The Switch

The dark half of the year, the season of death, approaches.

For those of us closely aligned with the Autumn season, I think there comes a point every year (and it is probably different for each of us, & on a different day each year) when you wake up and something has turned. The bone-deep feeling that summer has begun to wane as autumn approaches.

It doesn't really have anything to do with hot weather, or lack thereof (so far, we've had a pretty mild summer in western Washington, knock on wood), but -- a certain slant of sunlight, or the way the wind sounds in the trees, or just -- something. Something crosses a threshold and suddenly, there it is, as obvious as flipping a light switch. You just know. You can feel it.

The ancient holidays known as Lammas/Lughnasadh occur around Aug 1st, celebrating the first of the year's big harvest festivals. Crops are plentiful at this time, and we might be thinking about what has come to fruition, literally and metaphorically.

For me, this year, that day of The Switch was the 25th of July. I woke up and just felt it in the air as the morning breeze came in through the window. On my way throughout the errands of the day, I came upon a small dead bird on our sidewalk. I don't know what happened to him, why he died. He looked like he was sleeping. We picked him up to place him on the far side of our yard so he wouldn't just get picked up by someone else and tossed in the trash. He deserved a dignified resting place as he becomes one with the Earth again. I placed a tiny flower by his head and blew him a kiss goodnight.  

Pumpkin Pals

 Spotted at  Party @ Display & Costume over Labor Day weekend.

Doll Village in Japan - Charming or Creepy?

Artist Tsukimi Ayano is a doll maker. Specifically, she has created over 350 handmade, human sized dolls that are placed in various locations throughout her childhood village in Nagoro, Japan -- and they outnumber the human inhabitants, of which only about 20 remain. 

The dolls are meant to take the place of former residents who has either passed on or moved away from the remote tiny village over the years. Her first doll, modeled after her late father, was intended as a scarecrow to help keep birds away from her gardens. 

In time, she has created hundreds of dolls, each with unique features, names, and personas. They are placed carefully around the village, engaged in various activities like waiting at the bus stop, teaching students in a classroom, playing, and fishing. The destination has become interesting to tourists, despite its remote location. 

I personally find this to be a bit heartwarming. What do you think? Cute or creepy?

Valley of Dolls from Fritz Schumann on Vimeo.

Read more:
https://offbeatjapan.org/nagoro-village-dolls-shikoku/
https://unusualplaces.org/nagoro-a-creepy-japanese-village-where-dolls-replace-the-departed/
 

 

Memories of Elm Knoll Farm

 Elm Knoll Farm, Somers, Connecticut, circa mid-2000s:
Memories of my favorite pumpkin patch ever.

 

Back in the 1990s til the mid-2000s or so, Elm Knoll Farm was THE area pumpkin patch destination. 

 

Everything essential to the feeling of autumn and Halloween in New England was concentrated here in rural Somers, CT in the month of October every year. 

 

This place has everything...

 

Here is a list of some of the things I loved most about Elm Knoll, with photos I took over the years:

1.) Pumpkins and gourds (obviously) -- you could choose your pumpkin from pre-picked ones, or take the hayride out to the fields to pick your own right from the vines. I always opted for the latter, which was a fairly long ride out to the scenic hills and fields.

 

 

2.) Hayrides -- The best kind where the benches are made of hay bales, and the floor is scattered with loose hay, in a rickety old wagon.

3.) A corn maze -- and acres and acres of golden cornstalks drying out in the shady autumn sun.

4.) Gorgeous views --  of the rolling hills, fields of wildflowers, and spooky forests at the edges of the farm, the perfect way to enjoy a brisk, overcast, moody autumn day.

5.) Farm animals --  geese, chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats, pigs, and puppies.

6.) Weekend entertainment -- which usually included live music, a kids' magician, and a mulled cider & hot chocolate stand.

7.) Scarecrows and other Halloween structures -- made out of cornstalks, hay, and wood; probably designed for children, but delightful to adults, too.

8.) Overgrown and dilapidated old stuff -- crumbling buildings, seemingly abandoned farm equipment, and various other signs of rural decay that make the countryside spooky AF.

