Autumn Decorations

 

My autumn (fall) decorations are rather modest compared to what I see on some American blogs - we don't have quite the same tradition here of filling our homes and gardens with ghosts and carved pumpkins this time of year.

An old chest in my living room is my main place of changing decorations with the seasons, though, and the orange candles + fake orange gladiouli have been there throughout October. The other day I added my two owls (which during summer live elsewhere). In the big one you can put a tea candle (nowadays I use battery ones for safety). That one I inherited from my mum. The small one is made of solid concrete (very heavy for its size!), and I bought that one a few years ago, because it reminded me so much of the bigger one!

Today Ginny's blog post reminded me that I actually also have a small scarecrow that  rarely gets to be on display. So I added that to the brown vase for the next week or so. 

 

As scarecrows go, it's not really very scary! 

 

 

If memory serves me right, I got the scarecrowfrom my friend Gunilla up in Karlstad on some occasion. We were close friends since our early 20s. In February it will sadly be three years since she died - shortly before her 70th birthday. (She had a lot of health problems all her life, but in spite of that also managed to spread a lot of joy.) 

 

Halloween in Sweden is primarily a holiday when people remember loved ones who passed away, and visit their graves to decorate them with winter wreaths and candles. I'm not sure I'll be walking even as far as to the nearby cemetery in the week to come - but memories can be honoured in other ways, without going anywhere at all. 

Spooky Weather

It's Halloween, and here Nature is up to some spooky tricks of its own tonight - like moving/turning over dust-bins on wheels outdoors, and rattling the balconies on my building, making scary noises. And most likely worse, elsewhere...!

Earlier in the afternoon, as I was sitting in my chair in the living room, watching TV, there was some sudden very unusual kind of noise from outside, which made me jump up and look out of my windows. This was the sight that met me:

Photo taken from my balcony door. That bench has its normal place against the wall below the window to the left of that door... Now a gust of wind from the west had lifted it up and  blown it across the balcony floor, banging into the railing in the opposite corner! (I've lived here 16 years, the bench has always been in the same place, all year round, and this has never happened before...)

Checking the weather app on my phone I saw that warnings for strong gusts of wind had been issued for tonight and a day or two onward, with recommendations to secure things like garden furniture etc outdoors. So I ended up taking the bench inside, and the box of strawberry plants still hanging on the railing as well. Normally the box of strawberries hibernates all winter under the bench. I think what caused the situation now was probably that so far this autumn I had just covered the top of the bench provisionally (obviously just making it more tempting for the wind to play with, rather than serving as protection...)

I think I'll have to await a calmer day to decide if I can recreate my usual winter arrangement or if I'd better just take the bench down to the basement storage room this year. (There are some problems with that as well, though.)

While dealing with this rather minor "incident", inside my head I had images from all the recent much worse weather situations around the world: The hurricanes in Florida, where I have at least one blogging friend (Sandra) still dealing with the aftermaths. The flooding in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where other friends had their house severly flooded. They lost most of their furniture and other belongings. Similar situations now on the east coast of Spain, from what I've seen on TV. And via Facebook I've learned that "Typhoon Kong-rey, the biggest typhoon to directly hit Taiwan in nearly 30 years, has made landfall on the island's eastern coast" (where I also have friends living).

Here, I still have power, so am going to turn my TV on now and check what of all this (and more) that's currently considered worth mentioning in my corner of the world.

31st October

Today, all over the internet, there are lots of Halloween posts from American and British friends. Here in Sweden, it's just an ordinary Tuesday, though.

In this country, the holiday All Saints' Day was moved (in the 1950s) to always be celebrated on the Saturday falling between 31st October and 6th November; and followed by All Souls' Day on the Sunday. Traditionally, it's also mostly a rather solemn weekend here, when we remember family and friends who passed away, and visit graveyards to put candles and winter decorations on their graves. 

In later decades, the American tradition of Halloween parties and trick-or-treat-ing etc has also spread - but there is no real consensus about when to have these celebrations. Some insist that they belong on 31st October, never mind what day of the week that happens to be. Others find it natural to have them on the Friday before All Saint's Day, whatever date that happens to be. Or even the weekend before 31st October. (I heard someone on the radio this morning sighing about having had random trick-or-treat visits for a whole week already.)  

On the housing estate where I live since 15 years, I don't think I've ever seen or heard any signs of Halloween celebrations. My own autumn decorations are modest and won't get any scarier than two friendly ceramic owls and some candles (real and fake) to light up the dark.

