up).  The gown is indeed a real one, her spine is a stem from a Christmas tree, the base is an umbrella stand.  She still needs a veil and flowers, and white gloves, but we're well on our way!

So, perhaps I should celebrate a success: I did create 3 rat silhouettes out of fiberboard with battery tea lights for eyes! I left the fiberboard white so they would show more in the dark and also had an extra tea light behind each one.

Here they are on their big night, pretty cute I think!

Also, visiting Elora during "Monster Month" was a highlight. At the Twilight Zoo during Scare Fair (love these names!), we met Tim Murton and Julie and I very much want to be part of this amazing Hallowe'en event in 2012. There are lots of possibilities, from helping set up to having a booth to perhaps supplying treats for an opening or closing party?? They need volunteers, so if you can help, scream it out! Visit http://www.twilightzoo.ca/ to see some of the amazingly beautiful and spooky paper and fiber mache creatures.
Look at the joy in these dancing demons! Who would not want to join in?!