R. U. Scared...

30 September 2012

Or for those who are not familiar with the English abbreviations: Are you scared...?  Yep, Halloween is coming up and there is no getting away from it!

However, first things first.  Today is a story about dollshouses and miniatures as well as pumpkins and Halloween.  As Frank discovered an ad in the local paper about a Dollshouse and Miniatures Show not to far from here, we had to go there of course.  So, after breakfast we got into the car and made our way to Depew, which I believe to be a suburb of Buffalo.  I am not going to tell you about it here, nor am I going to show the pictures on this blog, because I feel it really belongs on my other blog, Marion’s Miniatures.  So if you are interested, click on the link and it will get you there.

We stayed till after lunch and had some time to spare. The weather had improved ever so slightly and last week we missed the turn-off to our destination, so we decided to have another go at the Pumpkin Festival. The place happened to be 20 minutes down the road from where we were, so what would keep us?

On the way to Clarence I noticed one of many autumn decorations when we happened to stop at a traffic light.  My chance to finally take a picture.

Corn decoration

In Clarence the Great Pumpkin Farm could hardly be overlooked.  It most certainly wasn’t one of those you-blink-and-you-miss-it places…  What a splash of colour!

I have taken lots of pictures and most speak for themselves (or will have a caption).  The only thing that I will need to explain is the corn maze.  It was constructed in a large field of corn and the story went that Farmer Joe was missing, and foul play was probably involved. So while finding your way through the maze you had to look for six location scenes.  At each scene you had to collect evidence.  The evidence was: location, murder weapon and a suspect.  Different shaped punches helped you along with the elimination process. After you’d eliminated all six you would be left with the real location, murder weapon, and murderer.  It was real good, old fashioned fun to do!

Entrance to the Corn Maze

Frank trying to find his way through the corn stalks

Yes! Found our first clue (well, eh, the 3rd actually...)

The intricate lay-out of the maze and one of the clues

Yes, Frank made it!

And a High Five for me too!

Shopping for Halloween articles

Pumpkins and corn stalks

Decorative coloured corn

1st and 2nd prizes (largest pumpkins)
1st prize (on the right) was over 1500 lbs

Me and 1500 lbs ;-)

A clever pumpkin carver

Riding the cow (didn't last 10 counts...)

Not much longer either...

Mining for gem stones

Horse and Car rides

Shooting pumpkins

Frisbee dog show

Hay ride

Scarecrow Frank

More Halloween items for sale

A splash of autumn colours

Luckily the rain had stayed away for the rest of the day, but by 4pm it started to get real cold and we were kind of worn out, so time to go home where we put up our feet for a while and had a nice glass of something…

After dinner Leonie and friend Jill came on line via Skype and we chatted for a moment, so we were up to date again with what was going on in our neck of the woods.  It’s great you can do this and it doesn’t have to be long.  A quick chat, hello, goodbye and that’s it.  Dinner was also of the good old fashioned kind (hutspot), because we make good use of the cool weather while we can.

Tomorrow will be a day with a difference.  First we’ll have some housework to do and then some shopping and after that we hope to receive our first guests as hosts through the ATC (Affordable Travel Club).  More about that later.