 

 

Barbie and Skipper have settled down to read - as do I from time to time...

If anyone is wondering what it's like outdoors, the answer is: grey, went and windy! 

On Sunday I did not set foot outdoors at all. Photo taken from my window.

 

Yesterday I did venture out as it was less windy for a while. Still very wet, though!

Today I went out again, to go and post a card to the husband of a close friend of mine who died back in January.  I managed most of the walk without getting too wet, but had to turn up my umbrella before I got back home again. I had also brought a candle for a family grave (great grandparents) in the cemetery close to home (which I passed on my way back). I managed to light it, but suspect that it probably got put out by wind or rain behind my back not long after. The forecasts for the All Saints/ Souls weekend are so far not looking any better, though.

Halloween / All Saints', Owls and Candles

As mentioned before, in Sweden we celebrate All Saints' Day on the first Saturday in November (i.e. today), rather than on November 1st. (The holiday was moved here back in 1952, which means it's been like that all my life.) It's a rather solemn holiday, mostly about remembering the dead, tending to family graves, and church concerts with requiems.

Nowadays it also tends to get mixed up with American Halloween traditions, though - even if many still claim that those do not belong in our culture; or should at least be limited to the night of October 31st (never mind what day of the week). Others argue that as All Saints has been moved, then Halloween should also be celebrated on the Friday before All Saints. And with schools nowadays also closed a whole week for "autumn leave" (no such thing back in my own school days!), Halloween time now tends to sort of spread out to cover two weekends + the week in between!

For me, All Saints used to be a rather gloomy holiday (sad rather than festive and child-friendly). Nowadays, I feel more free to celebrate or ignore it as I please, though.

In my own home, decorations for autumn/Halloween/All Saints are sparse. Basically, I just change the display on the old chest in my living room a bit - adding a bit of orange, and featuring my owl collection. (If you can call just a handful of something a collection!)

 

These tiny ones sit on the rim of my vase of fake twigs.
(They can also sit on a plant pot.)

 

The big one used to be my mother's. You can put a tea candle inside it. With a real candle, it gets very hot, though... So I sometimes put a battery candle in it instead.

 

Back in summer I found this little one in a souvenir shop and added it to the "collection". It's small but heavy - made of solid concrete. I fell for it because it reminded me of the bigger hollow one, and I thought they might like each other's company... ;-)

On another wall (all year round) hangs an owl made in batik technique, made by my maternal grandfather back in 1976. He made quite a lot of batik art back in those days. I think I got this one for either my birthday or Christmas that year.

 For this weekend, I put a lantern with a battery candle in my living room window. That's for all the family graves that I don't visit... The lantern may get stay up until it's time to put up Advent candles instead, though. (Or until the battery runs out; whichever comes first.)

I did also go out to put a real candle on the one family grave we have in the old cemetery nearby where I "always" walk, though. Someone else had been there before me:

 

"All Things Bright and Spooky"

This year (in spite of skyrocketing electricity bills) our City Park has been decorated with some "Bright Art", to brighten up the dark winter months (from Halloween until after New Year). As today I was out after lunch (around 2 pm), I had not really expected them to be lit yet; but some of them were. I suppose I should go back some late afternoon in twilight to see the full effect. But for now, here is how I saw it today.
 

 

 

I missed the sign for this one, so don't know what it's called. But it comes with spooky howling sounds in the background...

 

(Saving some more photos of "nature's own art" for another post.)

'Something Wicked This Way Comes' (Book Review)

 

Something Wicked This Way Comes*
by Ray Bradbury (1962)

(*from Shakespeare's Macbeth: "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes".)

Ray Bradbury (American author, 1920-2012) is perhaps best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451, and some other science fiction/fantasy books. My own personal favourite by him ever since back in my teens is Dandelion Wine * (1957), though - inspired by the author's own childhood, and a quite charming "summery" coming-of-age book. (The link goes to a blog post of mine from 2020, when I reread/ listened to that one as audio book.)

When a cheap Kindle offer of Something Wicked came up for me recently, introduced as a sequel to Dandelion Wine (as it's set in the same fictional town - Green Town, Illinois), I should probably have gathered from the title that it would be a darker story. But somehow, when I started reading it, I forgot about that. Will Halloway and his friend Jim (both 13 on the verge of turning 14) seemed to have quite a lot in common with Douglas Spaulding & co. from the first book; and for the first few chapters, I just put the partly sinister atmosphere down to the boys' vivid imagination, nighttime, and upcoming Halloween...

