HALLOWEEN and FALL pictures 2017

One of my Halloween Jack O' Lanterns this year.

Now that it is almost Christmas, it's time to put up a few Halloween and Fall pictures. :-)

Halloween is my favorite holiday... It surpasses Christmas because one doesn't have to have a lot of family ties, or close family to enjoy it. All you have to do is either hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, or carve a pumpkin or two, and you are an active participant. Or you can dress up and hit the bar and mingle a bit with other partiers.

With Christmas, it's not easy if you have no close family. There isn't much of a way to celebrate. Christmas was a lot more fun for me in the past. Today? Not so much.

So, to commemorate this most recent happy Halloween holiday, here are a few pictures, which I took of my own decorations, as well as a few decorations from houses in nearby areas:

One house in the area had a Pumpkin Tree!

A couple houses had cool looking blow-up decorations in their yards.

This house had lots of cool looking Jack O' Lanterns.

Another place had some really cool blow-up decorations for the Trick-or-Treaters.

A happy looking Pumpkin Man.

A local thrift store had a lot of cool Halloween stuff for sale.

This Halloween was a decent one. There were more trick or treaters than usual. I put up my usual pumpkins and scary things. This Fall was also a decent one. I took a few pics with both of my cameras. Now that Fall is gone, I will have to take some Winter pictures, but the problem of course is that Winter here in Seattle means clouds and rain. We rarely get snow, and even frost is kind of rare.

I used the same hanging spooky decorations as last Halloween -- this year they looked a little better for some reason.

My mini-graveyard looked decent this Halloween.

Another of my carved Jack O' Lanterns.

Mickey Mouse lit up the window, as he did last year.

The moon looked very spooky the night of Halloween, which was very fitting!

I also took a few pictures of fall leaves, although the best colors came out when it was rainy out. :-(

The first leaves of fall -- Cottonwood leaves turned yellow.

A Hawthorn tree chock full of berries late in September.

The Cedar River surrounded by subtle Autumn colors.

The Cedar River Trail had Autumn leaves, but it was not quite as colorful as previous years.

A frog pond surrounded by Autumn colors.

As it is now Winter, it is now DX season for those of us who tune the late night AM/MW band. I haven't heard many new stations, and some nights have been only fair for DXing (distance listening), considering that it is near Solstice and the sunspots are low. There have been a few surprises, though: a few nights ago I heard XEW, on 900 KHz, fading up and then fading out, on my Panasonic RF-B45, using a loop to enhance the signal.

It's always cool to hear a station from that deep in Mexico. The last time I heard one was on my Sanyo Boombox in 2011-2012, a station on 1500 Khz. I used a loop to bring it in more clearly, but it was even audible on my boombox without the external loop helping the signal.

Because it's Lille Julafton -- the day before Christmas Eve -- I have to have at least one Christmassy picture on here. This is my only new tree ornament this year: I put it on my outdoor Christmas tree, a hawthorn I always light up and put ornaments on.

Here's hoping you have (or have had) a great Christmas, Weinacht, Jul, Hannukah, Solstice, or whatever holiday you celebrate during the this time of year.

I will try to get some pictures that fit the Christmas holiday soon.
C.C. 12-20-2017 and 12-23-2017