Announcing the Scarecrow Winners #WordlessWednesday

It's time to announce the winners of the 2026 Scarecrow Contest at our local park and, for Wordless Wednesday, post pictures of some of them.  Some I've posted already and I've posted a link to that post, if you are interested.

I hope you've enjoyed this scarecrow competition as much as I did.  Here are the winners and their creator(s). Many are non profits.

1st Place: “Fishing BC Parks” – Coney (Posted October 18 as Fish BC Parks).

2nd Place: “E.T.” – Broome DDSOO Art Collective  

3rd Place: “A Safe Web for Every Kid” – Together for Youth (I posted this October 21 as Spider-Man)

4th Place: “Cruella Di-Ville”– Susque-Nango Kennel Club

5th Place: “Independence” – Broome County Democratic Committee (posted October 18)

6th Place: “In Loving Memory of Aliza Spencer” (#54) – Friends of Aliza Spencer. Aliza Spencer was a 12 year old girl murdered in 2022 while out for a nighttime walk with her father and brother.  No arrests have ever made and there is a scarecrow entered in her honor each year.

7th Place: “Hay-ngels”– Guthrie Hospice of Vestal (posted October 18 as A Local Hospice)

8th Place: “Little Shop of BDS” – Broome Day Services (posted October 11 as Audrey)

9th Place: “Working 9-5” – Broome County Personnel. Yes, the beloved late Dolly Parton.

10th Place: “In Gardening We Trust” – Binghamton Gardeners Club (posted October 11 as "either a farmer or gardener".

That's it until (hopefully) next year.

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

Positivity and Joy #MusicMovesMe

 It's Monday and it's time for music!

Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers?  We are a group of music loving bloggers who blog about music each Sunday or Monday (or even later in the week). If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join!  We are brought to you by Cathy of Curious as a Cathy, Stacy of Stacy's Random Thoughts, Marie (Xmas Dolly), and myself, plus other music loving bloggers.  

Today's prompt is: October’s birth flowers are marigold and cosmos.  Marigolds symbolize positive emotion and energy and Cosmos represent order and harmony.  Build your playlist that resonates positive vibes and harmony.

We all can go for more joy and positivity in this time of anything but.  So let's begin! 

Joy - Apollo 100, based on a Bach song  "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" written around 1716 and premiered in 1723.  It hit the charts again in 1972 through this then-modern intepretation.

2013's Happy from Pharrell Williams may be the ultimate positive song.

Walking on Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves, originally released in 1983 and again in 1985.

Don't Stop Me Now - Queen, from 1979.

Throwing in a personal favorite:  The Beach Boys and Good Vibrations from 1966.  It was released as a single October 10, 1966 so we just missed its 60th anniversary.  Time does fly.

Bonus:  the original Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by Johann Sebastian Bach: 

And that's a wrap!

Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.

Shadowy Scarecrows of 2026 Continued #ShadowshotSunday

Our annual county park scarecrow contest is over but I am continuing with some of the contestants.   We should have the voting results tomorrow. 

These photos were taken October 7 so our foliage is further along than this. 

The importance of water.

Girl Scouts.

Minions.

 Tick buster. Tick borne Lyme Disease has become a major problem here.

Joining Lisa at This and That: A Blog for her #ShadowshotSunday.
 

Blue October Art Skies #SkywatchFriday

We've had a gorgeous stretch of weather where I live in the Southern Tier of New York.  I don't remember a fall quite like this.   Clear blue skies most of this week, until yesterday morning.

The sky decided to put on a cloud art display.

Enjoy as the sky unveils its art display.

The trees joined in with their colors.Fall color is progressing but we aren't at peak yet.

Whee!  Yes it was breezy.  I'm glad I decided not to rake leaves today.

Several stages of leaf turning.
 

Today is supposed to be beautiful, too.

Joining Yogi and other sky watching bloggers for #SkywatchFriday.

