Hallowe'en Mantel

"At first cock-crow the ghosts must go

Back to their quiet graves below."

Theodosia Garrison

"Hark 'Tis the night, they say,

When all souls come back from the far away--

The dead, forgotten this many a day!"

Virna Sheard

"First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys."

Ray Bradbury

"The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn't real.

I know that, and I also know that if I'm careful

to keep my foot under the covers,

it will never be able to grab my ankle."

Stephen King

"Where there is no imagination there is no horror."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"Die, my dear?

Why that's the last thing I'll do!"

Groucho Marx

"Hold on, man. We don't go anywhere with 'scary,'

'spooky,' 'haunted,' or 'forbidden'

in the title."

Shaggy in Scooby-Doo

This is about as creepy as Hallowe'en will ever get here at Across the Way, but I couldn't resist putting this together on our old mantel in the office. (And yes, that's a fire extinguisher at the bottom. Oh, well.)

These are pictures of family members from long ago, not ancestors bought on eBay! They came down from an aunt to my mother and she passed them along to me a few years ago. When I found them this summer I knew I had to try this slightly creepy Hallowe'en vignette. (Forgive me, dear relatives?) 

I meant to buy black tulle to drape across the mantel but never got around to it. I used an owl decoy, another china owl from Goodwill, two black and white plates--Copeland-Spode's Sieur de Monts Spring, Bar Harbor, Maine and Grindley's Salisbury Cathedral. There are tarnished silver pieces, old dried hydrangeas, candles and white pumpkins. 

It was kind of fun. I hope you think so too. And I don't know why that 3rd picture looks blue. It was not that way in my file. Spooky, huh? I don't know about you but I'm not going to hang my ankle over the edge of the bed tonight.