The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

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I never imagined that the kids would use up their allotted “snow days” for school by the first week of November but that has become the reality this week. Most schools in the area are without power as there are downed power lines everywhere. I am home with the little angels today as my wife and I try to make the best use of our remaining vacation days from work. Vacation it ain’t. 
As you can see from the photos in my last two posts, it has become a winter wonderland here in New Jersey. We had about six inches of snow deposited on Saturday and most of the neighboring towns are still without power. I’ve never seen so many downed trees and it has created a bizarre and surreal feeling here I can’t put into words. Definitely a Halloween weekend we’ll never forget.
As the kids were watching a movie this morning, I snuck outside to assess the damage. As I ventured out the front door, I was greeted by a scene right out of Twilight and I fully expected to see a pasty vampire emerge:            

Seeing flowers stuck in the snow is still a difficult image to digest:

As is seeing my trusty Miscanthus ‘Gracillimus’ completely blanketed in snow. A nightmare come to life:

I find the autumn color with snow in the background disturbing:

And the pools of water/mud may put me into an early seasonal affect disorder coma:

Yet through it all, I found myself consumed with trying to snap off some bird photos and I never really got exactly what I was looking for:

But enough negativity, we did make the most of Halloween the past few days and kicked it all off with the greatest Halloween movie of all time:

Followed by “mummy dogs” (of which I downed four with ease):

Cheese stick fingers:

Spider deviled eggs:

Ghost punch (commonly known as sugar water or drink to make kids act like nutjobs) :

And finally ghost cookies :

And last but not least, off to trick or treat in the snow with my son dressed up like Harry Potter and my daughter dressed up as a hybrid rock star/hippie:

Good times in spite of the strange weather conditions and resulting state of emergency. Oh well, we can’t complain too much as we’ve managed to not lose electricity and have been able to share our heat and allow our friends to shower here.

This Halloween will not be forgotten any time soon.

John

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11 Responses

  2. It doesn’t seem to be as bad as the Winter storm back in the early 90s, when I was living at Sandy Hook ;-).

    Thank goodness you have power and that you & yours had a Halloween to remember, the spider eggs look very interesting, what did you use for the spider?

    I agree with Kyna I do like the bird photo with the berries, came out great.

    It will all melt away soon, our 10-12 inches is almost history up here.

    Have a great day with the kids at home.

    Harold

  8. you rocked it john….that is some halloween spread!! and the kids look wonderful.

    i think that bird is a yellow rumped warbler, but i’m not sure. i got some close up’s and posted them on halloween.

  10. Don’t worry. Things will look up soon. At least you had a happy halloween with the kids. Pics are so cute. We settled with the faux cobwebs on the patio and leftover trick or treats.

  11. I like how you made the best of it! The photos are marvelous.

    It’s odd because here in Illinois, it was 70 degrees yesterday and we had one of the warmest Octobers on record. The past couple of years, my Hollyhocks have grown and bloomed a second time, and usually keep up right through the first snows into December. I keep saying that someday, Illinois will be the tropics. 😉

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