OCTOBER

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
Inclusive of our cat, Bat, whose name in the book is October."🖤🐾🐾🐾

Bat's official registered name is October Bat 🐱🦇🖤🧡🎃

That Magic Moment 💫✨🌟⭐️💫

That Magic Moment 💫 when two little kitties showed up at our back door on my daughter's birthday back on October 27, 2017, a brother and sister team who I swear are a little witch and a tinner warlock in disguise. Lots of magic resides here now.

For the Happy Caturday group theme "Special Moments".

"Magic, magic, magic, magic This magic moment, so different and so new"


This Magic Moment ~ Ben E King and The Drifters

FRIED PUMPKIN BLOSSOMS 🎃🎃🎃🌼🌼🌼

Last night's frost killed our pumpkin patch.

Only spooky white ghosts peeked from beneath the black weepy leaves of the pumpkin patch, no Atlantic Orange, no Fairytales.

However, there were lots of beautiful orange pumpkin blossoms left that managed to survive, so I made Fried Pumpkin Blossoms.

RECIPE HERE: MAMA'S FRIED PUMPKIN BLOSSOMS

AND HOW TO FREEZE AND FRY:

FRESH PUMPKIN BLOSSOMS WITH INSTRUCTIONS VIDEO OF FREEZING & FRYING FROM LYLE HORNER'S KITCHEN 

 

The Little Prince 💜

Our little garden pet, Prince💜


“Always throw spilt salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Plant lavender for good luck. And fall in love whenever you can. 

Happiness is not about getting what we want.

It’s about appreciating what we have.”
Meet our little garden pet, Prince💜
Photo by@murtagh13@ghostales1957

THE SPOOKS ARE COMING FOR YOU, LITTLE BAT! 🎃👀🎃👀👀👀🎃🎃👀🎃👀🎃👀👀🎃👀

The Spooks are coming for you, Little Bat!🎃👀🎃👀 🎃👀

~ Oil on wood panel

I should have thought of this earlier but its never too late. A neat way to see where the stars would look good before painting them in. I still need to paint a shooting star and some tiny stars around the little white ghostly pumpkins. 

"By pumpkins fat and witches lean
 By coal black cats
 With eyes of green
 By all the magic ever seen
 The ghosts will rise on
 Halloween" ~ author unknown

I shared this oil painting yesterday but, I got better pictures this morning so, sharing once more. Also, wondering what to do with the pumpkin patch, any suggestions? 

Last night's moon was a waxing crescent, and I tried to capture an image with my phone, only I got this. Sometimes, pictures lie. lol 

I did, however, paint it in my spooky Halloween painting. 

Now, I am thinking, what I need to do with the haunted pumpkin patch being very careful not disturb the little spooks.
Of course, you might have guessed if you read about our pumpkin patch how I got the idea for this painting. And did you notice the pet rock? Nature sure presents inspiration: one only needs to put on their glasses and take a closer look. Well, at least I know I do, reading glasses and an early morning coffee helps me to see more clearly.

A PUMPKIN FAIRYTALE 🎃

A PUMPKIN FAIRYTALE

"Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold."
~ John Greenleaf Whittier

When pumpkins give you Fairytales: The quiet garden, still and fragrant after the rain and then I spot from afar little orange golden suns. Its the Pumpkin Patch once again! The pumpkin flowers and the little pumpkins are reaching out coming towards our house: I think they are trying to tell us a fairytale. 


PUMPKIN CAT AND PUMPKIN BAT

A PUMPKIN FAIRYTALE

"Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold."
~ John Greenleaf Whittier

When pumpkins give you Fairytales: The quiet garden, still and fragrant after the rain and then I spot from afar little orange golden suns. Its the Pumpkin Patch once again! The pumpkin flowers and the little pumpkins are reaching out coming towards our house: I think they are trying to tell us a fairytale. 


PUMPKIN CAT AND PUMPKIN BAT

Pumpkin fairies and pumpkin pie, jack o' lanterns of pumpkin cats and pumpkin bats under the light of the silvery moon, oh so many ways the pumpkin patch gives to our imagination. I can't wait for the great pumpkin but, I don't think we have the time for one, not much summer left.

I love rain and so do pumpkins. After last night's rainfall, the garden grew and bloomed some more, and the fairytale pumpkin's bloom was the fairest of them all until this silly girl tried to kill the cucumber bug sitting in the center of the flower. I caught the bug: but I got the flower too. Delicate is the flower of the pumpkin so, beware, look, but don't touch. 

