I may have mentioned before that I tend not to give a lot of thought to Halloween costumes until the day of (or, maybe the night before). I have an interesting closet of “normal” clothes that lends itself well to a set of concepts, and I find that procrastinating encourages my brain toward creative combinations.

It does mean that some aspects of costumes get inadequate attention, but I learned years ago that as long as you give people the suggestion, they’ll usually get there in the end. (The exception to this was Raggedy Ann, which pretty much no one got, in part because I resorted to red hair spray, rather than yarn.)

This year, my wings came up a little short. If I’d thought about this last weekend, I could have knit wings, but I didn’t. So I made do with tissue paper around jewelry wire and fastened to my cycling visibility “vest” contraption beneath my jacket. Sometimes they looked like wings and other times leafy epaulets.

On a warmer Halloween, I might have opted for a different top. But since the high today was in the low 50s and I was spending the evening at a concert in the park, I wanted warmth. I did trade out my wreath for a hat (but with the tiara on top of it) and added long mitts.

I should also add that it’s particularly challenging to get a full-length shot by yourself, so apologies for it not being the best exposure/angle. I had to use the selfie timer and prop it up against my bag of tomatoes and herbs on an upside-down water barrel.

And I will add a thank you to my parents, who feed my quirky tastes. My mom made the tulle skirt for me a few years back. The velvet jacket is also from them, as are the sparkly Chucks, the bag (for storing fairy dust, hand sanitizer, knitting, and candy corn), and the bubble wand. The fake fur muff was a gift from my brother decades ago.

What fun combinations did your closets offer up this Halloween?

This weekend’s plans include:

• Coming up with a costume. I have some ideas.
• Carving my pumpkin.
• Baking cookies.
• Coffeeneuring at least once.
• Attending a concert.
• Possibly picking the last of my tomatoes. We have a frost warning tonight, which I missed earlier, and may be expecting another going into Monday.
• Dropping off my ballot.
• Reading outside in the sun.
• Tracking down quarters for more laundry. I hadn’t expected to have to wash and dry the floor towels.
• Sleeping in an extra hour before the farmers market.

What’s on your to-do list this weekend.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My boss told me if things get too stressful or upsetting in the wake of the election to feel okay taking a sick day to recover my mental health.

2. The office sent everyone holiday cookies & candies, which I plan on digging into next week when I will want to stress-eat everything in sight.

3. Karen and I had a nice long catch-up tonight on the phone. It felt as close to normal as anything does these days.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week before Halloween and the election?

I should have taken a before picture of my cute apple mummy turnover before I warmed it up and melted its eyes. But it was delicious and I can’t feel too bad about it.

I hope you all have a wonderful week before Halloween! Pick up your favorite candy. Figure out what costume you want to wear around the house or to the grocery store. Settle on scary or cute for your jack o’lantern’s style. You got this!

I may have mentioned before that Rudi is generally the cook around here. It’s not that I can’t cook; it’s just that I don’t particularly like to. And that when I do, inevitably supper happens at midnight. We eat dinner pretty late around here on a normal basis, but my cooking took us to such new levels after Rudi’s first convalescence years ago that he resumed cooking duties within a week of returning home. After his second surgery, he took over the next night.

However, needs do as needs must, and after ten days of sort of suffering through the easy options in my pantry, tonight I pulled up my big girl pants and made stuffed honeynut squash for supper.

I had ingredients on hand because I keep shopping as if someone in the Burrow is going to cook real food. Corey has shown no inclination, so it really did fall to me.

Anyway, they were stuffed with a combination of millet barley, spinach, garlic, shallots, and cranberries and topped with feta. The cranberries made it a tart filling, which contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the squash.

And I was smart and cooked all the honeynuts I had, so I should have two more meals that just need to be reheated.

Thank the heavens.

I took today off as a personal day and headed out to Shenandoah National Park to catch some fall foliage. It ended up being a beautiful autumn day (instead of full of rain, the way the forecast predicted), culminating at the area called Big Meadow just as the setting sun blanketed it in rosy light. Expect photos over the weekend.

And I still have two whole gorgeous days left of weekend!

I’m planning on making a couple of Coffeeneuring bike rides and spending time at the garden (I picked the last cucumber midweek, but didn’t pull up the vine. I’m also trying to trim back the tomato vines each week with the hopes of pouring life energy to the green tomatoes that remain. It also just seems like a great weekend to sit and read and knit outside.

I’ll go to the farmers market on Sunday, but I don’t know that I particularly need a whole lot. I hadn’t expected to spend most of October solo, so my shopping before Rudi left ran towards two people eating, one of whom actually enjoyed cooking things. Maybe I’ll try thumbing through my cookbooks (just because I don’t like to cook doesn’t mean I don’t like to be able to point others toward what I want to eat) and do a little meal planning. That might help me avoid the dinner of takeout french fries and peanut butter cups (protein!) I had one night this week. I have a couple heads of broccoli that could be turned into a quiche, for instance. I could also bake a pie with some of my apples.

Rudi and I got one of the Halloween strands of lights up the weekend he bought them, but left the others to “work on later.” This seems like a good later, particularly since it’s dark by 7 now.

With Rudi gone for a while, it is left to the person remaining in the Burrow to clean and organize it. I’m going to get started with that this weekend. Part of that cleaning definitely includes several loads of laundry.

And I’m also going to get some more postcards out to voters in swing states. Realistically, this might be the last weekend that’s a feasible activity.

Finally, I’d definitely like to catch up with a friend or two, be it in person or over the phone.

What’s on your weekend to-do list?