Still More 2026 Wordless Scarecrows #WordlessWednesday

 Today, I continue to feature scarecrows from a local park's annual Scarecrow contest.  Voting is still open but has to be done in person.

The first two pictures are the exhibit that got my vote.

Kraken. 

Spider-Man.  

Nature Can't Breathe 

Many people love this bakery's Italian bread.

A local hospice.

I will feature several more on Sunday for my Shadowshot Sunday.

Joining up with Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

Five Decades #MusicMovesMe

 It's Monday and it's time for music!

Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers?  We are a group of music loving bloggers who blog about music each Sunday or Monday (or even later in the week). If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join!  We are brought to you by Cathy of Curious as a Cathy, Stacy of Stacy's Random Thoughts, Marie (Xmas Dolly), and myself, plus other music loving bloggers.  

Today's prompt is:  You Pick.  I've picked some random tunes (a couple of which I've previously had on my blog) spanning five decades.

From 1965, The Supremes and Stop! In the Name of Love.

 

From 1975 , Elton John and Someone Saved My Life Tonight, 

From 1981, Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go, from Soft Cell.  

From 1994, Bush and Everything Zen.

Finally, from 2002, Lose Yourself from Eminem. Note, explicit version.  I have to admit that I'm not a great fan of Eminem or the rap genre in general but I absolutely love this song.

And that's a rap...I mean, wrap!

Join me again next Monday for another episode of Music Moves Me.

More 2026 Shadowy Scarecrows #ShadowshotSunday

Here's another collection of scarecrows from our area's annual Scarecrow contest in a local park.

Independence. 

I should know these characters, but I don't.

It's all in fun.  A lot of these entries come from non profits, and spectators get to vote on their favorite.

Joining Lisa at This and That: A Blog for her #ShadowshotSunday.
 

Foliage and Sky #SkywatchFriday

Today, I am featuring fall foliage and skies from the morning of October 14.

Foliage up against our hills. 

From a slightly different angle.

Framed.

In the afternoon, our skies cleared up.

Saturday we will have winter weather, but it's supposed to warm up again (a bit more seasonably than the last few days) by Monday.

Joining Yogi and other skywatchers each Friday for #SkywatchFriday. 

 

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day October 2026

Welcome to the 15th of the month and Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. 

In my zone 6a garden in the Southern Tier New York, we are on the verge of our first frost, which may also be our first freeze.  

We've had warmer than usual weather, but that is going to come to an end.  We will probably have our killing frost early Sunday morning. 

This will be the last Bloom Day with outdoor flowers.  So let's get to it.

In my shady back yard:

Japanese Anemone.

Heuchera.

Cuphea "Torpedo"  I bought it from Select Seeds due to its unusual shape but I think next year, I will stick to the tubular varieties sold locally.

Finally, a sunpatien.  I love these plants more and more each year.  So versatile.

Now for the front yard.

Sedum.

A garden victory-pansy. This is the first time I've brought pansies through an entire summer to have several plants still alive and reblooming.

Million bells.

Last, but far from least, Geranium Apple Blossom Variegata, a plant with variegated leaves, also from Select Seeds.

I finally broke down and hired someone to weed and do some thinning out of my front and back flower beds.  It was way overdue.   Now, it's time to put the gardens to bed until spring.  I may or may not have indoor flowers to show for November and December.

Thanks go once again to Carol at May Dream Gardens for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, a monthly meme that she has hosted for years.  She is retiring her meme at the end of this year.  If you click on this link you will be taken to her blog post, where others will post their links.  Why not spend part of today in beauty?

Anything blooming for you?

Scarecrows in the Park 2026 #WordlessWednesday

Welcome to the 2026 Scarecrow Contest at a local park.  Many of these entries were made by nonprofit organizations.  Some are spooky.  Some are just plain fun.  Best of all, admission is free.

Let's take a walk along the path where the contestants have staked (no pun intended) out their entries.

The best fortune is early detection (breast cancer). 

