A (perhaps) unpopular opinion (at least among the Halloween crowd):
I LOVE Springtime. I'm not sad that Halloween is still months away.
I don't want it to be Halloween year-round. I don't wish it were Halloween 24/7.
For one thing: Too much of a good thing tends to ruin that thing. I need variety. Enjoying the changing seasons helps me to appreciate Autumn & Halloween all that much more when it does arrive.*
(*in late July**)
(**don't @ me; if you love Halloween too, you know what's up)
Anyway, there is so much to love about the other seasons, with their own special sights, smells, sensations, activities, traditions, memories. I love Spring, with all its wild blustery, blossoming energy.
Also, it's Sugar Season - the brief season during late Winter, on the threshold of Spring, with freezing nights and mild, sunny, thawing days, where the sap of Sugar Maple trees begins to run, trees are tapped, and maple syrup is made. This is a regional practice, mostly in the northeastern USA and parts of Canada -- or wherever Sugar Maple trees are plentiful and climate conditions permit.
During this time of year, one of my favorite customs is to visit a local sugar house to have a great breakfast & to buy a bunch of maple sugar stuff. Since I haven't been able to do that much since I moved to WA state, here's a bunch of pics & video from my archives.
(Photos are from various visits to both Gould's Sugar House in Shelburne Falls, MA and North Hadley Sugar Shack in Hadley, MA. All photos below by me)
Wearing some Sugar Season flair: An antique maple tap & a real sugar maple leaf pendant.
If you're in New England and it's sugar season: Find a sugar house that serves breakfast!
Sunny weekend mornings are the best time for this adventure. Chances are that when you arrive at your sugar shack of choice, it will be crowded and you'll have to wait a bit to be seated for breakfast/brunch. Not to worry though, you can check out their gift shop/general store, wander the grounds of the maple farm, and watch as maple sap is boiled down to maple syrup. You can pick out all sorts of locally made goods as well as maple syrup products.
Did you know it takes 40 gallons of Sugar Maple sap to produce 1 gallon of maple syrup? And, of course, later in the year Sugar Maples are one of autumn's most beautiful trees, with leaves that change to vibrant orange and red hues.
Every sugar house has some version of this sign. (Gould's Sugar House)
Gould's Sugar House
Some sugar houses boil down their sap over wood fires, which requires a
massive amount of firewood for the season. (Gould's Sugar House)
Watching sap become maple syrup at Gould's Sugar House. The aroma is heavenly, a sweet hint of maple and wood smoke.
North Hadley Sugar Shack entrance
North Hadley Sugar Shack
Pure maple syrup candy from Gould's Sugar House
Fresh batches of maple syrup from Gould's Sugar House, some of the bottles are still warm.
Finally, when it's your turn for breakfast, you will be seated in a cozy, rustic dining area.
Gould's Sugar House
Gould's Sugar House
Gould's Sugar House
Enjoy the view of the countryside on this fine spring day.
Gould's Sugar House
North Hadley Sugar Shack
Whatever you decide to order, you can pour freshly made pure maple syrup all over everything. There's plenty of strong coffee to cut through all that sweetness, and in some cases, sour house-made pickles as a palate-cleanser.
Gould's Sugar House
Gould's Sugar House
North Hadley Sugar Shack
Gould's Sugar House
If "Sugar on Snow" is on the menu, give it a try. You will be served a small tray of cleaned, packed shaved ice and a small pitcher of hot maple syrup. You drizzle the syrup over the ice, where it firms up to a soft, chewy, sticky candy.
Gould's Sugar House
Gould's Sugar House
Gould's Sugar House
One of the best things about a sugar shack experience is getting out there to enjoy a beautiful spring day in the New England countryside. The blue skies, fresh air, and sunshine are so refreshing as winter is on the wane.
Hadley, MA
Shelburne Falls, MA
Gould's Sugar House
Here is a fun video about the iconic maple syrup bottle design!
Comedian and character actor John Paragon passed away in April of 2021, although his death was announced just a few days ago.
He was probably best known for his work with Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens), in particular the show "Pee-wee's Playhouse," which he helped to write, and in which he portrayed the characters Jambi and Pteri. He also worked closely with Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira, on many of her projects. Both Reubens and Peterson expressed deep sadness at the loss of their friend.
Here's John in his small but unforgettable role as the groveling son of the evil TV exec RJ Fletcher in the iconic Weird Al movie UHF:
I can't help but think of this scene every Father's Day. Rest in peace, John! You were beloved by many.
