Oh, she takes care of herself, she can wait if she wants - She's ahead of her time. Oh, and she never gives out, And she never gives in - She just changes her mind. She is frequently kind, And she's suddenly cruel. But she can do as she pleases, she's nobody's fool. And she can't be convicted, she's earned her degree. And the most she will do is throw shadows at you - But she's always a woman to me.

 Today was an absolutely brilliant day of visiting Genevieve for Halloween at the orchard  -- and she Halloween Magic surprised me by holding out LOTS of cider for their Sunday customers!!! Because I'd asked her privately if she thought they'd have the right sort of apples remaining to do cider next week because i'd promised my dad and a co-worker to buy more last weekend but had a migraine on Saturday so didn't make it and due to planting bulbs wouldn't be able to visit their Home Stand at the orchard until Sunday. So she offered to hold some for me and she offered 2. I thanked her for the offer because i do know it sells out every weekend and rarely lasts until Sunday sales and added, "2 ciders is better than 0 ciders" which she correctly understood as me being grateful for her offer and the favor of it being polite toward others who get there before me first come first serve but I would gladly take more if more was available. So she then set aside their family Christmas cider as well as about a third of the weekend remaining cider batch for Sunday sales and special marked 4 for me just in case we got there later in the afternoon so she could still surprise me. But we got there right when she opened and so she got to see me squee and hop up and down in excitement she'd saved 4 for me then she went to get it with a wink and was able to get the joy of my hyper happy clapping excitement as she wheeled out an entire wagonload and laughingly tell me to go ahead and buy as much as I wanted because she decided to save out foe all her Halloween Sunday customers! So I was able to acquire all 10 that I'd promised to my da and Sarah 9and me) and Crissy could get her 2 she wanted to freeze! She was so delighted in my joy and laughing with Crissy, "she's really just like a kid when she's excited, isn't she?!" and Crissy said, 'It's a dancer thing -- they express joy with their entire body when excited. In the 18 years I've known her, I've never seen her get excited without expressing it in jumps or toe raises or clapping or all of them at once." And it's true of every dancer I know who's spent more than three years in dance of any form -- including my family members who spent a lot of time dancing.  Excited joy is expressed in physical movement because you just can't contain it all and have to jump it out of you -- especially with former ballet dancers and former Irish dancers since they're both very energetically jumpy forms of dance.

Here are some pictures of apples and my dog's excitement. And especially her giddiness when I went to bite into my treat and the stick broke playing a trick on me -- the pupper definitely thought she'd be getting the entire caramel apple for herself 😂 

For the record, the excited pup DID get small pieces of apple with caramel, from both me and Crissy. But to her great sorrow, she did not receive my entire caramel apple for herself. 😆

And then I got more of my literally thousands of bulbs planted afterward, during the perfect autumnal golden hours light. All the tulips are in, nearly all the daffodils are in and then the remaining hundreds of bulbs are littler shallower bulbs like crocuses and hyacinths and muscatines. I bought so many varieties of crocuses!!!! Including Joan of Arc crocuses and a bright orange variety called monarch because it's the color of monarch butterfly wings! Crocuses are the first flowers in the north, they bloom even in the snow and keep blooming even if hard frosts and freezes and late snows fall upon them. They're the first flowers that paint on the sparkling white canvas -- and I adore them!!! They're also teeny tiny bulbs, and they come up so early they don't compete with later perennials that can fill in where they're planted! So since bulbs aren't pretty and the flowers need to root then winter before we see what all comes up, here's some selfies of me being all cute and spooky season in my joy at how many tulips and daffodils I planted yesterday and today! 

Yes, I realize I look extra fée and elvish even for me. I tend to look very puckish fairfolk whenever I'm soul shining happy. And yes I use a leather tool belt while gardening - it's much easier than trying to remember where I set down the damn trowel  and now where did the clippers go?! 

Then I reheated some of the spicy coconut curry squash soup I made on Friday for dinner before my pup and I went home so I could light my new Liquid Light candle for Samhain. 

Wait, I'll save the story about my triple moon cauldron Liquid Light candle with a selenite athame that literally glows in my hand to show and tell more about tomorrow!!! Mostly because my battery is at 8% and I just realized I never shared any of my Halloween decorations pictures of my flat, did I?! The day time ones are from when I put up the decorations on the autumnal equinox, the night time ones are tonight. 

Yes. I always store Smarties in my sugar skull candy bowl - do I seem like the sort of girl who would be putting Dum Dums in her skull? 

And yes, I noticed tonight the sneaky reminders I missed while packing away posters and shirts.... In case you missed it: 

Also, tilting it to show the piano keys in the skeleton mirror is one of my favorite photos. I've never (yet) caught ghostly hands reflected playing in the mirror but not in my living room.... But there's still time for that -- if not this year then another year: 

Ahhh shite! Battery is down to 4% now.... I'll add the ones at night with the tree all lit up and the collected leaves additions tomorrow with the candle story! Promise! (Mostly because they have not yet synced into my Google photos and I don't have enough battery life or patience to upload atm.)

I'll let you guess which are year round decor and which I only put out from autumnal equinox to winter solstice 👻 (my personal tradition is that when spooky season gets packed up to make way for Channukah-Christmas-Yule-Saturnalia decorations, Halloween all goes UNDER the tree until midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This is to properly honor both Jack Skellington, The Pumpkin King, and Sandy Claws, the savior of Christmas Day. Also, not only do I adore Nightmare Before Christmas and all things spooky, but practically speaking I live alone with my pets so putting my own gifts under the tree is pathetic while putting pet gifts under the tree is a great plan to destroy a tree and/or need emergency vet visits after they eat the wrappings while you're in the other room....) Also though, try putting as much of spooky season as can fit under a decorated Christmas tree and tell me that it doesn't make your Nightmare Before Christmas loving heart happy. Almost as happy as Jack Skellington's Haunted Mansion takeover in spooky season at Disneyland.

Also. A friend who shall not be named decided to Grinch all over seeing everyone post about happy dress up trick or treaters and spooky themed (she's unhappy and selfish only child with no cousins and because she had a bad day had to try to make other people feel guilty over their happiness.). So I decided that all my spooky season loves who find the joy in a day of allowing your inner child out to play and communal kindness to strangers to spread irrational joy, my people will henceforth be known as Spooky Lou Whos. 

You know you love that and will proudly own your rightful place as a Spooky Lou Who. 

P.S. It's after 1am, officially into the "don't feed the mogwai"  witching hours, and I still look like a mischievous shiny fairy child, only now I'm a pretty elf witch with a dagger of liquid light. 

Also, I still don't understand how this shirt manages to be tight fitted horizontal patterned stripes that's slimming on me and makes my boobs look ridiculously cartoonish proportioned. 

As my cat and pre-coffee, half awake, no makeup or contacts, who cares about angles and extra chins and eye crinkles morning Dani so clearly demonstrated. 

Fucking ridiculous is what those curves are.... whoever decided genetic coding for a 28G was a sensible phenotype for me this life. 😂

Still, the fact that this shirt is slimming from so many angles, especially when I'm standing not seated must be a bit of Halloween Magic in that completely breaking all the fashion rules, non?

[Post title: lyrics to the Billy Joel song She's Always a Woman. But also, if you didn't realize that without me saying it, we can't be friends. At best we can be mere acquaintances. But not truly friends until you get better taste in music and can recognize all out of context Billy Joel lyrics from any well know song of his....]