Even closer to Halloween

In further preparation for Halloween, or perhaps just because they are strange, last Sunday drew many Ottawans to the Ottawa Zombie Walk 2009.

There were lots of cool costumes, plenty of fake blood and many calls for 'braaaiiiins'. The children in the crowd took it all way too calmly.

'A zombie took my baby koala'

A tribute to Michael Jackson

Halloween preparation

One of the fun things that Canadians celebrate is Halloween. It is just over a week away, and so we have been getting ready to participate in this for the first time. The stores are filled with lots of decorations and there seem to be costumes for sale everywhere you go. One of the coolest traditions is carving pumpkins and making jack-o-lanterns. Dave tried his hand at it with a little pumpkin he bought, and the result is in the pictures above and below. A pretty good effort for a first go! We burned a candle in him until the wax started to ooze out of his mouth. Icky, but somehow appropriate.

Dave-o-lantern.

Our landlords were kind enough to take us to a costume store that specialises in Halloween. The store was amazing - rows and rows of costumes, make up and accessories. You can buy almost anything in there to make you look scary. One of Mel's favourites was a latex stick-on patch for your arm, that made it look as though a pencil had gone through it. Would have been great for a "dead school teacher"costume!

A mask display at Audrey's Costume Store.

Ric, our landlord, loves to dress up, and will do so for almost any occasion. So you can imagine how excited he is at Halloween. He doesn't celebrate it just one day - he has a week's worth of costumes! In honour of our first Halloween and the trip to the costume store, he decided to dress up in one of his outfits and freak out the customers. At 6"7', he is a sight to be seen!

Mel and Ric (he's the one in the costume...)

We are still putting the final touches on our costumes, but you'll have to wait until after Halloween to see the results...

One of the displays from the costume store.

Fall

6 degrees C, rainy and a great day for a bicycle ride

The seasons change fast here in Canada. In just two weeks the temperature has dropped drastically and many of the trees have started losing their leaves and changing colour, revealing vibrant oranges and reds.
We trek up to the farmers market each weekend for bags-worth of fresh vegetables. We even found a purple cauliflower and decided to give it a go.




Nice haircut on that freaky cauli.









Dave got a few days work delivering new recycling bins around Ottawa. These are large compost/ food waste bins and a really neat idea for reducing the residential waste stream by 45%.