A Rose Arisen.

A lovely day so I trekked out to the Garden Centre after work. In the past, there has been these really cool sculptures made from straw* but alas, there were NO such hay-makers to be found this year.

(*click the link above to see some past sculptures.) Here are a couple of those sculptures.

 

One time, there was even a cool little shrine to Gojira!

But since I was at the garden anyway, I wandered around and snapped some pics of orange roses to add that festive flare.

 

There were a few Halloween displays, but not that many.

 

 

And some interior displays, including some crafts you can make yourself (YOU can make not that I can make, I'm not very crafty.) 

 

All in all, it was rather disappointing. A couple of cool owls though!

 

I will definitely check out Halloween at the local aquarium in a few weeks though.

 

 I'm surprised I didn't run into Mandragora. It seems like the kind of creature that would hang around an Agricultural centre.

 

 Of course, a popular item for any witch's brew is Mandrake, and here is a brief description thereof.

 

I never knew that this dude showed up in Harry Potter. Kind of cute, ain't it?

Here are some details.

Snack on these... 

 Here's another fellow blogger for you to peruse, vraie fiction.

A Straw Man Argument

It was my last day teaching the engineers* at my flight school so I showed them some Simpsons to celebrate. I gave each lad (and two lasses) an Oreo as a snack.

 

*not really engineers, just what they're referred as at the school.

Afterwards, I trekked over to The Sendai Agricultural Garden Center in order to check out their Straw sculptures. THIS is all they had!

I'm fairly certain that that is the same Dragon that has welcomed patrons for the last few years.  There were a few more last year and lots more the year before and a ton more before that! (Check out the label to the left called "straw art" for even more.)

At least they had a minor Halloween display.

 

Not even any pumpkins around the SENDAI sign like last year. (Maybe I came too early!)

Ah well, I'll check back in a few weeks. At least the local Hard-Off/Off-House had a display today. Kudos!

 

Tomorrow begins a month of daily (?) posts with something to do with Halloween as part of the Countdown to Halloween! There will be plenty of Halloweeny posts starting tomorrow with links at that site...

Nope? Yup!

Here's a cloud my friend posted.

I said, "It looks sentient." A friend retorts, "nope." He had to clarify later that he was referring to NOPE.

Full disclosure. I have never watched this. After this entry, I plan to watch it tonight. Hopefully I shan't have to revise this post.

Here are some more clouds.

Those were taken before and during the last full moon.

IF you look in the background of these straw creatures, you may see some more clouds.

This lion greets you.

Some decorated foliage.

I do believe there's an art contest. Sadly the students weren't there today and neither was the Godzilla Shrine from last year.

These are new...

These aren't.

These are new though not straw sculptures.

And a few gravestones and crosses.

Hey pumpkins! Just what I was looking for...

Grr. They aren't real. (Insert frowny face.)

Duck!

So dang it, my goal of finding a pumpkin at the Agricultural Center is all for naught. Ah well, let's go get a closer look at that big ape.

 Speaking of big apes, this is the closest Yokai I could get. This guy is a mind reader known as Satori.

At five bucks a pop, I didn't bother buying one of these Skeletal creatures.

Here's a Venomized Miles for your perusal.

 

That's about it for tonight. I'm going to watch NOPE and see if it gets a "Nope" from me.

A fellow blogger worth checking out is AEIOU. See whether he's had a vowel movement.