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.

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).