Hats

It's one of the advantages to avoiding the use of air conditioning that when the cold finally starts coming around I am usually more than ready for it. Things got chilly a little earlier this year, and we didn't have the distinct return to hot weather that we usually have at least once in the weeks surrounding Halloween, but still, after the scorching, dry summer, we have welcomed the crisp fall weather. And there is a moment each fall, too, when I feel that my body has finally made the transition, when I no longer label fifty degrees as chilly, but a veritable heat wave, when even thirty degrees does not keep us from a neighborhood walk. Of course, that moment of transition might have more to do with the swapping out of short, thin clothing for longer, heavier duds and layers. And hats. Definitely hats.

The season change opens up a pretty obvious field of study. Charting and discussing the rotation and orbit of the earth is something that Calvin already has a pretty good grasp of just from discussion over the years, but this fall we have actually marked out specific time to discuss it more in depth. Fall is a good time for this because not only is the gradual change in seasons more obvious, as the cusp between daylight and dark now falls before bedtime (especially around the clock change), but in our ancient history studies we have come across numerous references to the change of the seasons, particularly in the fall, and often in myth. That is, after all, what Halloween was for many all those thousands of years ago. Last week we took a break from our march through history (which right now has us camping out in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas about three thousand years ago) to drop in on Stonehenge and the Celts. One of these years I just might try to find a turnip big enough to carve. How appropriate that next week, with the clocks turned back and the sun setting before dinner, we will be entering into the Greek Dark Ages.

Boo.

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween

Pumpkins now line the porch, and spider webs the shrubbery. We've had our traditional Irish meal in honor of the celts (who gave us Samhain), brought the candy bowl out of repose, and I've worn several pairs of orange socks this week.

We're on the second round of costumes. We've watched The Phantom of the Opera (The Lon Chaney version) and the The History Channel's Haunted History of Halloween.

Today was celebration day on Michigan's campus, the day of the Halloween party at the Exhibit Museum of Natural History and the Halloween Concert given annually by the School of Music.

It's really feeling a lot like Halloween these days.

Hallowe'en Nights (Greenfield Village)

We've been to the Christmas event at Greenfield Village, but not to Hallowe'en Nights, and never to the special dinner before one of their period events. What a fantastic night! Dinner was delicious, and shared with many in the warm, inviting setting of the town tavern. It was served by reenactors who really seem to enjoy what they are doing, which held true not just for the period people in the tavern, but for everyone staging the event outside as well.

After dinner we walked along a jack-o-lantern lined path on a magical evening that thankfully held it's rain and wind until the night was over. We were stopped here and there at treat stations, but more exciting were the various story-telling spots and staged scenes: Hansel and Gretel, The Tell-Tale Heart, and, of course, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The story tellers were so powerful it would be hard to express their talent in my own words, and the staged scenes (the headless horseman chasing Ichabod Crane, the mob hunting down Frankenstein's monster, the pirate ghost ship) were just just the right balance of humorous and spooky.

Costumes were highly encouraged, and we brought the train out of retirement for this one because he could easily slip it off for dinner. With Calvin chugging around dressed in the era of steam travel, Jon went as a conductor and I as a Victorian traveler. Very appropriate for Greenfield's own target time period, and I like to think that the costumes got us into just the right mood for the event.

We were spooked, but not scared out of our wits, by the spectre in the carousel, the man hiding among the trees, the suddenly living scarecrow, and the portal of the covered bridge. There was a barber shop quartet of jack-o-lanterns, death standing out in a field (watch out, he'll point at you!), and ghostly brides and witches, all followed by hot cider. We ended our evening with a telling of The Tell-Tale Heart just as the wind was picking up, and Calvin fell asleep on the way home as the rain drops just started to spatter down. Timing was our friend this night.

Leaves in a blur