Cemeteries in Black and White

Black & white photography really does give a certain “mood” to prints.

It especially gives a cemetery that added “cold as stone” feel.

My best friend took this picture of me many years ago pretending to be “Angelique Collins” from the old Dark Shadows series. We loved that show. Ironically I find I have a number of grandmothers on my French side by that very name, “Angelique!” Had I known this sooner I would have insisted my parents change my name. As you can see I lightened my hair so I could resemble her. (the picture is badly deteriorating and yes, that is a crystal ball!)
Some of my ancestors were burned as witches and I inherited it.

Psych!

Psycho!


Fall is Fleeting

So hard to believe just another week until November!  Less than a month until Thanksgiving and the Holiday season begins.  Autumn is just not long enough.  Nothing is ever long enough when you love it so.  I sit through the cold winter to welcome spring and then swelter through summer until the welcome autumn chill cools it down again.

That being said, I didn’t forget Halloween.  Though I don’t celebrate it anymore, those around me still do and I still have many fond memories I will share very soon.

Prepare!  Gather your talismans & good luck charms or say your prayers, which ever you think will save you!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Transmogrify for Halloween!

calumetcemetarygrimreaper

ENTER, IF YOU DARE!

grimreaperglow-2 pumpkinrainbowHalloween used to be one of my Favorite Holidays when I was young, after Christmas of course.  Halloween is my oldest son’s favorite and he goes all out in decorating each year.  Sometimes including his own costumes, fave being Brandon Lee’s “The Crow.

crow-shi
Yes folks, that’s his real hair!

Enjoy video from some of his previous Halloweens on youtube.com!  Or even scarier!

One of his earlier Halloweens with a jumping apple head for an apple head doll
One of his earlier Halloweens with a jumping apple head for an apple head doll

As a child I lived near one of the oldest graveyards in the area with stones from the 1700’s at least.  A few of us used to go up there to read them.  Thanks to the television program I watched as a young teen, Dark Shadows, I thought cemeteries were very cool.  Ghosts anyone?

cemetaryhardlight

cemetary-ghost

cemetaryghost

I had a very cool Halloween song that I might have shared before.  Starts with:

Jack ‘O Lanterns big black cats and witches that fly in the sky!

I'll get you my pretty, and your little guns too! (hope I don't get deleted)
I’ll get you my pretty, and your little guns too!
(hope I don’t get deleted)

Halloween also led us straight into the other holidays later on.  Used to be we kept the Halloween harvesty feeling way past Thanksgiving and I loved that.  I remember when Christmas didn’t really start til a week or two before Christmas.  Again, that was over 50 years ago and I don’t think that stores were even open on Sundays.  I think they started doing that in the late 60’s, some of them.  I love autumn!  It’s just a great time of year for so many reasons.

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Less than a month until Thanksgiving if anyone cares and coming soon to a super market near you, GMO enhanced poultry, also known as

POULTRY OF THE DAMNED!

 Thanksgiving???!!!!
Thanksgiving???!!!

chicken-creepy chicken-creepy-2

Have a safe and Happy Halloween to those that celebrate.

Pleasant Dreams!

bats-flying-halloween

Weekly Photo Challenge: Treat, if You Dare!

If you enjoy being frightened, this will be a real treat because there’s no trick about it.

Below is a reprint of a true story I posted for Halloween in 2013.  Hope you enjoy it.

ghost sharp

Things That Go “Blink” in the Night!

I was really not upset, it was only a coincidence.  A very strange and disturbing coincidence.  That’s all it was.  What else could it be?  That’s what I told myself when “it” happened.

After my divorce I had been living in an apartment raising my sons that were almost grown at the time.  I’d been feeling that I wanted to buy my own home again and thought that taking care of a home  might help with the coming “empty nest syndrome” I was about to experience.  Of course that was before the housing bubble burst.  I began looking for something cozy and affordable and decided a small, older home in need of some TLC would be right up my ally.  A fixer-upper I could repair on weekends for my therapy instead of shopping would hopefully save me from being on a future episode of Hoarders.

I mentioned this idea to my oldest son who was a fan of shows that delve into paranormal activities whose response was “You’ll probably end up buying some haunted house.”  To which I just laughed and forgot about it, for the time being.  Within a few nights his words came back to haunt me, literally!