 

 
9.) And: A fantastic haunted hayride on weekend nights in October. 

Picture this: A hayride through the aforementioned spooky rural woods, on the aforementioned rickety trailer full of sweet-smelling hay, which takes you to various spooky scenes along the journey. Best of all: the entire trail is lined on either side with carved, lit jack o'lanterns, literally miles of them. The moon is out, and you're huddled up with your friends, laughing and enjoying the whole sensory spectacle of the whole thing.

 

One of the most vivid and precious Halloween memories I have is of being on that hayride sometime in the mid to late 1990s, on a night when the moon was full or nearly so, dark clouds partially obscuring the moonlight as they passed, and the warm glow of jack o'lanterns all along the way; the smell of the hay and the forest, of earth and decaying leaves, of night air and fire and pumpkin guts. The props and scares were all home-made, as I recall; simple and effective. And, the farm itself already felt seriously haunted to begin with, day or night.

 

How I wish I had photos of those times I went. Those was pre-mobile phone days, and I didn't usually carry a camera. It would have been too dark then to capture anything well enough to do it any justice. Most of it was hidden away in the woods, but here and there around the farm, hints of it were visible, like this facade that was the official entrance to the haunted forest:

This haunt is on my top all-time favorite Halloween attractions: I rate it 10/10 Jackos.

[🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃]

The Demise of Elm Knoll

It seems as though things of this nature never last, and Elm Knoll was no exception. The haunted hayrides stopped sometime in the late 1990s, if I remember right. I imagine it must have been too much work and not enough people to do it. I can't even imagine how much it must have taken just to carve all those hundreds and hundreds of jack o'lanterns for the hayride path -- and to light them every night, on top of that! 

 

Around 2006, the elderly owner of Elm Knoll sold off the Somers property to his son, a sad and heartbreaking ending to the legacy of this wonderful place. You can read about it here, in an article from about 12 years ago, but fair warning: it's pretty dismal, with accounts of animal neglect, etc.

 

A farm by the name of Elm Knoll still exists, but on different land. It spent some time at a spot in Enfield, CT for a few years, and is currently located in Stafford Springs, CT. I have no idea how these iterations of Elm Knoll were/are connected to the old farm, and I haven't been to either location. They might be perfectly nice places, but I doubt they could ever compare to the sheer Halloween greatness that once existed at the old location.

[All photos and content by Petrichor & Pumpkins/ Nebulosus Severine/ CMPauluh, with the exception of the Stefon picture. Do not reuse without permission & credit.]

Seaside scarecrow

In early October of 2013, I spotted this fantastic scarecrow at the Anchorage by the Sea resort in Ogunquit, Maine.

They had a great display of fall mums and some massive pumpkins, too.

The sign says, "Yes they are real, please do not touch." 

👀

Freddy update - Haunted or not?

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you might remember my post from about a month ago, when the pumpkin man scarecrow I purchased on Ebay, supposedly haunted and affectionately named Freddy by the seller, was delivered to my home. I displayed him in my bedroom and he seems to have been content here. Despite what the Ebay listing said about him being potentially possessed, I didn't sense anything scary or creepy about him at all. 

For weeks, things have been quiet. I hadn't noticed anything untoward. He hasn't moved done or anything else to suggest he might be haunted. However... Another jack o'lantern in my closet, close to where Freddy is standing, has moved -- see the picture below. This one hasn't been set up for Halloween yet, he's just been sitting on the shelf in my closet -- and had been facing straight forward. His face suddenly was turned a bit to my left (toward Freddy's direction, I should add). There's nothing in there that could have moved him. I just found him like that one morning. Weird...

A few other possibly unrelated, but mildly unnerving & harmless things have happened -- involving objects that seem to spontaneously fall down. One evening, fairly late at night, I was up making myself a cup of herbal tea when I heard a loud crash in my immediate vicinity! It was loud enough to really startle me. I looked all around and I couldn't figure out what had fallen. I went into every room to check for anything out of place. My partner and the dogs were asleep, so I knew it wasn't them, and the noise didn't come from that room. I finally found out it was just a bottle of Febreze that had been on top of our refrigerator, that had somehow fallen off and right into our trash can. Since that night, a few other similar incidents happened, too, but nothing super serious, and ambiguous enough that I can't really blame Freddy for the disturbances.

