Remembrance Day

[by Eric Goggin,

Destination Art]

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

--From "For the Fallen" by Laurence Binyon

From the Chicken Coop

I haven't done a poultry post for a while, so today's your lucky day! Here's the answers to all the poultry-related questions you've been dying to ask --

Question:

WHY did the chicken cross the road?

Answer:

Cluck you, buddy.

Question:

HOW did the chicken cross the road?

Answer #1:

At the crosswalk, of course, obeying all traffic signals.

Answer #2:

Riding in comfort IN a car.

Answer #3:

Riding in discomfort ON a car.

Question:

How did the chicken cross the RIVER?

Answer:

Isn't it obvious?

Question: 

What does it look like when you face-swap with a chicken?

Answer:

Creepy. Damn creepy.

Hurray for Writers!

I know that many of you bloggers out there are also authors --

emerging, established, yet to be discovered,

published, or not published but working on it!

So, in this month of NaNoWriMo

(National Novel Writing Month),

here's my meme tribute to writers everywhere!

Don't be afraid to learn from the Great Writers of the world.

They have much wisdom to impart to you.

You writers work your fingers to the bone

realizing your literary vision of genius!

Alas, however, as every writer knows,

there are dry periods as well.

But as hard as writing is, there is an

even greater terror down the road . . .

dealing with editors!

However, editors have their own problems too

and must be careful not to go overboard

in their editorial zeal --

Even when writers reach the Promised Land of publication,

they must then worry about promotion and book sales.

So here's a handy tip to help you through it!

Well, at least we won't be bothered

this month here in the blogosphere

by Her Royal Highness the Cat.

She's doing NaNoWriMo too!

HRH says her book is some kind of tell-all exposé

about me and life at She Who Seeks blog.

Ha ha, how silly!
[nervous laughter]

A Blessed Samhain

Halloween is not all fun and games.

It has a serious spiritual basis.

The pagan celebration of Samhain ("Summer's End")

begins at sunset tonight.

The Wheel of the Year has turned once more and

it is now time to honour the Crone Goddess.

In Celtic spirituality, the Raven is

a sacred familiar of the Crone Goddess,

aiding her in the tasks of preparing

for the grave and renewal.

The Raven is a shamanic creature.

It easily flies back and forth between the worlds,

bearing messages and omens.

The Raven's association with death

extends especially to death in battle.

The Raven often accompanies the Celtic

War Goddess known as The Morrigan.

The Raven remains a powerful symbol from ancient times . . . 

. . . right up to today's modern world. 

The Raven reminds us all to

remember and honour
the passage of time.

Halloween Meme Stash BLOWOUT

An assortment of miscellaneous odds 'n sods

to close out the month of October!

Here's a good way to get your house egged --

Probably by these two.

This will be the fate of us all.

A timely seasonal reminder --

Always be your true self!

And remember -- only four more months 'til Valentines Day!

Halloween in Canada!

And in the United States!

Now THAT'S scary!

Halloween Chocolate Cookie Houses!

Over the years, My Rare One and I have decorated quite a few Christmas gingerbread houses. But this year, we decided to try our hands at Halloween chocolate cookie houses instead!

I bought two cookie house kits from Michael's. Half-price, yay! (I certainly would NOT have paid the outrageous full original price for them, I must say). We used the black and orange icing that came with the kits to put the rickety little shacks together, but otherwise all the candies and other decorations were bought separately. (The ones provided by the kits were pretty crappy).

My Rare One chose largely orange icing for her tiny house. I love her little pumpkins on caramel hay bales and the walkway full of chocolate rocks. She also did an awesome job on the gravestone, grave dirt and zombie candy hand.

Her candy corn shingling job was outstanding as well, in my opinion. We had lots of zombie candy hands so she put a couple more crawling up the back of the house. (I got those half-price at Michael's too).

I used red icing along my roof line to mimic dripping blood. And I owe a shout-out of thanks to my sister who gave me a package of candy googly eyes. The red icing in which they're set is supposed to represent red-rimmed bloodshot eyeballs.

My tombstone fell over on a pair of zombie hands. There's two or three hard-to-see gummy worms crawling out of the grave too. And please note: my rather shakily piped lettering spells out FU, not PU. Although either is appropriate, I guess!

Cadbury chocolate wafer fingers form the fence which keeps in my shack's green grass (parsley). And I went a bit crazy with candy corns on the back and as roof finials.

No, we did not eat a SINGLE candy while making these houses! And we will not eat any between now and Halloween. Our chocolate cookie houses will sit out on My Rare One's front step on Halloween night this year instead of carved pumpkins. Then they will mysteriously disappear, we know not where.

(P.S. -- If you'd like to see our efforts at Christmas gingerbread houses over the years, just click on the label "Gingerbread Houses" at the end of this post or over on the right sidebar and then scroll through the posts!)

[All photos taken by Debra She Who Seeks and My Rare One, October 2019]