Weekend Fun

Here are some photos (courtesy of my husband Mark) of the Great Jack-o-Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor, where Halloween is already in full swing! They advertise that there are over 4,000 jolly jacks on display, and it certainly looked that way! Some of them, like the one above, look like they were done by local school children - so much youthful energy, enthusiasm and imagination! Below is a shot of a field filled with glowing jacks of all sorts - some were scary & creepy, but there were also animals like cats, even characters like pirates, devils, and clowns. Mark shot the two photos below without the flash so you could get a sense of how they glowed in the dark, but of course the shots are a little blurry because it's hard to hold the camera still enough for the shutter speed. The shot below that shows the manor glowing with eerie lights and images of the Van Cortlandts (I assume) carved into pumpkins too.

There were even jack-o-lantern dinosaurs. The first was taken without a flash, and the second one with a flash. It really illuminates the construction, but takes away from the magic, doesn't it? I really liked some of the displays that featured carved pumpkins hanging from the trees. These are carved with butterflies and really looked enchanting floating under the trees in the dark. There was a similar display carved with fairies with dozens of pumpkins carved with mushrooms and flowers below. I really liked these towers of pumpkins carved to look like sunflowers. There was a similar display that resembled a cornfield filled with crows. It was really amazing! After oooing and aahing over everything for about an hour, we headed home for birthday desserts! Yum!