I dreamed I had bought a rather oddly shaped house that resembled a barn.  Very distinctive looking.  I kept looking at the house trying to decide where to place the garden in the front yard.  The dream began very nicely and I remember feeling so happy and excited as we were moving belongings and unpacking things inside the home with my two sons.  Then the dream changed.  It suddenly felt as if the entire aura of the home was different and not in a good way.  I was standing in one of the rooms by myself when all of a sudden the light went out for a few seconds then on again for a few more seconds then off again by itself.  As the light show continued I remember thinking “My son was right!  I had indeed purchased a haunted house!”

I awoke with a start!

The next morning I told my son about the disturbing dream I had that I felt was due to his off the cuff comment.  Then I forgot about it, or so I thought.

Months later going over yet another real estate magazine before going to sleep, my blood ran cold!  There before my very eyes looked to be the haunted house of my dreams!  At the exact moment I came to this realization, the lamp in my room suddenly went out.  I thought our power went out, but found the digital clock still showing the time.  I was about to get up to check the bulb when it came right back on again only to go out again in the same continued pattern of the haunted room of my dreams!  The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and I broke out in goosebumps on that warm evening made worse because I knew I was home alone and the clock showed it was almost midnight, the witching hour!  It continued in this pattern til I pulled myself together and unplugged the lamp thinking rationally that it must be a short or a loose bulb, but what a coincidence that it started when it did.  After a while I managed to fall asleep.

ghosts in window

The next morning I told my son what had happened so we got the lamp to test it out after I found that the bulb was not loose.  The light turned on immediately and stayed on.  There was nothing wrong that we could see.  No short that could be found.  I began to feel very unnerved again.  That light had worked perfectly before that evening and has continued to be problem free ever since.

ghost bouncing

How or why this happened, I do not know.  A mere coincidence?  A playful poltergeist?  You be the judge!

 

HAUNTED BY MY DREAMS!

GhostAnimate3

Things That Go “Blink” in the Night!

I was really not upset, it was only a coincidence.  A very strange and disturbing coincidence.  That’s all it was.  What else could it be?  That’s what I told myself when “it” happened.

After my divorce I had been living in an apartment raising my sons that were almost grown at the time.  I’d been feeling that I wanted to buy my own home again and thought that taking care of a home  might help with the coming “empty nest syndrome” I was about to experience.  Of course that was before the housing bubble burst.  I began looking for something cozy and affordable and decided a small, older home in need of some TLC would be right up my ally.  A fixer-upper I could repair on weekends for my therapy instead of shopping would hopefully save me from being on a future episode of Hoarders.

I mentioned this idea to my oldest son who was a fan of shows that delve into paranormal activities whose response was “You’ll probably end up buying some haunted house.”  To which I just laughed and forgot about it, for the time being.  Within a few nights his words came back to haunt me, literally!

I dreamed I had bought a rather oddly shaped house that resembled a barn.  Very distinctive looking.  I kept looking at the house trying to decide where to place the garden in the front yard.  The dream began very nicely and I remember feeling so happy and excited as we were moving belongings and unpacking things inside the home with my two sons.  Then the dream changed.  It suddenly felt as if the entire aura of the home was different and not in a good way.  I was standing in one of the rooms by myself when all of a sudden the light went out for a few seconds then on again for a few more seconds then off again by itself.  As the light show continued I remember thinking “My son was right!  I had indeed purchased a haunted house!”

I awoke with a start!

The next morning I told my son about the disturbing dream I had that I felt was due to his off the cuff comment.  Then I forgot about it, or so I thought.

Months later going over yet another real estate magazine before going to sleep, my blood ran cold!  There before my very eyes looked to be the haunted house of my dreams!  At the exact moment I came to this realization, the lamp in my room suddenly went out.  I thought our power went out, but found the digital clock still showing the time.  I was about to get up to check the bulb when it came right back on again only to go out again in the same continued pattern of the haunted room of my dreams!  The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and I broke out in goosebumps on that warm evening made worse because I knew I was home alone and the clock showed it was almost midnight, the witching hour!  It continued in this pattern til I pulled myself together and unplugged the lamp thinking rationally that it must be a short or a loose bulb, but what a coincidence that it started when it did.  After a while I managed to fall asleep.

The next morning I told my son what had happened so we got the lamp to test it out after I found that the bulb was not loose.  The light turned on immediately and stayed on.  There was nothing wrong that we could see.  No short that could be found.  I began to feel very unnerved again.  That light had worked perfectly before that evening and has continued to be problem free ever since.

How or why this happened, I do not know.  A mere coincidence?  A playful poltergeist?  You be the judge!

HalloweenStatueinmoonlightg