As you can see, they have the labels up now, so everyone will know what this mysterious new visitor's name is, "Autumn Beauty."
Nana came along with us for the visit, and of course we were there to check out our family entry to see how she was holding up. There's a small sprinkler down there at the base, and the dress keeps getting pushed inward a little by the small force of water, so perhaps we'll come back again with a small rock or something to weight down the fabric. We'll see about that. Otherwise, she's holding up just fine. We'll see this weekend as rain is predicted for the first time. However, it's clear that all the scarecrows are getting a good dose of water with sprinklers and so forth. We made all of these with a lot of waterproofing material and with the idea that this was going to be an outdoor creation. We'll just have to wait and see how it goes, but for now, Autumn Beauty looks very nice there in her spot.
We toured around afterwards, a short walk through the gardens, and of course all along the gardens you can see the other scarecrows placed here and there, amongst all kinds of flowers and small streams.
I just like this one from a distance. A school made this one, and it turned out really well, a vaguely creepy one looming not far off.
There were some rake scarecrows too, something we first saw in Gatlinburg several years ago. The rake head scarecrow pandemic seems to have spread south now. Speaking of things that spread like a pandemic, those joro spiders were everywhere in this garden, showing that none of us are immune. I was told they have to clear out the pathways every day of webs and so forth.
This mermaid one was nice, another family entry that is currently resting by the stream deeper into the walk.
Ah, and here's one with a pet. The two look happy there, and I'd be happy too, sitting by the stream in the shade. It's a pleasant walk.
Here's that creepy one again, as we walked past it later on. It's called "La Muerta," and everyone knows what that means if you you've watched "The Goonies" growing up. Or "Pirates of the Caribbean." Or one of the "Jurassic Park" movies. Of course, this one is themed to a "Day of the Dead" movie, like "Book of Life" or "Coco." Here's a close up of another creepy scarecrow...
The funny thing is that this scarecrow overall is not that creepy. I just thought the green eyes were a little weird. Close-up, this scarecrow appears to be staring you down and/or about to cast some vicious spell that obliterates your soul!
Along the way there were many plants and flowers to take in, so yes, I snapped some photos of those along the way, like these ghost ferns. Appropriate for the time of year, eh? But there were flowers too, of course.
There were plenty of colors to see, plenty of life left in the garden. There were also plenty of visitors, probably season pass holders like us, just going for their morning stroll through the gardens.
I love the colors placed one against the other, groupings of purple, yellow, pink and so on. The layout is very nice there.
This mermaid scarecrow seemed to think so as well, looking down along the pathway. Nana and Mom were meandering along, the weather just perfect for a pleasant walk.
This was a small flower set up on one of three fairly large art installations there at the gardens. It was a nice little detail, but here's the wider shot - a much wider shot. It's an enormous peacock!
There were a few of these set up in the gardens, this one set up in a way that you could walk through. It also loomed in the distance as you walked along the path, sort of like some sort of Godzilla peacock roaming through the woodlands.
We were there a good bit, taking in all the different plants and flowers. While there, Mom found out about the Christmas tree decorating that takes place in a short while, so yes, we'll be back to decorate a Christmas tree within the gardens. She's already got a great idea for that, so you'll hear more details about that soon enough.
Plenty of bees there at the gardens. There was a beehive there too, off the trail enough, so no worries there. But it was great to see bees, butterflies and of course humming birds flitting around from plant to plant, flower to flower.
As we were heading out, I took some more snaps of Autumn Beauty. Mom did such a splendid job with this one. It came out really well, and looks gorgeous there.
One more shot of her before we exit the garden, this one being one of my favorites. We'll stop in to visit her from time to time. With my season pass, I can check in on her from time to time and be a personal caretaker.
On the way out, we saw the two ginormous cardinal creations, more of the installation art that's supposed to be there until the end of this month. It's also a nice little confirmation of the idea Mom had for the Christmas tree decorations she'll be looking for. You'll see all of that soon enough, I'm sure.
Okay, and I like this stink bug picture. He's just up there at the very top, hanging around. We, however, couldn't hang around - I had to head to work afterwards.
When I got home from work, we were off to taekwondo, of course. Maddie was holding her own against one of her friendly rivals, using a technique that he always used against her in the past. She was like the Taskmaster!
We got home after practice, and Mom had all the ingredients set up for this year's Spooky Gingerbread House. We picked up some cheap gingerbread houses earlier in the year, so the next three are going to have the same exact shape. This actually will make it a unique year, in that we have the same template, but different themes to use in creating the end product.
We popped in some seasonal movies and episodes, and got busy on our creation. Maddie and I were coming up with ideas and placing the candy, icing and licorice on, while trying not to eat too much of it. Which we wound up doing anyway. All the while we watched "The Haunted Mansion," the episode of "The Muppet Show" with Vincent Price, and a Mickey Mouse episode where he attempts to tell the scariest story ever - it was hysterical, by the way. We also saw "Lonesome Ghosts," which I remember watching forward and backwards as a kid. Literally. I had this movie viewer toy, something you looked through like a Viewmaster, and you used one hand to wind the film along. I got such a kick out of winding it backwards. ANYWAY, I'm sure you want to see how the spooky gingerbread house turned out, so here are a few pictures of our finished product!
It turned out really well! We added a piece of cardboard for an extension of the real estate, and used some fondant to make headstones and boards for the house. Black licorice served well to outline the house, and we were so happy to find our candy eyes again, so we can have those peeking out from all over. Candy pumpkins and candy corn were great additions, as were these edible ghost cupcake toppers I found at a craft store. You can see a few ghosts in there, holding onto their precious candy corn. Speaking of which, some of that leftover candy corn is in a bowl nearby along with those candy pumpkins - I seriously doubt they'll make it through the weekend!
This one took a bit longer, because it's larger and we were watching television at the same time. But in the end, it came out nice, and will be a nice decoration in the house until the end of the month or so.
To close out things, can you believe we still had time to watch one more special? Yes, we had to watch "LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales," as it premiered today. It was super fun, with all kinds of hilarious references to other movies, both from Star Wars and from other classic scary flicks.
It was late after that, and such a big day too. We made time to read, and then pray afterwards. And after that, it was time for sleep!
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