The first time I handed out apples for Halloween, was, I think, the year before Jeremy was born. David was taking Kevin around to family and friends, and I was home with the porch light on and apples in a bowl. Most kids seemed happy about the apples, but not one. He knocked on the door and I opened it and held out my bowl of apples. He looked down at it and said, a little angrily, “Apples! I don’t want an apple!”
“Well, that’s all I’ve got,” I said. And he turned around and stalked back down the sidewalk to his dad, who was waiting at the curb.
“What did you say to her?!?!” Dad yelped. And I shut the door with a bit of a smile. Halloween is a nice time to learn manners and appropriate behavior. And I’ve persevered.
This year, I bought four bags of apples for Trick-or-Treaters. I emptied three of the bags into a basket to take to the door. I didn’t count the apples, but it seems like I maybe gave out about one-and-a-half bags worth.
The weather forecast was dreary, but the rain had fallen late in the afternoon, and by time kids came, things were just damp. I think our house might have been the only one on our block with the porch light on.
A group of three or four came early, and then there was quite a lull. But, later, there were several doorbell rings and small groups of children, all ages, and all dressed up.
I’m still a little amazed that most kids think that apples are a cool thing to get for Halloween (and I’m determined to be the lone voice of reason in a sea of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups–which I would eat six of every day, if I was allowed that sort of thing–the Reese’s, not apples).
One little fellow, the smallest of his group, the ‘way smallest of any group, stood solidly by the door as his companions reached, one by one, into the basket for their apples. For every apple they put in their bag, he put another apple in his little plastic pumpkin, saying, rather zombie-like, “Apple! Apple! Apple! ” with every one. I finally stopped him, because I was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to get safely down the steps without falling over sideways from the significant weight of his apple-filled pumpkin.
Lots of apples remain, which is not as much fun as an apple basket full of Butterfingers, but better to have around. We may need to make applesauce in Sunday School.
Meanwhile, the fall plant report.
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- This sweet bougainvillea is doing well.
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- The sage is blooming
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- and the pineapple sage
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- And so is the basil
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- This plant is a Red Dragon, also a fall bloomer
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- This sedum is all done blooming now. It starts putting out flowers in late summer, a nice harbinger of cooler weather on the way.
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- Never, ever, ever in all my years of growing impatiens in this spot have I had anything like this in August, much less through October. Usually it’s just stems with a few leaves. I think the cooler, wetter early summer is responsible.
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- The pomegranate is blooming well and making its tiny fruit..
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- Not every plant flowers in a showy sort of way, like this strawberry begonia.
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- The flowers on the Creeping Charlie look a little bit like insects.
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- When I bought this, I asked what it was and got the answer, “It’s a mum.” “A mum!” I said. “But I wanted it for it’s foliage. “Then grow it for it’s foliage,” the clerk said, dryly. Aren’t its leaves cute! Those bud-looking things in the centers of the leaves are the flowers. The flowers at full peak. I’m growing it for its foliage.
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- This was a sweet little fairy garden, until it became part of . . .
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- a patio SQUIRREL ATTACK!!
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- The nicer, sweeter, more delightful animals in the front–bees and butterflies.
As long as the earth remains,
there will be planting
and harvest,
cold and heat;
winter and summer,
day and night.
Genesis 8:22 (Contemporary English Version)
And, I suppose, squirrels.