"First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys. --- it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks and a soft flap of bed sheets around corners. But one wild dark long year, Halloween came early."

That year (I don't think a specific year is given, but in the late 1920s or so), on October 24, a carnival arrives in town in the middle of the night; and both boys sneak out (as they were obviously in the habit of doing now and then) to have a look. They see some weird things, and find the atmosphere quite spooky - but then who wouldn't, when one is 13/14 and sneaking out in the middle of the night seeking adventure...

I'm not sure myself exactly when in the book I started to realize that things were really getting too spooky to just be coming from the boys' imagination. It may not have been until Will's father (janitor of the town library) begins to take them seriously as well.

Anyway, it gets worse before it's over. Not easy to quite pin down the genre; but a sort mix of surrealism, fantasy and horror - with obvious themes of good vs evil, and pros and cons (and longings and fears) of youth vs old age.

If you enjoy spooky tales at Halloween time, you might want to try it. If you're not a fan of that genre, I'd recommend you stick with Dandelion Wine, though.

...

A few more quotes below. The man does have a way with words!!!

"Three in the morn, full wide-eyed staring, is living death! You dream with your eyes open"

"The merry-go-round was running, yes, but . . . It was running backward."

"Yet he knew that, during this night, unless he lived with it very well, he might have to live with it all the rest of his life."

"Nothing extraordinary about me except I’m fifty-four, which is always extraordinary to the man inside it."

"Really knowing is good. Not knowing, or refusing to know, is bad, or amoral, at least." 

"We’re more afraid of Nothing than we are of Something. You can fight Something. But . . . Nothing? Where do you hit it?"

Halloween 2

In my previous post (Oct 31), I showed some photos from a large woodland cemetery on the outskirts of town. The photos in today's post are from an older and smaller cemetery, closer to where I live. Not quite "next door" as there is a railway and a road to cross in between... But with a footbridge over the railway (which runs in a narrow valley down below), only a few minutes away. In fact, I usually walk either along, across or around this cemetery several times a week. Either on my way to/from other places, or just for a walk. Having lived where I live for 11+ years now, I estimate that I have probably walked across or along that cemetery like 4000 times - whereas during the 50+ previous years of my life, maybe I visited a graveyard once or twice a year (at most!). In some ways, it probably helped to take the "edge" off some of my own losses (and fears) over the same time period... Because while each walk in a cemetery is a reminder of death, at the same time it is also a reminder of Life...

A week or so before Halloween, before the trees dropped all their leaves, I walked around that cemetery taking photos of some of the old graves that have more recently been recycled. (The system here is that when there is no one left to care for a grave, and a certain number of years/decades have passed since the last burial there, it can be reused.) When there are lots of "extra" decorations added on an old grave, that usually indicates a more recent burial - and often of someone young, or someone with roots in another country and culture. (In the photos I have avoided including names, though.)

So many stories...

Inspired Sunday #340

Halloween

I've just been scrolling through a number of "Halloweens Past" on my blog (with a nod to Dickens and his Christmas Carol)... 


Those of you who have been following me here for a while probably remember by now that in Sweden, the 'Halloween' traditions are not so much focused on pumpkins and scary costumes and collecting candy, but more on the All Saints' Day /weekend being a time for visiting the family graves, with winter decorations and candles. 

Comparing my blog photos from around Halloween over some years, one of my conclusions is that autumn seems to be further along this year than it's been in a while. The blast of autumn colours is over: Most of the leaves have already dropped to the ground, leaving bare branches silhouetted against the sky. And the last couple of mornings, the ground has been covered with frost.

Today was another cold morning, but also very still; and towards noon, the clouds lifted and the sun broke through. I decided it was a good day for a walk to the large cemetery where my maternal grandparents' grave is (and one or two others from mum's side of the family). It's on the outskirts of town, but "on a good day" within walking distance from where I live. (As it happens, I might be going again on Saturday, if my aunt and uncle come by. But one of the things in life one cannot plan is the weather...)

 
This cemetery covers a huge area with varied kinds of landscape. The kinds of headstones used also vary from one section to another. My grandparents' grave is on top of a little hill, and their stone lies flat on the ground. (This sometimes makes it tricky to find, as it tends to get covered with leaves and needles falling down on it from the trees above... The branches half-covering it just now are the winter decorations, though!)

Other sections of the cemetery have standing stones like these.

The reflections on the lake show both how still it was on this day; but also that most of the deciduous trees have already dropped all their leaves. 

  

If you'd like to compare photos from a more colourful Halloween visit to the same cemetery, try 2015. ;)