In The Details

My step-daughter is moving into a new apartment downtown. Most apartment buildings here appear to be built in a week from MDF and plastic siding. This one is on High Street and dates from the 1940s. It's made of brick and the little architectural pleasures are in the details of pediment and tile work.

Metamorphosis

Turning these...

Into these ...

And Mrs.B's comes out on top like every year.

Scary clown in honour of Twisty the scary clown in the latest American Horror Story.

Post Office Post

I had a bunch of over sized, extra postage required halloween cards to mail out today so, it being a beautiful fall day I thought I'd drive 20 miles to Smithfield to mail them in the Post Office there. Now there is a Post Office half a mile from my house but it's manned by the rudest surliest bunch of jobsworths it has ever been my misfortune to meet. For the last 3 years I've mailed Xmas packages there and paid through the nose for the pleasure of being insulted by an entire team of unmitigated assholes. So, rant over,  it seemed worth a shot to combine a little trip out with my mail run. 

Now when I got there they were closed for lunch but what the heck I went 4 doors down and got lunch myself. A crab cake BLT (hold the T) with home made potato chips. And when the Post Office and I had both eaten I went to mail my cards. The lady was  as nice as pie and I wasn't given the third degree by some ex military asshole who is suspicious as to why anyone might want to mail something outside the USA which isn't a military base and/or currently under US occupation. In and out in 2 minutes if I hadn't paused to admire their mural.

Captain John Smith Trading With the Indians was painted by one William Abbott Cheever in 1941 as part of Roosevelt's New Deal cultural improvent scheme, the Public Works of Art Project. The PWAP ran from 1934 to 1943 and produced thousands of public artworks across America. Post Offices in particular were singled out as the most commonly visited of public buildings. Interestingly to me the scene looked to be set on the shore of the James river below the site of Fort Boykin just outside of Smithfield a spot where Jr. and I photographed Tiger Beetles back in the spring.

A better image of the painting follows not from my phone.

Night Visitor

Now the evenings are finally cooling into the low 50s it's remarkably quiet outside. Best time of year to sleep, with the windows wide open. Until last night there were still various night bugs to be heard, mostly various crickets. As the weather cools then the frequency drops but last night...silence. But we were visited by:

Nemora bistriaria the Red Fringed Emerald. A pretty little moth I think.

Nerd Fest

Just returned from escorting Banished Jr to his first Comicon in Virginia Beach. He insisted on going dressed as Batman and he seemed to enjoy himself. He bought toys, he bought signed Adventure Time comic art and he even bought some comics. 

Now he's getting into comics it makes me regret having sold my collection back in the mid 1990s. Whole Neil Gaimen runs of Sandman, the entire Alan Moore Swamp Thing, Dark Knigh Returns. Watchmen, Frank Millers Daredevil run, Claremont/Byrne X-Men. To name but a handful. What a disastrous decision that was.

Raven, Cyborg and Robin 

Junior with Catwoman. Apologies for the picture but my Hipstamatic decided to go into random mode at that moment.

Garden Of Horrors Updated

OK so we are done with the garden decor for this Halloween season. We left it until later in the day as it was too warm this morning and it's annoying to be sweating like a pig in October putting out your decorations. So it was nearly dark by the time we were done and that's nice so far as taking the pictures is concerned . And using Hipstamatic adds some atmosphere.

Since Sunday's original post we have made an addition in the yard. Our new zombie baby was available on line only and then on back order. So he wasn't here in time for the big set up. But he arrived on Tuesday and has now joined his siblings at play around mum See Thru Cindy's feet.  Please join us in welcoming the delightfully named Stewie Barfington. 

Plus yours truly dressed for the big night and posing with "See-Thru Cindi" our latest life size prop.

Bless Her Pointy Little Head

Found on the French doors yesterday was this Katydid, the Hook-faced Conehead (Pyrocorypha uncinata).

This is a female as seen from the lengthy ovipositor but she is still immature, a nymph and won't be adult until the spring now.

Meanwhile this weekend is the annual Halloween graveyard construction and house decoration project. I've already been busy this morning making accessories for Mrs.B's bird witch costume for the end of the month. Time to get out the Fimo for a raven beak and finger bone necklace.

I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out though I think perhaps some paint is called for. It just looks perhaps a little...anemic yet. I'm inspired to get some more Fimo as it's been decades since I messed with it and I'm sure it has some interesting scary possibilities.

More on the Halloween decor as the weekend unfolds.

A Bump In The Road...

...which I happily spotted and avoided as I drove through the neighborhood this morning. 

A small box turtle ( it's a tortoise to me) half way across the road when I spotted it.

It was moving slowly...yes I know it's a tortoise and so it is proverbially slow. But it was cool this morning so extra slow. I pulled over and moved it into the grass.