The quiet garden, still and fragrant after the rain and then I spot from afar little orange golden suns.

I think I'm in love with Pumpkin Flowers 🧡🧡🧡🧡🎃



 

And the little bug I guess did less harm than me. Don't touch the Pumpkin Flowers!

Have you noticed all the flowers look like stars? Magical!.

No matter in whose garden this little vine grows, and grows and grows and blooms and blooms and blooms

A whimsical garden another name for a messy garden. 

Nicotiana is one of my favorite, white, fragrant, and starry. A must-have in my garden.

I may never stop dreaming of a cottage by the sea or in the wood, and the stories my garden tells keeps me happy where I am, for now.

IN ANOTHER LIFE I WAS LESTAT ~ HAPPY CATURDAY! 🖤

“None of us really changes over time. We only become more fully what we are.” ― Anne Rice.

Bat "When I could play Franz Joseph Haydn's Sonata in E flat on the piano.Ooh, how much I miss it."

Lestat: Listen, Louis. There's life in these old hands still. Not quite Furioso. Moderato? Cantabile, perhaps.

Claudia: How could it be?

Lestat: Ask the alligator. His blood helped. Then on the diet of the blood of snakes, toads, and all the putrid life of the Mississippi, slowly, Lestat became something like himself again. Claudia ... you've been a very, very naughty little girl.

HAPPY CATURDAY!

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN SONATA IN E FLAT 

 ON THE PIANO ~  ROB WRIGHT

SPOOKY GHOST STORIES ♥️ 👻👻👻👀

It’s World Book Day today. Here are a few of the old books I’ve collected over the years, some from Sally Ann others ordered online or from other thrift stores. The Victorian girl and boy statuette I found at House of Lazarus years ago and affectionately named them Miles and Flora, the ghost children from one of my favorite ghost story, “The Turn of The Screw” by Henry James and the movie “The Innocents”.

THE DREAM AND THE VISITOR

I couldn't sleep but I remembered my dream... Salem returned.

‘The Visitor’, by Ian Serraillier

A crumbling churchyard, the sea, and the moon; The waves had gouged out grave and bone;

A man was walking, late and alone...

He saw a skeleton on the ground; A ring on a bony finger he found.

He ran home to his wife and gave her the ring. “Oh, where did you get it?” He said not a thing.

“It’s the loveliest ring in the world,” she said,

As it glowed on her finger. They slipped off to bed.

At midnight they woke. In the dark outside, “Give me my ring!” a chill voice cried.

“What was that, William? What did it say?” “Don’t’ worry, my dear. It’ll soon go away.”

“I’m coming!” A skeleton opened the door. “Give me my ring!” It was crossing the floor.

“What was that, William? What did it say?” “Don’t’ worry, my dear. It’ll soon go away.”

“I’m reaching you now! I’m climbing the bed.” The wife pulled the sheet right over her head.

It was torn from her grasp and tossed in the air: “I’ll drag you out of bed by the hair!”

“What was that, William? What did it say?”

“Throw the ring through the window! THROW IT AWAY!”

She threw it. The skeleton leapt from the sill, Scooped up the ring and clattered downhill, Fainter... and fainter... Then all was still.



Salem was one of our rescues, a very special cat who had a sixth sense I'm sure.




THE VISITOR BY IAN SERRAILLIER

PARANOID ?

Bat... "Somebody's watching me" 🙀

Spider," your right, because I'm right behind you."




Somebody's Watching Me ~ Rockwell / Micheal Jackson


Photo by M Three Cats, A Dog, and A Camera

Witches are Cats Too !! ‍🐱

"From now on, young man, watch your step...mother is watching you " 

- Endora in Bewitched

~ Bewitched Theme


photo by M 

Three Cats A Dog and A Camera 

Pussycat Pussycat Where Have You Been?🍀☘️🌱🌿🌷

🌷🍀☘️🌱🌿

I sneaked into M's room to visit her flowers.

Oooh, and?

When I saw a plant with teeth open its mouth I ran under the chair.

Ask M if she can grow you some Cat Grass 🌱

image ~ Wiki How

 I think you guessed the plant that scared Bat under the chair to be the mysterious, meat-eating loving plant  The Venus Flytrap . A little reading and research might just be all you need to successfully grow one of these unusual plants.




Good Luck 🍀

The Secret of the Old Book 📖

The smell of old books. There's a word for that, Catsbibliosmia, 😹 but seriously, it's called Bibliosmia. I love the smell of old books and  Maggie loves it too. 

