Day 11.294: Halloween #5

It was our fifth Halloween in this neighborhood and although we only contributed one trick-or-treater to the crowds this year, we all got into the "spirit" of the event:

Day 11.293: Vigil

I had the privilege of attending the Community Vigil at Congregation Bet Ha'am this evening following the terrible events in Pittsburgh on Saturday. It was a packed room - every seat full and many like me standing around the sides. Many more were outside unable to get in.

The message of the evening was community, resilience and determination to not allow intolerance to take root.

Day 11.292: It rained all day

We've had a lot of rain - it started on Saturday morning, took a bit of a break on Sunday afternoon and then got started again overnight and continued into the evening today.

This was from a couple of hours before it started when Exile #2 and I were walking on Saturday morning:

Day 11.291: Exile #2's Sunday Column #226

Exile #2 writes...

Today, I have mostly been surrounded by germs. Sleepy, coughing children in Sunday School this morning. Sleepy, snuffly children at home. Unfortunately, it may explain why I felt the irresistible urge to have a nap this afternoon. It may also explain why the downstairs thermostat was mysteriously set to 72 degrees (although I have my suspicions on that one).

Thermostat with normal setting restored

Still, naming no names, Exile #3 managed to drag herself to her dance rehearsal this afternoon. She even drove me home afterwards! We rounded out the day with a spot of Doctor Who, which was pretty much the definition of terror for Exile #4, although it was pretty uncomfortable for the rest of us too, just in other ways.

Day 11.290: Steven Universe (and a tiger)

It was the dance studio Halloween Party today. Exile #3 had to be there to help with the party as part of her dance company duties - she was much needed as there were 63 kids there! E5N1 chose to go even though he is not dancing at the moment (to make room for school band and drama activities).

Anyway, as usual it served as a Halloween costume preview. Here is E5N1 as Steven Universe and Exile #3 as a not-scary-to-preschoolers tiger.

In case you're not familiar with the character - here is a reference picture.

Day 11.289: Emails - amirite?

Exile #2 took this picture of E5N1 reading his school emails:

I suspect I have worn that same look once or twice.

Day 11.288: Still working on writing those letters

The last few mornings that we've managed a walk, it has started in the dark. Fortunately, we have a bit of light before the end - and the other day as we neared home, this happened:


Not perhaps the most convincing "V" ever, but otherwise pretty classic behaviour.

Day 11.287: Another check on the progress of autumn

...all is well:

Carry on.

Day 11.286: Catching the second (or third)

The other day, we arrived home to find the maple tree in our front yard once again dropping leaves at an impressive rate and E5N1 decided he was going to catch the second leaf of autumn (Exile #4 had previously beaten him to the first). Naturally, Exile #4 set out to spoil his fun.

She succeeded, but then he had his chance to still get a place on the podium with the bronze leaf(!):

Day 11.285: Homecoming dancing girls

The girls scrubbed up pretty well for the Homecoming dance. This was at the end of the night when I made them pose for a picture when they were falling-down tired. It probably made them more susceptible to my jokes though.

Day 11.284: Exile #2's Sunday Column #225

Exile #2 writes...

This has definitely been the kind of weekend that requires a detailed plan, with timings included. On Friday night, Exile #3 had a sleepover with her dance company. The rest of us went to the Homecoming bonfire at the High School. At lunchtime yesterday, we dropped Exile #4 off at the Homecoming game, whilst we went to the town Pumpkin Harvest Festival, to see Exile #3 perform. In the afternoon, Exile #4 joined up with her friends to get ready for the Homecoming dance. Meanwhile, Exile #3’s friends came here to do the same. Many laughs, selfies and photo-bombs later, we took them up to school and didn’t see them until much later.

This morning we dashed to Portland. I was armed with balloons, a bottle tornado, and Google translate for our kids’ class. Exile #4 had crispie cakes:

a backpack full of costume and a pumpkin for her youth Halloween party. We abandoned her in time to get home and take Exile #3 to a dance rehearsal. Thank goodness for the calming bit of Naturewatch (and Chris Packham - yay!) that I managed to sneak in last night. It really is a lovely time of year - if a little busy at times!

