Last Halloween in Iowa

I've long abandoned this "blog" in favor of Facebook and just being lazy, but my tiny family is making a huge move in the coming year and I'm feeling a little nostalgic for things that I thought might go on forever.  Halloween here in Iowa, for example.  I'm kicking myself for being too indolent to have photographed the armies of jack-o-lanterns that have graced our porch the past several years.  Why didn't I just film my two hugely pregnant friends and their five little ones stuffing our scarecrow two Octobers past?  You don't see that kind of thing everyday.

Look, they did such a good job!  You should have seen it after the head was carved!

Last year Tristan was a banana.  Every year since he was a baby we've gone to Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, Nebraska for their annual Ghoulish Garden Adventure...

Romantic, isn't it?

Next year we may well be settled in New York.  And even though intellectually I doubt that there's a better place to spend Halloween that in the Hudson Valley, my heart aches for what we'll miss here.  Will we fly in for the Anderson Horticultural Library book sale?  The first weekend in October has involved a trip to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (which houses the aforementioned library) for the past few years and I can't imagine missing it.  They know us there, they expect us, they LOVE us (I've spent way too much money there)!!  And the arboretum goes all out for autumn..

 

They have the absolute best scarecrows!!!!

 The squash is pretty fabulous, too!!!

How often do you see such sexy squash?

We'd never done it before, but being that it's probably our last chance we went to the Living History Farms this year to see what they had to offer in the way of Halloween festivities, and good gravy was it a gorgeous evening..

Holy shit this is beautiful, am I right?!

Expletives do not do it justice!!!!!

For the past several years I have carved as many pumpkins as they'll provide me with for the Ida County Conservation Board's "Halloween Hike".  It began as a guided walk along a jack-o-lantern-lit path through gorgeous woods at night with stops for multiple ecological and nature-themed skits along the way but has since evolved into a self-guided tour through less wooded areas  with trick-or-treat stations instead of anything conservation related..  Ahem, which is fine (!), because my participation has generally just been about the pumpkins.  This year there weren't so many to go around though, thanks to the unusually wet weather.  Because of their number and small stature, they are remarkably less glorious than previous (undocumented) years, but I did photograph a small selection of them...

 And some more carved on Halloween night..

WHAT IF WE DON'T HAVE A FRONT PORCH ON OUR NEW HOUSE?  If we live in the country there won't be anyone coming to our house to trick-or-treat!  Sure, we might be able to grow our own gross of pumpkins, but will we have had time to make friends that will care to see them carved?  What pregnant ladies in New York will want to stuff my scarecrow? 

...

On October 21st I found an abandoned kitten, just a few days old, in a box in my neighbor's driveway.  He'd moved a litter born in his boat to the box.  From there the mama kitty had moved the others but not this precious little thing..

We took her to the vet's office, and the staff there didn't give us much hope but they did give us some kitten formula.  To our surprise (and chagrin) she's been eating and growing and peeing and pooping and worming her way into our hearts and out of her box.  Today we got a carrier to contain her when we'd like some peace and quiet.  We'll nurse her and love her and try to train her enough to be ready for adoption at the Siouxland Humane Society around the 24th.  Did I mention that I am allergic to cats?  And that I pretty much loathe the idea of pets in general?  Ethically, aesthetically, in all respects I am pretty much emphatically averse to pets.  There is a reason this tiny creature came into our lives when she did.  Acknowledging this last Halloween in Iowa is just a wobbly, worried baby kitty step towards a whole new life.  It'll be hard to leave; it would be easier to stay put and let this dream die.  But there is hope... 

...and there's dried formula around the sides of her mouth.