text: Fall | The Mossy Skull - Part 2
  On October 3, 2009 by Michael J. DeLuca in Banner, Fall, Stones, Visions
  Tzompantli Pumpkin
  On November 2, 2008 by Michael J. DeLuca in Fall, Precolombians, Visions
  Tzompantli is the nahuatl word for a wooden rack used by the Zapotecs and Toltecs for the decorative architectural display of sacrificed human heads—images of which appear all over Central America in pre-Colombian stone carvings, murals, and scrolls, and no doubt have had at least some small influence on the modern celebration of the day of the dead.
  Dancing Crow Pumpkin
  On October 20, 2008 by Michael J. DeLuca in Fall, HM, Visions
  This may or may not be my official pumpkin carving for the season. I have wild ambitions for something really complicated, a cylindrical frieze featuring the Mayan death god. But that will require several hours of dedicated free time, and considering how neglected this here blog has been of late, such time may never materialize.
  So just in case I never get around to it: Happy Hallowe'en! Grab that fiddle and a jug of barley-wine and head down to the fields for a moon dance!
  Elektra, bow and bend to me
  Folderol-de-riddle
  —Robert Hunter, "Mountains of the Moon"
  Berkshires in Late Fall
  On November 25, 2007 by Michael J. DeLuca in Fall, Visions
  This is some kind of serious glacial anomaly I came across after getting my socks soaked in Chesterfield Gorge. The picture doesn't really convey the size—the rock is maybe 9 feet across and at least 3 feet tall (not including the part of it that's submerged in mud). It doesn't match any of the rock of the surrounding gorge, as you will note from the next picture. It's sculpted so smooth by the water it almost looks like carved marble. I wonder how it got here.