Happy Halloween

I'm not a lover of Halloween although I do enjoy spooky movies, pumpkins and candy. I saw this mooning scarecrow the other day and thought oh someone is very clever. Maybe I'll try it next year.



More about cemeteries. Earlier this week Hubby and I went on a torch light walking tour through one of the oldest cemeteries in our city, Mt. Hope Cemetery. It was very cool, we learned some history about it but alas our tour guide told us no ghost stories about it and I'm sure there are some. The 54 acres of land for Mt Hope Cemetery was purchased in 1836 and was considered rural since it was 1.5 miles from downtown Rochester. It was thickly wooded with inaccessible hills and valleys. These hills and valley are what makes it uncommon among cemeteries. Most are flat or have slight hills. Mt Hope is very hilly and a nice place to hike. It has trees that are 200 plus years old and veterans buried there from all wars starting with the Civil War. Two years later it was read for dedication on October 3, 1838. Over the years it has grown and currently is 196 acres. A few people buried there: Susan B. Anthony, a women's rights activist, Frederick Douglas, crusader against slavery, Hiram Sibley, founder of Western Union, William Warfied, world famous baritone and Frank E. Gannett, famous newspaper publisher.I took the above picture not knowing I'd see the smoke from a torch when I downloaded it. It looks somewhat creepy to me since I think I see a face in the second smoke blob to the right of the monument. But if you want to see something really creepy...
I do not like bugs. Yes, I know we need insects to survive in this world and they have a purpose. I once read a novel entitled Dust and while it was fiction the consequences of having no insects in the world were true. It's a good read. Anyway over the summer we were up at Keewaydin NY State Park in the 1000 Islands and came across this thing on this tree. What the heck was it? Let's take a closer look.

Ewwww, some sort of insect emerging.

After it climbed out it turned itself over and hung on to the shell for a bit.

Eventually when it was done molting with the wings fully expanded and hardened it flew away. This took place in a time span of about an hour. We were fishing right by this tree so I kept my eye on it. I wanted to know where it was at all times because I didn't want it crawling on me.

After I got home I did some research and turns out this is a Tibicen cicada that goes by the alias of dog day cicada. It gets that moniker because it emerges from the exoskeleton in July and August, the hottest months of the year. The male cicada is the one that does the singing often being most vocal on hot and steamy days. I do enjoy their song, for some reason it reminds me of my childhood. They can be very noisy in large groups but a lone cicada has a beautiful song.