Unwelcome! to All-Spooks 2021!
I’m your tour guide, Uncle Alex Nosferatu! The 2021 All-Spooks Festival features a new and expanded garden venue, filled with creeps and chills, and Halloween fun for boils and ghouls of all ages.
Asteroid Astrology: Page 6
Asteroid Profile: Lameia, the Ghoul Next Door, Part II
In Part One of this article, we looked at the placement of asteroid Lameia, named for a mythic progenitress of the vampire, in the charts of literary individuals who were instrumental in popularizing this undead creature, and crafting our modern image of it. Part Two will focus on the individuals and films who brought the vampire to “life” on the screen.
Garden Glimpses: Autumn Equinox
It’s that season again – fall! Cool, bright days, crisp clear nights, nature pulling out all the stops on its color palette, displaying all its tones in a vibrant burst of life before winter’s slumber. Autumn is my favorite time of year, and not just because it includes Halloween! Before the ghosties and ghoulies and long-leggedly beasties come out to play, there’s falling leaves, tangy apple cider, pumpkins and gourds galore, and a riot of color in the September garden.
Garden Glimpses: Farewell Summer!
As August waxes, the garden wanes. With the entrenched heat and increased drought, the riot of color that was early summer and July fades to straw and dun tones as Lammas passes, and only pockets of vibrancy remain to remind one of the garden’s heyday. I used to trim back spent or dying vegetation quicky, but I’m eco-systemically “woke” now, and realize that lots of critters depend on this garden detritus for their winter shelter, so I (try to) embrace the bleak, apocalyptic landscape emerging. (Well, it’ll be good for Hallowe’en, right?) Many early autumn bloomers are still budded, but some are starting to reveal their beauty, and a few summer stragglers fight bravely on.
Simone Biles’ Olympic Saga
The professional sports world was stunned on July 27th by the announcement from star American gymnast Simone Biles that she would be withdrawing from the 2020 Olympics, citing mental health concerns. After performing a qualifying round for the vaulting competition, Biles made a hard landing, affected by what gymnasts term “the twisties”, when one’s sense of balance and positioning is lost during vaults or dismounts. Biles went on to withdraw from all team and individual competitions, later stating that the unexpected loss of her aunt two days before the Tokyo games opened, and memories of sexual abuse from her coach, had combined to dangerously distract her focus.
Garden Glimpses: July – Another Day, Another Daylily
Daylilies have always been a part of my experience of this property, from my earliest remembrances of the lemon lilies my mother brought with her from my grandmother’s garden. Bright shining yellow, these late May bloomers are still the first to open, though the encroaching maple shade has thinned them to a precious few.