Day 11.283: Pumpkin Festival

Four of us took a break from Homecoming weekend festivities to go to the Pumpkin Festival where Exile #3 and her dance company were performing their new Brazilian piece which went very well in its debut performance despite the less-than-ideal dance space.

E5N1 played as many games as he could (most of which were giving small candy prizes.

Meanwhile Exile #4 actually went to the Homecoming football game with her friends.

Day 11.282: Pep?

It's fair to say I was surprised and a little skeptical when the girls told me that they needed to be at school at 5:30 this morning for a pep rally. Seriously, who can be peppy at that time of day? But I took them nevertheless:

and we did see evidence of at least one of them being peppy on TV:

This evening when they were probably flagging, we dropped Exile #3 off at the dance studio for a company sleepover and the rest of us went back to school for the next event in this Homecoming weekend - a bonfire.

E5N1 was quite keen and Exile #4 met up with a few of  her friends, so that was a success too.

Day 11.281: Not that kind of fall

It's very autumnal at the moment - with turning and falling leaves, wild temperature fluctuations and preparations for Halloween. We've even been watching some Autumnwatch New England on PBS thanks to a tip-off from my Dad who has been watching the sister-shows on the BBC. However, it was quite cold this morning as Exile #2 and I went out for our morning walk and as we were returning, we realised what the strange stuff blowing in the wind was:

Yes, it's snow - falling from an almost entirely blue sky (we did spot the low clouds upwind eventually). Not much, but enough to make pulling out my phone, getting it ready and then catching a few flakes pretty easy.

Day 11.280: Halloween is coming!

Maybe that's why a creepy ghoul was spying on me through our skylight on Sunday morning?!

Day 11.279: More honesty?

A few more pictures from Pumpkin Valley Farm on Sunday.

Day 11.278: More ducks and honesty

By my choice of video to accompany Exile #2's post yesterday, I may have given the impression that I was victorious in the duck races. In fact there were three races. Here are the other two:





The truth hurts.

Day 11.277: Exile #2's Sunday Column #224

Exile #2 writes...

We probably should have stayed home to rake, but it was such a lovely afternoon that we went to the pumpkin patch instead. We made light work of the corn maze this year, zipping from station to station, until we hit number 9, at which point we went in circles for a good 10 minutes, before finally going back to number 8 and starting over.

We eventually emerged triumphant and headed off to pick some pumpkins (not all eaten by squirrels, as we’d feared). When we were done with that, E5N1 spent some time bouncing on the inflatable pillow and wallowing around in a large pit of dried corn. We also took a look at the noisy but diminutive cows and goats, and the impressively bouffant chickens. Oh yes, and this happened:

Day 11.276: Robots and humans

After a fantastic day out last Saturday, it was back to homework and chores today. We finished and mailed our UK tax return,  Exile #4 had a couple of hours of karate and Exile #2 took the kids shoe shopping. After dinner, we watched an episode of BattleBots (US Robot Wars for UK readers) -  which was good preparation for our final activity of the day.

All of us except Exile #3 played our first official games of Human Era - a time traveling, social deduction game from the makers of Dragoon that I funded on Kickstarter. We play tested an early draft but since the actual game arrived it has been waiting for an occasion such as this when we can't manage a game of Pandemic Legacy, but still are up for a bit of board game fun.

It was indeed fun - a great quick game for a crowd - four is the minimum (although Exile #4 is also looking forward to discovering the one player rules).

Day 11.275: Dangerous Liaison indeed...

...for the lobsters!

Day 11.274: On the trails at LaVerna Preserve

Seen along the trails on our walk at LaVerna (in addition to the mystery warbler and the surprising dragonfly):

Some Indian pipe, a common garter snake, an American toad (also a frog) and an American painted lady.

Day 11.273: LaVerna Preserve

Before we made it down to the lighthouse we stopped for a short hike at LaVerna Preserve, a few miles up the Pemaquid peninsula. The hike started as a well maintained and very appealing - but fairly standard - trail through the woods:

It then opened to beautiful coastline views and then led down to the rocks on the shore:

Beyond there, the coastline became more rugged for a while as we made our way up the "freshwater pool":

Around then I took this picture - which cause me to do a double take because I accidentally captured an almost perfect image of a dragonfly:

It's  pretty magical place - and well worth the detour when heading to the lighthouse.