Welcome To Salem

 Hi everyone. Happy Halloween.

A few weeks back we were having some gorgeous October weather, so my friend and I took a little road trip to Salem, Massachusetts. (It isn't that far from home, just over an hour for me.)  It was still very early October, and who would have expected it to be so crazy already? I guess October as a whole is crazy in that city.

I apologize for the long post today!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Salem, it was first settled in 1626,  and not much later the Massachusetts Bay Company arrived. This event opened the door for many Puritans to move into the new settlement, making it one of the religious centers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1629 it received a charter from the King of England, making it a self-autonomous or ruling community.  In 1692, the settlement was hit with witch fever, and  19 people were hanged or pressed to death for the crime of being witches. There have been many theories about why these men and women were accused of being witches, including that some of the rye flour people used to make their bread was contaminate with a rye fungus called ergot.  When the Governor of the settlement's wife was accused of being a witch, he stopped the trials and the Salem witch "events" ended. 

Salem then went on to become the largest trading port in the 13 American colonies up until the American Revolution, and it continued being an important trade port into the 1800's.

My friend and I didn't do too much on our visit as places were either very crowded or tickets were sold out. Some of the places looked a little hokey too, and why spend money for something dumb? We did have a wonderful day walking around with our cameras though, and we did have a delicious lunch outside. 

I thought for Halloween I would give you a little taste of some of what I saw.

This one area of the city was crowded, not only with spooky decorations, but with people dressed up for Halloween. They wanted money to have their pictures taken with you, and I didn't want to pay, so my photos aren't straight on.

I'm not sure what I was trying to photograph in this next picture, but the photo looks like a spooky ghost is looking back at me. 

 I took this next  photo in late morning when it was just getting crowded. When we walked back through here in the afternoon to get back to the car, there were a lot more people here. I put my mask on with all those people. (I did like that the city of Salem required masks indoors.)

I can only image how many spirited people are here today on Halloween, especially since it the weekend.

And if your style isn't so spooky, here's a couple of cuter Halloween views.

A jack-o-lantern in the National Park headquarters.

And this fun door decor I spotted while we walked.

I much preferred the historical places. We walked through the original graveyard from when Salem was just a settlement. Next to it was also a memorial to those innocent people who had been killed as witches. I enjoy walking through old graveyards, so here's some pictures I took there. I will share other photos of Salem with you later in the week. 

These grave carvings can be a bit spooky too, but really fascinating also. Some of these stones are so hard to read. I don't know much about the meaning of these figures put onto the stones, but they can be found all over parts of New England.

This tree's roots are really upsetting the stones and the graves below.

OK, I might have gotten a bit carried away with my number of gravestone photos in this post.

And changing a photo to black and white makes it a bit spookier. Just because it is Halloween of course.

I hope your Halloween is as spooky (or not) as you like it.  

Have a great rest of your weekend!

The End of October

 Hi everyone. 

With the month quickly winding down, today I want to share my last journal page for Tracey's My Favorite Colour is October challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Thank you Tracey for hosting. You were a fantastic host, and I loved your theme this month.

And thanks to all of you who joined us for this challenge. I'm a little sad October is just about over for many reasons, one of them being I will miss all this beautiful autumn art and inspiration you've all shared.

My page is a bit bottom heavy. Mostly I let the Gelli print speak for itself. 

And let me share a few more colours of October photos with you from recent my walks. So many leaves are dropping off the trees right now, we'll be down to bare branches in no time.

Leaves on the water, and below, on the ground.

And this sweet little shrine I found while walking a couple of weeks ago at the Urban Forestry Center.

And a few more fungi. It's fungi on fungi too.

Fall berries.

And more fungi.

These dark berries were not only colorful, but I like the little flowers that formed before the berries grew.  

I haven't seen a lot of milkweed these year, but I did come across these seeds waiting to be blown away.

And if you look at this tree photo, what do you see?

I see a screaming snail head. Smile.

Today my daughter turns 30. I can't believe that. She's off on a grand celebration adventure with her beau hiking in some of the National Parks of Utah. I'm still thinking about how she was a tiny baby in my arms.

And even if I'm not sure I want October to end, I'm looking forward to November. They'll be another fun challenge at AJJ, and I have some fun adventures planned for the new month too.

Thanks for visiting.