Hollow Bean 2026

A wooden Jack-o'-lantern, with an LED candle glowing inside it

Here’s the list of kids’ cos­tumes I saw this year.

The list of Hallowe'en costumes I saw this year

Tran­scrip­tion:

Hollow Bean 2026

5:30 PM [when I start­ed hand­ing out candy]

  • Princess Uni­corn
  • Bat­man
  • Scare­crow
  • + Mom
  • 4 teens in parkas + ski masks
  • Vam­pire
  • Phan­tom of the Opera
  • Nurse
  • Pump­kin
  • Princess
  • Cave­woman
  • Jason [like from the Fri­day the 13th franchise]
  • Ghost­buster
  • Rein­deer
  • Spi­der-Man
  • Spi­der-Woman
  • Nin­ja

The last two, Spi­der-Woman and Nin­ja, showed up about 7:45 PM. At 8:40 PM I turned off the out­side light and had a cou­ple pieces of candy.

Explain…

Gibbous

The moon, a day past full, in the blue morning sky

I took the recy­cling out before work this morn­ing, and saw the moon high and bright in the west­ern sky, so I grabbed my cam­era and snapped a few glam­our shots.

I always pre­fer the moon just before or just after it’s full, because I love being able to see the shad­ows of its craters and peaks.

Slava Ukraini

A field of corn under a clear blue sky

I know it’s corn, not wheat or sun­flow­ers, but I think it works just the same.

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus; Lilacs and coun­try roads; A pop of colour; Back lane flow­ers; More Breniz­ers; The riv­er is high; A bird and a reflec­tion; Rideau Park; Writ­ing Retreat 2020, Day 7; Writ­ing Retreat 2020: The Num­bers; Storm dam­age, sun­flow­ers; Eleanor Kidd gar­dens; Scenes from today’s ride; All right, autumn can be pret­ty; Bike ride, April 10, 2021; Bike ride wildlife; Bike ride, May 16, 2021; Some flow­ers for you; Lilacs; Under the bridge; A fence, a tree, and the sky; Tur­tle Cross­ing; Ceme­tery crit­ters; On Reflec­tion; Week­end rides; Upon Reflec­tion; Deer and paparazzi; Sep­tem­ber Bike Ride; Corn & Sun­set; On Reflec­tion: Oct. 1st; Autumn Trees; A bit of graf­fi­ti; Novem­ber bike ride; Geese; Day 30; Quack quack; Skin­ny deer; Mon­day bike ride; Sat­ur­day snaps; Deer + Flow­ers; Bike Ride — July 17, 2022; The mead­ow; It seems to be autumn; Por­tal fan­ta­sy; Sla­va Ukrai­ni; Writ­ing Retreat 2023: Thurs­day bike ride; Bike Ride, May 20, 2024; Shy; Cana­da Day ride; A long ride; Cook­ie Ride redux; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: 6; Writ­ing Retreat 2024: The End; Bike Ride, Sep. 22, 2024; Today’s Ride — Oct. 6, 2024; Souris Val­ley; Bike Ride Pho­tos — May 19, 2025; Bike ride, May 24; Art in the trees; Bike Ride Pho­tos, May 10, 2026; The neigh­bour­hood at twi­light; Sla­va Ukrai­ni.

Writing Retreat 2026, days 3–5

Concentric star trails

Let’s see here:

Wednesday

Wednes­day was rainy and cool. I did some edit­ing on the paper print­out of There’s Noth­ing Good at the Top, and fin­ished read­ing Julian Com­stock by Robert Charles Wil­son and start­ed Fear­less Jones by Wal­ter Mosley. I also dis­cov­ered that Far­go is avail­able to me on the TV, and so I watched the first few episodes of sea­son 1.

Thursday

Thurs­day was a bet­ter day; the sun came out and the tem­per­a­ture cracked the mid-teens. I wore shorts when I walked over to Poor Michael’s book empo­ri­um, where I had a mocha and picked up some books for a friend (I have enough books of my own, thanks). Back at the house I entered my edits from the paper man­u­script into my doc­u­ment, and made a few more updates. I still need to add a few scenes and update a few dream sequences, I think; make a few things more explic­it. The first draft is you telling your­self the story[1]As Sir Ter­ry Pratch­ett put it., but by the time it’s a sec­ond draft (which is what I’m work­ing on) it should be ready for oth­ers to read it too.

The sky was still clear after the sun went down, and it’s quite dark ’round these parts, so I set up my cam­eras in the yard, one fac­ing north and one point­ing pret­ty much straight up. The north-fac­ing one got about 2½ hours worth of 5‑second expo­sures for star trails (above); the oth­er one snapped a bunch of 30-sec­ond expo­sures of the Milky Way. I made time-lapse videos from both sets of photos.

The Milky Way (and the International Space Station)
The Milky Way

Friday

That actu­al­ly bled into Fri­day; all the pho­tos were tak­en before I went to bed at about 1am, but all the pro­cess­ing hap­pened today. I’ve also read some more, and I plowed through all of sea­son 1 of Far­go too, which told a taut story.

And now I’m going to have some sup­per, and then work some more on my edit­ing. Tomor­row I have to be up ear­ly, so it’s prob­a­bly for the best that it’s cloudy and rainy—I’ll be less tempt­ed to try and get more night­time photos.

Series: Writing Retreat 2026

The entire series: Writ­ing Retreat 2026, day 2; Writ­ing Retreat 2026, days 3–5.

Foot­notes

Foot­notes
↑1 As Sir Ter­ry Pratch­ett put it.