Happy Haunts!

Here in Nod, we woke up to a white Halloween.....

What a hoot.....

 NOT!!!!!!!!!

Anywho....Wishing you all the happiest of haunts!

Old Haunts.....

There are times when I just need to clear my head.

Over the years, I've tried many different ways of doing this....

And while all the "methods" have their charms, it seems that the one that does the "trick" the best is probably the one I've known the longest....

A trip to the cemetery.

The older and more remote, the better.

I like the feeling of being completely alone there....

Well, as "alone" as one can be there.

So, yesterday, I made a trip....

Down several old gravel roads....and then a few more.

The place is all but forgotten it seems, but the gates are always open...The earth has made sure of that.

The stones are so sparse and so scattered, at first, you may not notice them.

 

But they are there.

Some hidden....

Some forgotten:

  

The caretaker's tools becoming a very part of the earth....

But beautiful always...

And always welcoming....

The Nightmare Before Halloween

Before I even start this post, I want to most sincerely thank everyone who stopped by my last post and left such sweet comments.  It somehow felt like coming home.  I haven't yet made it around to everyone's blogs for visits....somehow that still feels a bit awkward....like walking into the middle of a conversation and not knowing what to say....

But I am trying.

Ok...On with this post.

Those who know me well, know that I adore Halloween...and I'm sure that you are expecting me to do my usual posts of Halloween decor, etc.

Well, Mr. Bone Jangles here is about the extent of my Halloween decorating this year.

And I am not certain how long he can even stay.

You see.....  As if my life weren't crazy and chaotic enough, we decided to undertake a HUGE remodel project....somewhat at the spur of the moment....

One day we were talking about replacing our kitchen countertops, and the next day I was looking at this:

 And soon, there were two gaping holes in either side of our house.

And true to crow luck, the monsoons struck.

With a vengeance.....

And the floods came.

And the carpenters didn't.  :o(

So, now we have not only an unfinished mess, but a flooded basement to deal with.

(Official Site Supervisor)

If I didn't know better, I'd be thinking Bones just might be on to something.

Lost Among The Sorrow....

I do not know how to do this.

It has been too long.

I vaguely remember the person who used to sit in front of this very screen and compose posts.

Now I have all but forgotten how this application even works.

I apologize.

For what, I'm not entirely sure....perhaps for nothing....perhaps for everything.

Falling off the face of the earth, abandoning not only my blog, but yours, and leaving people I truly care about wondering what happened and why.

One of you said I got "lost among the sorrow."

I thought about that for a long time....perhaps she is right.

Or perhaps I was hiding from the sorrow.  Whatever the case, it has been a long year.

There has been too much....too much sorrow, too much turmoil, and simply "too much" to summarize in a single blog post.  And, besides, by revisiting it all would only be to breathe life back into a past that's best left in the past.

There has also been "too much" to be thankful for....

Too many blessings to count and encapsulate in type.

So, I am trying to just go on from here.

I am making no promises....other than to not get lost amongst the sorrow again any time soon.

Wishing You Easter Joy!

Wishing you all a blessing and joy-filled Easter!!!

 

 

 

~My Sweet Sasha~

You left much too soon...and it has left a hole in my soul that cannot be filled and for which there can be no solace.

Every day I am here without you, my heart will ache for you my beloved friend....

Another Crow Life Lesson:  Never let yourself believe that things cannot get worse, or that you have no more tears to shed.....

Happy Hearts Day.......

I wish for each of you a heart that is full of joy and laughter....and as light as a summer morning's breeze....

 (Some of my old German candy containers and an old metal lunch box....)

(My old wash sticks and laundry paddles...and one of my scrub boards that has a heart cut-out....)

 (One of Mother Nature's hearts.....Come on, you didn't think I could do two posts in a row without some of the white stuff, did ya??)

  You have made my heart smile so...

Hearts of My Heart.....

And a heart that lifted my heart just when I needed it most....

 

Thank you sweet friend......

The Taphophobic Crow.....

Taphophobia:  The medical term for the irrational fear of being buried alive.....

 In the 17th and 18th centuries, the rate of individuals being buried alive was quite high....mostly due to the high number of people dying of diseases such as cholera, smallpox, etc.

Those dying of disease were generally not thoroughly examined to make sure they were truly dead out of fear of contamination.... They also tended to be buried quickly to prevent the spread of whatever disease they had contracted and led to their demise.

Taphophobia hit its peak in the 18th and 19th centuries and there are numerous documented cases of premature burials....

Some very famous people were actually taphophobics....including George Washington, Chopin, and Hans Christian Anderson. George instructed his attendants to not put his body in the vault any sooner than 3 days after he passed.  (So, wonder no more why a "wake" is called a "wake" and bodies usually aren't buried immediately.)  Chopin requested that he be cut open to make sure he wouldn't be alive when he was dead.  And Anderson used to leave a card on his dresser every night before he went to bed saying "I am not really dead."

One of the saddest cases of premature interment occurred in the 1850's in South Carolina.  A young girl, who was believed to have died of diphtheria, was buried in family's mausoleum.  However, when her brother later died in the Civil War and the tomb was opened for his interment, the little girl's skeleton was found not where she had been laid to rest, but on the floor just behind the locked door.

  

 The prevalence of the phenomena actually led to the invention of various versions of "safety coffins."  These were coffins which were designed to either allow the "undeceased" to get out, or, more commonly to give them the ability to alert the outside world of the fact that they were still alive. One such device had a rope attached to a bell on the surface and to the deceased's hand in the coffin.....(Now you know where the term "dead ringer" comes from....)

In 1896, a group was formed called the "Society for the Prevention of People Being Buried Alive."  One of the group's goals was to have a law passed that prohibited a body from being buried until strong putrefaction and smell were evident.

I take issue with the definition of taphophobia...

 ...I don't think there's anything "irrational" at all about it....

The Whiting.....

It's begun.....

....that period of time here in Nod when everything becomes white....

 

Very, very, white..... 

The Whiting....

(And I'm not talking fish....)

With the "sticking" snows beginning early in October, and the heaviest (March) snows yet to come, it's about this time that one starts questioning their sanity.  Things that were, aren't....and things that weren't are.... (Remember last year during The Whiting our mailbox went MIA.....???)

Anyways....There isn't much of color to report here....hence my silence.  

The wee bit of Christmas I put up this year is mostly still up.....(It's part of The Whiting Madness you know.....or so says I.)  I have, for the first time in a long, long, time, picked up my hook, my punch and my needle (no, not all at the same time Sillies!), but have not made any share-worthy progress.  All projects, however, involve hearts, so I best get moving or they will be put away, unfinished, until the heart mood strikes again in a year or so.

For now, I'll leave you with a few hearts that have made it out and about here.... (Hey, they're red, and so blend in fine with the left-over Christmas decor.....)

   

Stay safe, stay warm....stay sane.....