And then -- a few nights ago, during the wee hours of the early morning, I had a vivid dream that I felt compelled to write down. In it, I was talking to an elderly grandmother-type woman, but she wasn't my grandma or the relation of anyone else I knew -- she was someone I had never seen before. I decided to share the details of this dream with the person who sold Freddy to me: 

Hello! I am the buyer of Freddy the scarecrow. I have a semi-strange question to ask -- You mentioned he was haunted. Was that just a story to help sell him, or is all that true? (I'm not mad if it was just a story, I really like him and would have bought him anyway).

I'm asking because I recently had a very vivid dream about someone's grandma, someone who isn't familiar to me among my friends and family. In the dream I was sitting and chatting with an elderly lady who was friendly and talkative, outgoing and had a good sense of humor, & very witty. I knew she was someone's grandmother. She seemed feisty and energetic. She was kind of thin and wiry but not weak. She had short curly grey hair and glasses. She talked about being Italian too, and about how everyone loved her cooking. She then spoke to me about my grandmother (who passed on about a decade ago); this lady spoke about meeting my grandma, and then asked what she was like & how my grandma and I got along. I then realized I was dreaming, and was talking to someone who was in the afterlife.

It didn't occur to me til a couple days after my dream that Freddy was once beloved by a grandma, so it made me wonder. He's on display in my bedroom so I was wondering if maybe there was some connection to my dream. He doesn't seem scary to me at all, although in the past week or so, random things seem to be falling off of shelves, etc.

Apologies if this seems crazy! I really do like Freddy a lot even if it turns out he isn't haunted, and if my dream was just a dream. Thanks for reading!

To my surprise, the seller wrote back almost immediately, and I'm semi-floored with the response (I hid some of the details to protect their privacy):

With only slight embellishments the story is indeed true. My grandma’s name was R***. She was feisty and funny. Although she was a true red head and petite. My grandfather was full blooded Italian...

Sounds like Freddy likes his new home. And I’m sure R*** is very happy about this. She was so sweet.

Bye the way, she was a wonderful cook and it brought our whole family together for many years!!! 😊

Best wishes

. . . . . . . 

Now, maybe this is all a coincidence, maybe it was all just a dream, but it's Halloween season and I wanna believe! I'll definitely be posting more Freddy incidents if they happen... 🎃🎃🎃

 

My favorite Halloween attractions: Haunted Overload

Haunted Overload in Lee, NH was a bucket-list spot for me til I finally had the opportunity to visit in 2019. In honor of their opening day 2020, this post is dedicated to them! 

I'm originally from CT, yet in all the years I knew about Haunted Overload, I never had the chance to visit while I still lived on the east coast. When I moved to WA, I kicked myself for this, and vowed to one day return to experience it. Fortunately, my east-coast Halloween Squad are very encouraging/enabling of any and all day-trip accessible Halloween-related activities. 

Last year, I had just graduated from college and planned an extended stay in CT, for a few weeks instead of the usual week or so. The Halloween Squad likes to plan out all of their late September/October events well in advance to make sure they get to do as many haunted houses and events as possible. There are ones they do every year (like Trail of Terror in Wallingford, CT), but they're always on the lookout for new places, too. Not that I had to twist any arms, but I requested that we go to Haunted Overload during my visit - none of them had been, either, and we all agreed to plan for it. We got our tickets well ahead of time, then all I had to do was wait with heavy anticipation for the day to arrive...

For me, the craziest thing about this place is that I'd seen it before - in dreams. 