I love collecting old books, not because of their distinctive odor although it is one of their capturing attributes but because I love the stories, the illustrations and of course their covers that draw me into their worlds. 

The smell of old books derives from the Lignin content, the fibers, and chemicals used in the bookmaking of that particular book. Through time, the Lignin content breaks down to form compounds like vanillin and furfural, which are the elements that produce a smell much like vanilla and almond. Combine these scents with their environment they originated from, maybe from a house whose occupant loved coffee, loved plants and flowers, cats and dogs, all these components' odors play a part inoculating the book with its own beautiful and rare perfume.

So, I love sweets, especially ones made with vanilla, and almond and because I'm a diabetic the next best thing to the real sugar is the scent of an old book.

To be surrounded by volumes of old books, all keeping secrets. What a wonderful obsession!

Have you come to the scary part of Nancy Drew's The Secret Of The Old Clock, Mags? 😂

Here's a link to an oldie ~ Nancy Drew ... Reporter ( 1939 ) comedy/crime

PHOTOS BY M 

EYES WITHOUT A FACE 👀 LES YEUX SANS VISAGE 👀

IT'S EASY TO DECEIVE  WHEN YOU ARE A  BLACK CAT, LOL.

THREE CATS, A DOG, AND A CAMERA  ON INSTAGRAM

instagram.com/murtagh13/

This photo of Bat made me think of Billy Idol's song, 'Eyes Without a Face'. You can listen to it here.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OFpfTd0EIs

HOME ALONE ... I SEE YOU 🙀

Emma set up a camera to watch what the cats do while we are away and when she called him he came to see where she was...no one there
Spooky🙀

WITCHES' BROOM TREE WIP 🧹 OIL PAINTING

I love the trees! 

I love collecting their leaves, their seeds, the conks that I sometimes find on their trunks on my woodland walks and of course taking their photos. 

I also love the illustrations and paintings of trees, particularly the ones done by 19th - century British artists.

The Witch Broom Tree in this painting was inspired by Emily Carr's gorgeous trees of British Columbia.

"In 1818 Constable exhibited a beautiful drawing of elm trees at the Royal Academy. It failed to sell and so it was still in Constable’s possession two decades later, when he added a note on the back to the effect that “This noble Elm … was blown down April 1835.” It was a portrait, in other words, of a particular tree, one whose fortunes he continued to follow, and whose eventual loss he lamented long after he’d moved away from the area." ~ Professor Christiana Payne


And like John Constable, I adore painting them. When I came upon a tree down the road from where I live that looked quite peculiar I took a few photos of the tree for future reference which would come in handy when I went to paint it. At the time I didn't know why the tree was afflicted with such unusual, odd-looking, broom-like distortions but after looking it up online I discovered it was disease trees get and not from witches : )

I suppose the namesake is because it reminds one of a spooky broom belonging to a witch. So I decided to paint the Witch Broom Tree in oil but it was my first time painting entirely in oil and I didn't realize just how long it takes for the painting to dry and cure. This painting is still very wet.

I added a couple of spiders and webs to the tree and eventually would like to add a black cat and create more depth to the scenery before it's complete. Hopefully, in the process, I wouldn't destroy it.

We Found Halloween🎃

On our way home from soccer, last night
we found Halloween🎃
It was a dark and rainy Halloween this year but someone did some magic 🧙‍♀️🧹and gave us Halloween🎃👻🦇🕷🕸 

And I just have to share this🦇 Purrfect Spooky Halloween Photo of Bat taken by M. 🧙‍♀️
https://www.instagram.com/murtagh13/

Bat Bat Boo ~ Happy Caturday ! 🐈 🧡🎃🦇🧹

BaT, Bat Boo! The spooky cute, little fella that just doesn't miss a chance at keeping my company when I paint. Do you see the cat candle ring on the taper? My daughter gave it to me and I usually wear jewelry for a few days and then eventually it gets used to decorate the house. I think I like it better on the candle than on my finger. p.s. No cat was harmed to take this photo!😉 HAPPY CATURDAY !!!

Painting Cats 🐈 🐈

Painting cats 🐈. I finally got around to painting this little black cat 🐈 I have a couple of cats but can’t find them, either I donated them to the thrift store or they’re buried in the basement. Lol ☺️🎃

Looking Spooky Cute

So, before or after?

Ooh, and the seat is a mandarin hubby and daughter dried out. If I didn’t mention it I think it could have passed as a tiny pumpkin.