I Love October

I love October for several reasons.

I love the cool crispness of the air and the smell of dead leaves.   It should be a depressing season, knowing that it brings the cold dark winter months, and the days get shorter, but there is just something about October that makes me all happy inside.

For one thing, October brings my birthday.  I'm at the that stage in my life where I don't exactly welcome that annual reminder that I'm slowly turning into an old prune, but it really helps that my birthday falls in my favorite month of October, when most of my birthday cards and gifts are more likely to have something to do with Fall (or Halloween).

My daughter Stephanie sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers in Fall colors, neatly arranged in a ceramic pumpkin vase, and her note said "Have a spooky birthday!"

I loved that!

I also love the taste of October.

I had some leftover cooked winter squash from making squash bread, so I made my first pumpkin spice latte for the season.  Technically, it was really a squash spice latte, but after you add the proper spices, you really can't tell much difference.  It was a welcome treat.  I'm waiting for my next opportunity to cook more squash (or a pumpkin), but I'm sorta trying to save them for my Halloween decor.  In the meantime, I've been trying to buy some canned pumpkin, but the stores are always sold out whenever I look for some.  Sooner or later, I will probably cook a squash or a pumpkin just out of sheer impatience.

Bossy likes Fall too.

She likes Fall because that is when the heater starts kicking in again.  She loves to sit on any blowing heater vent and hog all the heat. It's funny that cats are always desiring to be warm and cozy.  I guess that's what makes them warm and cozy pets to snuggle with.  That is, if they are in the right mood.

As for Halloween, I'm still trying to work on my menu.  I made some headway, but what I lack is wit and a talent for creative writing to make it entertaining.  When I get frustrated and can't think of anything, I walk away from it and work on my decor.

This is what I got so far:

Don't be too critical - I'm not done yet.  Chances are, most things will get moved around and rearranged as I go through all the bins.

As for my scarecrow, I don't know what to do:

I don't want to use the skeleton for this because I don't think he makes a very good scarecrow, but if Chuck doesn't make a wooden stick figure for me to work with, I might be stuck using the skeleton.  Right now everything is still "in the works" as I try to get ideas, but I'm getting there.

So that is just a little glimpse of my October.