Well before I knew Haunted Overload existed, I'd had recurring, vivid dreams about a place that looked a lot like it, for years. In the dream, the situation would be similar. The setting began in a real-life place from my childhood, a dead-end street in our neighborhood that was on our usual route for trick-or-treating every year. Except, in the dreams, the street didn't end, it opened up to a "new" Halloween attraction with giant jack o'lanterns that I never quite got to see -- I'd arrive, then something would happen to interrupt, or I'd physically wake up before I got past the gates, and I never quite made it to see this Halloween Promised Land. Ever have dreams that it's Halloween night and you haven't even started on your costume/home haunt/etc., and know it's too late? That's how those dreams about Haunted Overload mad me feel. It's the kind of dream you wake up from feeling sad and incomplete, devastatingly unfulfilled. 

So, when I finally got to see it in person last year, it felt...otherworldly. That's not even quite the right word, but I'm not quite sure how to describe the feelings in words -- literally a dream come true.

Needless to say, I felt a TON of anticipation leading up to our arrival. Days before, I wondered if the weather would be good. The day of, hoping we'd all be on time to meet up and get there. And of course, everything worked out perfectly. It was a perfect, gorgeous New England autumn day, and the long drive there was spent in great company, all of us chatting happily. 

As we got into town, we had enough time to make a pit stop at a very nice-looking Dunkin Donuts.

And then we moved on to Haunted Overload. It was just a few miles further and was easy to find. We were directed on where to park, which wasn't too far from the entrance.

From the moment you arrive, it's a feast-- a full-on Roman orgy-- for the senses. There are more or less two parts to Haunted Overload: 1.) The standing in line part, where you're surrounded by astounding, custom-built sets the entire duration, a spooky twisting path through the woods; and 2.) the haunted-house proper, a faster-paced trek through more dark forest, full of haunt actors who are totally dedicated to stalking and scaring the shit out of you.

Part 1: Standing in line

This is the only area of the haunt where you're allowed to take pictures, but you will not be disappointed. Everything in Haunted Overload is custom-built, and the aesthetic is that of a haunted forest/countryside that has achieved its own sentience: Towering scarecrows looming over you, gaping-maw, hollow-tree tunnels that look like they're about to eat you alive (with enough scattered bones and remains to suggest that there have been many victims before you). It feels like you're being watched the whole time.

Did I mention it was a full moon that night? Well, it was.

Eventually, you come to a threshold, and pass through into a clearing. You turn to find that you've emerged near the mouth of a giant skull with pointy teeth, aglow with blacklight; and you're now surrounded by jack o'lanterns everywhere you turn.

If you look closely, you can see some people in this pic, for scale

That guy in the middle there cracks me up.

...And then you look up and see THE biggest monster scarecrow that you're ever going to see in your life. It's seriously huge. Photos cannot do this creature any justice. It was so huge I nearly missed it, because all I saw were its legs at that close range. It must be literally 50 ft tall or more.

At this point, you're nearing the haunted-house proper - where they take your admission ticket, and from that point there is no photography allowed.  But before you cross that threshold, you see a mega-size jack o'lantern surrounded by its subjects. To give an idea of scale, those smaller jackos are about average sized pumpkins.

To be honest, I could have spent all night out there in that pumpkin field, and the ticket price would have been well worth it. I could live there. That setting, minus all but the people I'd want to be there, is my literal idea of what the ideal Heaven/afterlife would be like. The lighting, the spooky mist, the trees and candles, every little detail is absolute perfection.

And yet, the tour went on. Don't get me wrong, the rest of it was fantastic, too - but as is the case for most of the haunted attractions I've been to, I wish I didn't have to more or less rush through it. I would love to have taken my time, as we did during our wait in line, to fully take in every detail and savor it. The haunt actors were some of the best I've seen anywhere - truly into their roles. And the lighting throughout the haunt is masterfully done - most of it is quite dark, at times you quite literally feel like you might get lost in the woods out there.

At the very end of the haunt, as you emerge, there is a small stand where you can buy some Haunted Overload swag, which of course I did. I will treasure this experience for the rest of my life, even if I never get to return. 

Thank you to the crew of Haunted Overload, who are true artists in every sense of the word.

It almost seems cheap to rate something like this, but if I were to do so, my rating is 10/10 jackos for this haunt.

[ 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 ]