Halloween Afternoon in the Cemetery

I walked downtown today to do some errands, and as usual my path took me by Hope Cemetery. It was around 3:30 and the afternoon light coming through these beautiful yellow leaves was fantastic, so of course I had to stop and take some photos!

More Hope Cemetery

Hope Cemetery

There's an old cemetery up the road from my building; I used to drive by it all the time when I was at at school but I'd never really been in. It's small, but pretty. Last spring I went walking there one day, on a gorgeous afternoon, to take pictures. Most of my shots didn't turn out too well, but several of the beautiful blooming trees did. This one, I was surprised and initially annoyed to find was blurry, but on a second look I realized I actually really liked it like this. If any of you think it's slightly odd that I patronize cemeteries, well, maybe it is, but I like cemeteries--for the same reason I like churches, even though I'm not at all religious and am in fact somewhere between atheist and agnostic. I like cemeteries. They're peaceful, and often beautiful: same with churches. Plus I just love the name of this particular graveyard: Hope Cemetery. How beautiful is that?

Cemetery Flowers

The Unfolding Star

The Witching Time--More Halloween-y quotes!

"Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on."

Spotted

Another photo from my family vacation in Mexico. The beach didn't have the waves like Cancun does, but it was very calm and peaceful.

Pedicures, pizza, and hot firefighters!

Today was a great day! My roommate J and I both had the day off work, so while she had a few errands to run I slept in, finally woke up to a beautiful fall day, drank my coffee and ate my bagel, then laid in bed in my wonderful light-filled room and spent some time watching funny videos on youtube. Eventually I got up and got in the shower late in the afternoon, and while I was in there rocking to some classic '80s music I decided that I wanted to do something today. Eventually that evolved into the specific urge to get a pedicure. So I suggested that to J when I got out, and she was all for it, so we went and got pedicures! Yay for pedicures! That was only the second one I've ever had, and J had never gotten one before, but we've decided to make it a monthly tradition. Then, when we got back, we both still wanted to do something and considered going to jazz night, but we both had to work early in the morning so instead we settled on ordering in pizza and finishing off the bottle of wine in the fridge while watching the new Indiana Jones movie that I just got on Netflix today. We usually get pizza from Papa John's, but J said she felt like thin crust today, so instead we ordered it from a local pizza house here, which is really good but we've never ordered out from there before. Lo and behold, when the doorbell rang I flung it open to find, instead of the pizza guy we expected, there were two good-looking firefighters standing there! Needless to say, I was confused. It turns out this is Fire Prevention Week or some such event so a couple local restaurants are doing a promotional thing with the fire department where when someone orders food, the fire department comes and checks to make sure their smoke detectors are in working order. If they are, then the pizza is free! So since our smoke and carbon monoxide detectors were working fine, we got a free pizza! Hot firefighters bearing free pizza! What more could a girl ask for? Seriously?

Seuss-like

I was once told that this particular shot was reminiscent of Dr. Seuss, which I choose to take as a compliment. In reality, I took it at a resort in Mexico's Riviera Maya. My family went there for a vacation a couple winters ago, and had a great time. I highly recommend it. It's about a half hour/45 minutes south of Cancun, and much better! The resort itself was in progress; it was still partially under construction but mostly finished, and it was really nice. I'd love to go back there. The only downside was that the area is also still under construction. There are only a few resorts there that are spaced out pretty far from each other, so there's no walking from one to another like you can in Cancun, or to the nearby beach town, Playa del Carmen. However, on the plus side, Playa del Carmen is AWESOME! It's got tons of fantastic restaurants, shops, everything on a main walking street, Las Quintas. It's about a 10 minute taxi ride from the resort we were staying at, but apparently they plan to put in a path there from the resort and provide golf carts or something, so that obstacle will be eliminated.

Halloween, Shakespeare style

Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.


Sorry, I'm just in a Halloweeny mood and I love this scene with the three witches from "Macbeth"!

St. Augustine

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