My schedule this semester is putting me behind the eight ball, but I didn’t want to miss Halloween. I have some neighbors who really do justice to the season and so most of this is from their display.
This is what happens when you don’t brush your teeth, right?
I guess this is her sister, bad orthodontistry.
And these guys — not from anybody’s seasonal display. But don’t they look as if they’re saying trick or treat?
Hope yours is full of fun.
The easy answer, of course, is at the antique store, at the second-hand shop, maybe, in your attic. Not in mine, I’m sorry to say. I have a rocking chair, but it dates to 1989 and you can tell.
It isn’t very comfortable either — at least for me. At one time in my life (somewhere in the 90’s) I had a group that met regularly at my apartment. One tall young man always took this chair. Then I realized why it wasn’t comfortable for (short) me. Rocking chairs have a symbolic quality, not just because they’re what we’re supposed to be sitting in, whiling away old age. At least I choose to think that. I think they might stand for ease in company — for anybody.
Putting goods on display must be as old as commerce itself — so it’s not hard to imagine how the first merchants to have windows on their shops realized they could fill those windows with display. Display nobody could handle, but everybody could dream over. This is the Flax window (I’ll bet you could tell) on the downtown mall. They change their display regularly. It’s always attractive.
And always somewhat the same, even in its differences. I like to catch it at the seasons. The above is from Christmas 2012. Below is a more recent shot. The sale is over now and so is the summer season that provoked it.
This is the time of year when everyone, especially anyone selling Fall merchandise, begins to warn that summer is almost over. Not that Fall is a deterence to people who like to grill outdoors. Many a day, even in early winter, I walk out to the smell of ribs or whatever wafting through the neighborhood. Meanwhile, here are the instruments that make it all happen.
I like this one because it looks so serious and high tech.
And this one because it looks like it’s been around for a while.
Here’s one lurking.
And here’s one really lurking.
And here’s one (from last winter) patiently waiting.
They live among us, these figures of belief. This one I found outside an apartment where I was living. I don’t doubt that the person who put it there meant to remind us, in some way or other, of the great saint who loved all living things. And the figure below, from a Buddhist garden is also, I’m sure, meant to bring to mind something more than ornamentation.
Then there’s a more ambiguous category. Like this Buddha from a friend’s garden. It expresses, maybe not belief, but certainly, solidarity.
Some things are more ambiguous still. I’m not sure what to make of this fellow below. But that’s just my ignorance. Perhaps somebody knows.
About these last, maybe it’s anybody’s guess. Anyway, there were for sale.
I’ve seen this flamingo more than once here in mid-Virginia, where you really never see any real ones, and it makes me wonder. Why a flamingo? It’s probably like those things you see on license plates (especially here in Virginia, where the privilege is cheap): sometimes obvious, but often so intensely personal, there’s no deciphering it, let alone figuring out why.
Here’s another version of a bird, this one really is from Florida (a store front in Del Rey), and also false, of course.
I’m not arguing against this sort of thing. Doesn’t it make the world more interesting? 
Well, yes, real birds are more interesting still. But require more upkeep…
In the apartment complex where I live, the patios are at the front, like little front porches, which makes them a not very satisfactory place for practicing one’s tai-chi (unless one were very good, I suppose), but they do provide lots to look at.
And the beauty of it is, people are always moving in and out, so the subjects are often changing.
The artificial geese below, for example, have departed.
As have these angels.
But this icon, also departed, has long been a favorite. I don’t know what it means, or means to depicct. I imagine it to have religious significance.
or I hope so. Here’s one of mine, though he doesn’t live outdoors (he’s made of papier mache). It’s Hanuman, a god with a lovely reputation, which is more than you can say about most gods. I would put him on the patio if he could take the weather.
Whaddya Mean Rosebuds? 