My favorite castle...

Everyone should have a favorite castle.  Sitting high on a hill in the woods is my favorite beautiful forgotten castle.  It's magical.

It was built in the 1890's by the inventor of one of the early movie cameras.  He built the castle for his wife.  All the rocks for the castle are from the property on which it was built. They even built a small railroad on the property to get the rocks up to the top of the hill for the castle.

Looking up into the porch you can see the remains on the ceiling.  I can imagine how magnificent it must have been.

Through the openings under the porch, you can see some of the collapsed pieces of the porch above.

Through the window, the remains of a collapsed staircase.

This was my favorite window.  I realize that might seem strange since you can't see much through it. I was drawn to it because it was the last spot I expected to find a bathtub. The window is at the lowest point of the house, and I wonder just how far that bathtub fell.

The last great pumpkin post for 2012....

As it begins to get colder and autumn comes to an end, so does our time with the great pumpkin.  The pumpkin survived hurricane Sandy and lasted through Thanksgiving.  His seeds were harvested, and a delicious pumpkin pie was enjoyed.

Deer have been digging into the pumpkin (thankfully, they waited until now to enjoy some pumpkin).

We visited the pumpkin to see him one last time as he was cut into pieces.  I kept thinking of the Charlie Brown scene when they carved the pumpkin and Charlie Brown sadly says "You didn't tell me you were going to kill it!"

Each piece was huge. 900+ pounds of pumpkin turns into a lot of giant pumpkin pieces.

I am already looking forward to telling you the story of next year's giant pumpkins. Will start the story early...from the seed.

Thank you for cheering on this giant pumpkin as he grew.

A forgotten steel mill...

I heard there were remains of a 19th century iron making complex in the woods in a nearby town.  Supposedly, the furnace and chimney were still standing.  I knew I needed to see it.

As we headed into the woods, we saw the remains on a cellar (above).  We continued onward, and saw stone walls.  Stone walls in New England just sort of appear in the woods.  They always amaze me...the work that went into putting them together without all the tools we have today.

I was hoping there would be more than just stone walls, and there would be a real furnace and chimney waiting along the path.

We made our way through the woods and came to an opening. This stood is front of us!

The chimney was standing nearby. It was perfect.  It certainly didn't look like it was "forgotten" over a hundred years ago.

The two ovens sit up on a hill above the furnace.

Heading into the oven (I never thought i would type those words).

Looking up!

Thanksgiving Parade...

My love of fall extends beyond Halloween. I love Thanksgiving. I love thinking about all the things I have to be thankful for, turkey and stuffing, pumpkin pie (especially for breakfast, the day after Thanksgiving), watching the parade, seeing Santa at the end. I love it all.

                                                                                                                          Our Thanksgiving celebrations began a little early this year as we visited a nearby parade this past weekend.

The balloons had to "limbo" under the traffic lights.

The Lorax balloon will be making its appearance in cities that are considered "green."  We were so excited to see it.

There were so many giant balloons. I loved hearing everyone shout with excitement when they saw them. The balloon handlers were amazing, and would turn the balloons completely around when the crowd shouted "spin."

I remember seeing the Kermit balloon on television on Thanksgiving morning and being so excited (I loved Kermit).  Even though it is many years later, it was still really great to see him in person.

GOURDS!

As you may know from previous posts, I love how different pumpkins can be. I love when they are an unusual shape, have bumps, different colors; anything that makes them unique (although I love a perfect orange round one too!). So, I find gourds pretty awesome because they definitely meet all of those criteria.  They come in so many amazing colors, some have bumps, some have unusual markings; and no two are exactly the same.

When we visited our favorite farm, we found some of the coolest gourds I've ever seen. I managed to find several that I "needed." These are a few of the ones we picked.

We thought this one looked like an octopus.

If I had to pick a favorite, this one wins. It reminds me of a star and its color is amazing.