My little neighborhood is dressing up for Halloween. Every year the Halloween decorations multiply and become larger and more daring. This is one of my favorite houses at any time of the year, a lovely painted lady, but this year for Halloween she is particularly colorful.
The house itself is a deep turquoise with bands of red shingles and painted porch railings.
During this month of October, brightly-colored pumpkin lanterns and skeleton heads hang over the porch, like faces in a crowd.
I took this photo in the rain. I was sure my camera would catch the raindrops coming down, but they are invisible here, although you can see the damp concrete.
It is early morning and the porch light is still on, adding to the festivity of the scene. I love the orange glow of the pumpkins on the steps, the skeleton on the far left, the painted flowerpots, and the metal turkey sculpture with its fan of metal "feathers" behind the table on the far right.
A few blocks away, and things are a little more ghoulish here. Cobwebs and spiders are swarming this house. Caution tape surrounds the crime scene, there is a very grave graveyard on the far left, and a host of life-size figures on the right. Halloween scarecrows!
And here is my sweet little old-fashioned lilac house! Do you remember her from my post about The Lost Blue Riding Hood? Who would ever have thought that she would succumb to Halloween?
Here she is above in her rightful state of mind, as shy and introverted and as modest as they come, wearing a coat of lilac paint so delicately hued that she is almost gray. Really, her lilac is so faint, you can tell that she barely has one little toe out of the gray color band.
But when a house lapses into some tiny little extravagance, like straying into lilac tints, you can be sure that eventually she will lapse into larger and much more dangerous extravagances.
Yes, look at the lilac house now! Talk about Dr. Jekyll turning into Mr. Hyde. . .
I love how some of the houses in my neighborhood are being transformed into Halloween houses, although mine won't be one of them. And that brings to mind something I have long thought about, being very introverted as I am and prone to dwelling upon things in a prolonged kind of way.
Thoughts on Extroverts and Introverts
Some people are very extroverted and love to dress up, especially in costume, and dance upon table tops, and sing from mountain tops, and I love it that they do. I am not one of them, but I treasure such people.
We all know the differences between extroverts and introverts, but there is one difference that mystifies me the most. It is this. Generally speaking, introverts tend to feel that there is nothing wrong in others being extroverted, while extroverts tend to think that there is something wrong with people who are introverted. For example, an extrovert will often say, "What's wrong with you? Why don't you want to go to the party?" On the other hand, an introvert rarely ever says, "What's wrong with you? Why do you want to go to the party?"
Speaking of parties, we've been invited to a Halloween party, costume optional. My husband and I are both very introverted. Will we go to the party, or not? Will we go in costume, or not??
Long Live the Mystery and Halloween, too!!
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