Halloween

It was another day of chores in the yard, clearing and cleaning and spreading more of the mulched Russian Olive. I've grown quite fond of mulch. Beautiful to be out, and an enforced end time when the stuff I had to throw away exceeded the space I have in the trash barrel. By a lot. Pretty much done for the year, maybe some more raking, but I'm going to be gathering piles and tossing them in the barrel for weekends to come.

Time for a dog walk through the neighborhood. And to see — for the first time since we moved here — the extent of some of the Halloween decorations around (click for larger):

  

Our across-the-street neighbor made the best of the road construction:

 

It all started around 5:20, a few families with really little kids. Most of whom, we think we were out on their first Halloweens. One group, we were their first stop on their first outing:



I'm not sure the dog helped with their apprehension there. We'd positioned a borrowed baby gate in the doorway and propped the outer glass door open (because it swings out into the way of any kids and, after experimenting, realized that the gate on the landing would only lead to a trip to the emergency for one of us). For those first couple, Cheyenne was very interested, even jumping up on the gate. Luckily, the novelty quickly wore off and she spent most of the rest of the night in bed.



I feel like there were fewer than last year, but maybe not by as much as originally thought. More little kids, a lower percentage of too-old teenagers, it seemed like a lot of ladybugs. Favorite costumes: one group that had two kids in one big jacket, each head with a fedora and Groucho glasses; the little boy with them, dressed in all white with a black and white plaid baseball hat, white beard, and a handwritten sign on his chest that said "God."