Spooky with an edge of natural elegance…

 I’m enjoying the opportunity to do spooky in a little more artful, elegant & natural fashion this Halloween… as the kids get older and their tastes have developed. 

Look at these gorgeous hydrangeas my friend brought me from her garden, the colors are so rich and complex with a lovely powdery patina. 

They look great in this old silver wine bucket and make the perfect background for my black birds I’ve wired to these thick, gnarled branches of curly willow on the table in my courtyard.

You may remember my trip down to the bayou, to The Madewood Plantation, in The Bayou La Fourche to be exact.  Where I was so impressed with the sleepy, creepy quality of all of the Spanish Moss hanging in that thick air, dripping from the trees and trellises,  I vowed I was going to try to import some for Halloween this year.

So, here it is, and these trees in the graveyard are getting some notice. 

The other day when I walked out of the house I found a cute couple taking a selfie under this canopy that hangs over the sidewalk, a popular route for local walkers…  #flattered.

My neighbor mentioned that a walker had asked her “what type of trees are those”, and I’ve had a few couples say to me “you must be from the south”, someone even told my daughter to tell me he was from New Orleans, and that “I’d done a good job”. I hope I don’t sound too pathetic repeating these compliments, but I really appreciate the appreciation, 

because I gleefully work hard on my Halloween decor each year, even though I know that very few trick~or~treaters will bother to venture down our dark, non~contiguous street come All Hallows Eve,  not that I blame them, even though I do give out full sized candy bars and mini~bottles of brandy and other after dinner drinks {for the grown~ups}, last year I even set up a Vampire Bar for the adults with bottles of cranberry juice marked as blood types and cute little minis of Crystal Head Vodka, I’m planning on recreating that scene this year {am I tempting you to come by??}. 

So where does one get fresh Spanish Moss? Amazon, of course I ordered a 28 pound box, which is a large box, absolutely stuffed with these cleaned, healthy tendrils, and, let me tell you, 28 pounds is A LOT of moss {smaller quantities are available}.

As I was draping these soft gray~green strands over the branches of my trees my Lazy~lady side was feeling quite pleased when considering that this decoration would not require any clean-up, unlike those wretched packaged “spiderwebs” I’ve spun around in years past. I imagined that the moss would drop to the ground with the leaves to become organic matter, or to be raked up in the Spring.

But, then I read how to grow Spanish Moss, where I learned that this moss is actually an “air plant” that “does not leach from the trees” but simply uses them “as a means of gaining height for sunlight”,  they thrive on moisture and can tolerate frost… so perhaps these soft, sultry strands will stay around for awhile…

and I think that would be just splendid.