Just a quick post here to let you know that Feedburner, my former email subscription service, is ending support very soon (July 2021). To continue getting notifications for my blog posts, add your email at the new gadget shown in the screenshot below, under "Subscribe" - or click the image link in green below:
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No matter what time of year it is, the moon always brings me back to the mystical, mysterious feelings that I associate with autumn & the Halloween season.
I spent part of my evening meditating, reading Tarot, and drinking tea.
Do you feel a connection to the Moon? Do you have any special practices related to the Full Moon or any of its other phases?
I know 2020 Thanksgiving was supposedly gonna suck because we'd all been asked to socially isolate within our own households and not gather in big groups for the holiday, but I gotta say. I enjoyed myself a lot and I can't remember a more relaxing and chill T-Day 4-day weekend.
Picture this:
Super easy dinner, it's just the two of you. Instant, canned, and/or frozen-cooks-in-bag fare. Nothing fancy, but decent enough. I mean, as long as there's stuffing and green bean casserole, right? Plus, there's leftovers.
Pickles the cat doin' a THANK
"D'ya eat yet? No? Lemme fix you up a plate."
Then Saturday night Friend night: meta-dinner with the BFF - video chat + virtual sushi dinner in Second Life + real-life sushi delivered + Netflix watch party (Hannibal, for the 2nd time).
What a time to be alive.
Then, hopping in the car with your partner & chasing around fog til the wee hours in the muffled night, because why the hell not.
Then finishing this book, which you finally got around to reading, in the even later hours of the evening, and waking up tearfully and dreaming about Patti Smith & her life all night long, as if she made a psychic visit with you in the dream world.
Then waking up peacefully, and sharing a simple breakfast with coffee & some fancy pastries from a bakery in Seattle that your partner picked up the day before. And lounging around, and eventually making your way to a local park to walk around in the magical sunset mists.
And then, deciding to pick up a few groceries at Fred Meyer so you can come home, make a simple dinner, then watch a movie.
And then, deciding to take a pit stop at the cemetery where your partner's mother is buried, because it just feels like an opportune time and mood to do it.
And watching the foggy sunset over the town below, as Mt. Rainier watches all.
And then the moon rises, and that's something that the mountain & the moon have in common, is that you'll never cease to gasp in wonder whenever you see them. Even if that means you're a sentimental and/or romantic old fool.
* * *
I have very mixed feelings about this holiday - especially this year. But I am still grateful for many things. And I really enjoy winter in the Pacific Northwest and I'm looking forward to it this year.
Here in WA state, we are on high alert for fires. This is a pretty regular thing in late summer, especially in the eastern part of the state. Summers are usually pretty dry here, and when there has been weeks with no rainfall, everything becomes pretty flammable. Some years are worse than others; last summer, our area didn't even get much smoke from faraway fires, while the year before, we endured almost a month of hazy, smoky skies and hazardous air quality.
This year, it got crazy really fast in our area.
Yesterday I took a brief nap at 6:30 pm, and at the time the skies were blue and clear, but it had been very windy all day. When I woke up about 40 mins later, it looked and smelled like the apocalypse. The wild winds had apparently blown in a lot of smoke from eastern WA wildfires, and descended upon on quite suddenly. Then, a couple of hours later, a brush fire started right near our place, which started a fire on someone's property just a couple of houses down from us. The apartment complex near us was evacuated. Because of the winds, it was beginning to look like we were going to have to evacuate as well. Fortunately it was contained and the only deaths were a few chickens on someone's property (RIP).
We lost power about an hour after everything from that incident calmed down, which came on in the middle of the night, went back out again, and was restored by about 9:30 AM. For the time being, the smoke has cleared in our immediate area, but it's only a matter of time til things get hazardous and hazy again.
The winds are still blowing like it's the end of the world out there, and high winds are likely to last all week with high temperatures in the forecast, making the fire weather more of a threat. And brush fires are started to burn out of control in the surrounding towns, closing whole highways and forcing certain areas to evacuate. This is common enough out in eastern WA, which has a totally different (hotter & drier) climate than we we live, but it's not really a thing here. We get brush fires, but not whole neighborhoods burning down. That is happening, now.
I'm definitely trying to prepare, in case something happens where we live. A single spark could burn down a whole neighborhood, and fire departments are beginning to get overwhelmed. Winds are bringing down trees and power lines. This pattern might not calm down til Friday at the earliest.
The moon looked scary as hell last night, it was completely unnaturally orange because of the smoke.
Hopefully all the fires get contained ASAP and the damage & casualties are minimal. This is some scary shit.
A couple of the flavors seem like they'd actually be pretty good, but as much as I love stuffing, I... don't know if I can hang with a candy corn version of it. If I find a bag though, uh, of course I'm going to buy it.