If you are wondering why the stylized dinosaur in "Fish BC Parks" it's because the late Johnny Hart, creator of the comic strip BC, grew up in this area.   Some of his artwork is used by our county's parks department, and also our transit system. 

The Statue of Liberty.  

Last one for today - skeletons.

I post on Wednesdays, Fridays, Sundays and Mondays, if you want to see more of the entries. 

 

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

Oktoberfest #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday and it's time for music!

Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers?  We are a group of music loving bloggers who blog about music each Sunday or Monday (or even later in the week). If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join!  We are brought to you by Cathy of Curious as a Cathy, Stacy of Stacy's Random Thoughts, Marie (Xmas Dolly), and myself, plus other music loving bloggers.  

Today's prompt is:  This week’s prompt is Oktoberfest. Traditionally, it begins mid-September running through to early October. It was interesting to learn the first festival was in 1810 with Prince Ludwin of Barvaria and Therese, the princess of Saxony-Hildburghausen celebrated their marriage.  You may find inspiration on your song picks by reading about Oktoberfest traditions or simply wing it by doing your own thing.

When I read through the 10 traditions the below link educates us on, I was surprised to learn that a favorite song at German Oktoberfests is...

...John Denver's Country Roads.  So I will start off with that song.  What I learned in researching is that this American song is very popular in Europe. After all, the yearning for home spans all nationalities. There are videos of crowds singing it in Germany on You Tube but I will post the John Denver original.

Another tradition is the Chicken Dance. Yup, it's the same chicken dance we have in the United States.  And here it is at Cincinnati's Oktoberfest.  You can skip the first two and a half minutes or so of the video to get straight to the music.  

Oktoberfest is all about the beer, and here's the song that is sung several times an hour in the German tents.

Ein Prosit, here sung by the Polka Brothers.  Short and sweet.

Let's end with a celebration of beer in music.  Here are two songs featuring beer.

In Heaven There is No Beer covered by Frank Yankovic (no relation to Weird Al).

ZZ Top and Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers.

Finally, an advertising song from the 1960's from Schaefer Beer.  I don't know if this beer was sold countrywide, but it dates from 1842 and was popular in New York City, where I grew up.  The license was eventually sold to Pabst (a major American beer corporation).  I understand Schaefer is still sold in parts of New York State, although I've never seen it in the part of New York State where I live.

And that's a wrap!

Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.

Scarecrows in the Shadows #ShadowshotSunday

Last week, we visited our annual Scarecrow contest in a local park.  Many of these entries are created by various nonprofits.  I haven't been able to find a list of the names of the entries so your guesses are as good as mine.  I especially enjoy the more creative ones and found it hard this year to pick a favorite to vote on.

I assume this is Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.  

It was a good day for shadows.

An Italian chef? 

From our extension service, so either a farmer or a gardener.

A nice shadow display.

Today, we are getting the fringes of the former Hurricane Isaisi and no shadows will be seen. 

Voting (in person only) ends October 24 and the winners will be announced October 26.  

I'll upload some more pictures before voting ends on my Wednesday, Friday and Sunday posts.  I won't be able to do all of them - there were over 50 entries this year. 

Joining Lisa at This and That:  A Blog, for her #ShadowshotSunday. 

The Start of Color #SkywatchFriday

I visited a local park on Wednesday to see the entries in the annual Halloween Scarecrow contest.  On the way there, I saw some trees that were turning, but the best is yet to come. 

These skies with puffy clouds and blue will be increasingly uncommon as the month progresses.  We've already had some gloomy days recently.  Gloom is the color of winter and late fall skies here.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the color as I see it here and there.

It will be a while longer until we hit peak color.

As we walked along this pond, I viewed what I think is the Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillar (Lophocampa caryae).  They are common in the fall where I live in the Southern Tier of New York. 

Speaking of the scarecrows, I'll be featuring some of them from time to time on my blog.  I normally post on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.   

Joining Yogi and other skywatchers on Fridays for #SkywatchFriday.