Frankenstorm....

Sorry for the delay in posting.  We lost power and internet with Hurricane Sandy, or more affectionately known as Frankenstorm.  I will start with the picture above---the giant pumpkin survived a hurricane.  Massive tree down behind him, but he is fine and he is the only thing "halloween" happening around here today.

With the media warning us non-stop about the impending storm, you can't help but start to panic.  All we heard was to be prepared for days or weeks without power.  Gas quickly sold out.

Water was quickly bought up, and most grocery stores looked like this.

The winds picked up during the day.  They were getting scary and darkness was approaching.  As the sun went down, we lost power.  We were really in the dark.  The winds were getting stronger and scarier and I just kept hoping no trees would fall.  Then we heard that crack sound a tree makes right before it falls.  I ran outside to look and watched this giant tree fall. 

Many many trees are down everywhere. School is closed. Most are still without power, but we are grateful. So many places were hit so badly.  We are ok, just powerless.

Halloween has been postponed. I will definitely do a "postponed Halloween" post once it happens.  To those hit by Hurricane Sandy, our thoughts are with you. For those celebrating Halloween today, Happy Halloween.

This time last year....

I had a blog post planned for today, but sometimes things don't go as planned. Instead, I decided to post about the weekend before Halloween last year.  I've been thinking about it a lot today as it seems everyone is talking about when/how bad Hurricane Sandy will hit our area.

So a little trip down memory lane to this time last year.

Last year, like usual, we were so excited for Halloween.  Costumes were ready. We followed all our fall rituals---finding the perfect pumpkin, watching the giant pumpkin grow, hayrides, apple cider, pumpkin spice lattes, watched Linus wait for the Great Pumpkin---we were so ready.  The only thing we weren't ready for....snow in October.  It snowed, and snowed, and snowed some more.  The trees still had leaves on the branches and couldn't handle the weight of the snow and the leaves; branches and trees began to fall, power went out. Halloween was postponed, officially (for everyone's safety, our town postponed Halloween a week).

So October 31st came and didn't look much like Halloween; instead, it looked like this.....

Pumpkins buried in the snow. At least the snow disappeared by postponed Halloween.

Even though many trees fell (including part of this tree, as you can see behind the ghost), the ghost stayed up! 

As the snow began to melt, the pumpkins were still there.  Halloween did go on almost a week late, and it was great (despite the blackout and snow that led up to it).

It's almost Halloween...that means more Jack O'Lanterns

After the two posts on this year's amazing Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze, I heard requests for more pictures.  It is such an amazing Halloween event, every time I look at the photos from it, I think I get more excited for Halloween.  I didn't want to post a lot of photos from this year's Blaze, since it is still going on and some readers may have tickets to go in the next few days. So, I decided to revisit my photos from last year's Blaze and share those with you. 

I love the jack o'lantern scarecrows! 

The details carved into some of the pumpkins is truly amazing. I was in awe of all of these.

Each year, some of our favorites return from previous years; while we find amazing new carved creations. I love revisiting old favorites and I love the surprise of the amazing new carvings the artists have come up with.

The beehive is another favorite of mine.    All the bees are carved into tiny pumpkins.  There are at least a hundred of them flying around the hive. I wish I had the patience to carve all of these!







If you are going to the Blaze this weekend or next week, have an amazing time!

I can never get enough of the Blaze...

I heard from several readers requesting more Blaze pictures. I can never get enough of the Blaze, so I am more than happy to share more photos from my visit there.

Between all the photos in this post and my previous Blaze post (if you missed it click here), this is still just the tiniest glimpse into the most amazing carved pumpkin display.  If you haven't gone yet, definitely go check it out (but buy your tickets in advance!).

The Blaze is lit by pumpkin light and candle light  along the path. It is magical and beautiful.

Every pumpkin is beautiful...

There are so many things I love to do to celebrate autumn, as is apparent by my blog posts lately.  Another fall *must*... a trip to this fabulous pumpkin patch.  We visited last weekend, and as always, it was great. 

Everyone has their own list of qualities that make the perfect Halloween pumpkin--some like the tall ones, the perfectly round ones, the brightest orange ones.  Me? I like the unusual ones. I love pumpkins that have some green on them. And the misshapen ones? I think those are so cool.

I really liked this one.  His shape was almost perfectly round, but just "off" enough to make him different.

There bumpy ones just scream "ugly beautiful." I loved all of them.

Choosing which one to bring home was not easy...until we saw this one.  He is shaped like a top that you would spin with lots of fabulous green.  He is a perfect Halloween pumpkin.

It isn't Halloween until I visit the Blaze!

It is my favorite time of the year. I love Autumn. I love Halloween.  I look forward to it for months.  There are certain things that just make the season perfect in my mind---finding amazing pumpkins and gourds (I will blog about that soon), pumpkin spiced lattes, picking Halloween costumes, visiting pumpkin patches and a trip to the Blaze. If you are within driving distance of New York, definitely check out the Blaze.

If you are going this year, stop reading here (this post has lots of photos).  If you can't help yourself and want to see the pictures, there are still lots of amazing carved pumpkins that I did not include (so you will still be surprised when you get there).

My favorite part. It's hard to show just how big these are.  The carved skeleton ghosts were probably 10 feet tall. This tends to be the crowded part of the path through the Blaze, but I didn't mind because they always do a huge amazing display in this spot.

Frankenstein was amazing! I don't remember seeing him last year.  If you go, check out his friends too. Each one was so cool.

It is hard to imagine thousands of carved pumpkins, and it is hard to show you the magnitude of it without giving it all away. This is just a small glimpse into the Blaze.

I love the scarecrow in the corn and sunflower patch. The scarecrows have been a part of the Blaze for several years, and they too are among my favorites (who am I kidding...they are all my favorites).  Picking a favorite at the Blaze is impossible.

There are some scary pumpkins, but they are beautiful scary. Nothing jumps out at you, no zombies chasing you....just lots and lots of insanely beautiful carved pumpkins.

If you haven't bought tickets yet, they are going fast!