HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I truly enjoy Halloween. To me, besides the fourth of July, it’s the most fun holiday on the calendar, and I LOVE spending it with my family. They get a kick out of finding the perfect costumes, which makes Halloween even more fun. I carved my pumpkins this afternoon and found a heart inside this one. Who knew pumpkins have feelings, too? Well, they have seeds, anyway.

Making chili for an undetermined amount of spooky peeps. I always make chili. I started this tradition when my kids were little. We’d always eat chili before going trick or treating.

Halloween candy for an undetermined amount of spooks who may or may not come knocking at my door this wet, cold and windy Halloween night. [Actually, we had quite a few, even past nine thirty. I didn’t have much of this candy left by the time it was all over]

I carved two pumpkins this year.

I always carve a traditional jack o lantern face. I think it’s a law or something.

The past year or two, I’ve enjoyed stringing up orange lights. This year I added some purple.

Added some to the dining room, too, this year. Fun stuff.

Grandson Knox dressed up like Tow Mater in the Cars movie ~ one of his fave things right now.

Kimbrough peeps ~ Kerry, Knox and Kelly

Hubby Neil dressed up like the serial killer Dexter.

Would not be Halloween at the Ranft house without sister Jane and bro in law Don.

Kerry in his glo-stick glasses

Knox’s friend Addelyn came over to go trick or treating ~ she was dressed as Elsa from the movie Frozen [which it certainly felt like out there tonight]

They were ready to get out there and gather candy

Knox brought his wagon for the ride through the neighborhood

Trick or Treat!

Hand in hand

They got back to the house with buckets full of treats. Knox really enjoyed the Halloween experience this year.

Niece Julia was the cutest bunny I’ve ever seen [her sister Sarah made the costume for her]

Cotton tail

Niece Sarah was decked out in pink braids and a dress that had bunnies and kittens and unicorns all over.

Granddaughter Shelby reminded me of Helen of Troy in her Greek goddess costume. [She and Julia froze to death trick or treating. There is snow in the forecast here tonight.]

Grandson Elijah was the Winter Soldier from Captain America

Friend of the family Anthony was just plain scary

Daughter Holly was a lovely purple haired witch

Chili for a chilly Halloween night

Daughter Kelly with her good friend Kelly and their kiddos

Shelby, Holly, Julia and Sarah

Shelby, Holly, Julia, Sarah, and good friend of the family, Katelyn who dressed up as a deer

Goddess and ghouls

Dexter with his bloody machete

Son in law Jerry dressed in camo and werewolf mask

He lives to scare people on Halloween and does a good job of it, too ~ set up his duck/deer blind in the front yard and frightened trick or treaters half to death when they came over to look inside. Boo!

“She looks like a deranged Easter Bunny,” was the quote of the evening when Julia got her hands of Dexter’s machete

Witchy Woman and a cup of hot apple cider

Bunny, goddess, deer ~ oh my

Hey, it’s me pigging out on candy corn. I had such a good time tonight with my Halloween peeps. Looking forward to doing it all over again next year!

Happy Halloween!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE!

To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other’s hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. ~Clara Ortega

My baby sister Jane celebrated her 53rd birthday today ~ our family’s almost-Halloween baby.

As far as I can tell, she does not age ~ even though she’d be the first to tell you that’s not exactly true.

Happy Birthday, Jane!! Wishing you all the best of everything today and always. You deserve it and then some. Love you big time.

OCTOBER DAY

Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love — that makes life and nature harmonize. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one’s very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.    ~George Eliot, letter to Miss Lewis, 1st October 1841

Riding The Rails

There's something about the sound of a train that's very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful.   ~Paul Simon
We’ve heard of these train excursions to and from the Cookeville Depot, but we’ve never experienced one until today. Neil thought it would be a fun thing to do, especially for the grandkids [and especially for Knox, who loves trains right now]. The Chamber of Commerce sponsored the excursion through the Tennessee Central Railway Museum ~ “Cookeville Super Fall Foliage Excursion Nashville Cookeville” according to the TCRM Facebook page. 

Ready to ride the rails ~ hubby Neil, granddaughter Shelby, daughter Holly, grandson Elijah, daughter Kelly, grandson Knox, and moi [FYI: this photo has a little secret to it and I’ll tell you what it is at the end of the post]

The Cookeville Depot Museum has an awesome replica of how the West Side around the depot used to look back when folks traveled by train. Knox loves to watch the train go around the tracks.

The iconic neon Cream City sign across the street from the depot

Bird’s eye view

Waiting for the train

And here it comes!


You don’t realize how huge they are until you’re standing next to one. This train pulled into the depot and kept on rolling by. It was insanely long. Never did see the tail end of it.

Doesn’t he look like the quintessential train conductor?

Line up here and show your ticket.

We were in car #9400 [and that train was so long I wouldn’t be surprised if there had actually been 9400 cars]. Our seats were in the “dome”. Pretty cool.

The seven of us were a bit spread out but that was fine. There were about 25 other travelers under the dome. Great views from all around the car.

Leaving the depot and looking out the rear window ~ this was a short trip to Algood and back which took about an hour

Nice view from my window

We chugga chugged along the track slowly. The car swayed from side to side, at times strongly enough that we all swayed in our seats. [I’m happy to report I did not get train car sick]



Kelly took a couple of panoramic shots with her iPhone camera


Because the leaves are turning so late this year, it wasn’t a particularly pretty ride. The lady with Tennessee Central who rode in our car said the trip from Nashville was beautiful. I imagine so, since there was probably so much more farmland. Our trip took us through mostly business and residential areas. There was a house or two that sat only a few feet from the tracks. I can only imagine what that must sound like when one of the L&N trains come rumbling through their neighborhood, carrying freight.

Algood does not have a depot. We stopped here [right by this beautiful orange maple tree in someone’s front yard] and had to wait a few minutes while they disconnected the engine cars and turned them around to hook up to the back of the train so they could pull us back to Cookeville.

This engine was at the front of the train [and there were several engine cars, I guess you’d call them] that pulled us to Algood. Here he is going in reverse to the back of the train to hook up for the trip back to Cookeville.


Going back in time…well, not really…just going backwards which was kind of a strange sensation at first ~ that’s the smoke stack at TTU

You can see the old post office up there on the left next to the Baptist church on Broad Street

Almost home ~ you can see the roof of the depot ~ I still can’t believe how L-O-N-G this train was! I think our car was somewhere in the middle. Someone said there were between 400 and 500 people on board.

Crossing Cedar Street

Took this picture as we passed through the train car below our dome on the way out ~ felt like I had just arrived at Hogwarts ~ riding the rails was such a neat experience, something I wouldn’t mind doing again someday. Knox said “that train was pretty cool.” It was.

Shared a pizza for lunch at Momma Rosa’s

Loved being with my peeps today! Hope your ever lovin’ Saturday was a cool trip, too.

Here’s my little “secret” to the group shot at the top of the page. We couldn’t all be in the same shot together [I took this shot] …..

…. and Neil took this shot ~ so using a little digital magic, I Photoshopped myself into the picture just above this one. Scroll back to the top group shot and check it out. I’m not an expert at Photoshop but it was a nice way for all of us to be in the same shot. Happy Saturday, y’all!