Nearing Halloween

My evening walks are getting deliciously Halloween-flavored.

What better phase of the moon for an eerie picture than a waxing crescent?

(I found out quite late that if the moon is ‘D’ shaped, it’s waxing, and if it’s ‘C’-shaped, it’s waning. The mnemonic is ‘Dogs advance, Cats retreat.’ But it only works in the Northern hemisphere; Down Under, it’s the other way.)

Here’s the moon and Venus, taken a night or two later. [Edited to Add: Looking closely at this picture again, I can just see the Old Moon in the New Moon’s arms – the earthshine on the non-illuminated part of the moon. The Wikipedia says it’s light reflected from earth onto the moon.]

I was on Tank Hill recently, where I always take photographs even though very few actually come out. This time, though, with a little brightening of the image and upping the contrast, I got these Halloween trees.

Last night, I didn’t encounter a single dog-walker – but, appropriately, there were two cats. Here’s one:

And here’s the other – don’t miss the Halloween eyes. (Okay, it’s normal eyeshine, but it looked cool!)

And some neighbors have started putting up their Halloween decorations, like this happy family of jack o’ lanterns. Looking forward to seeing more decorations as we get closer to the date!