Month: December 2017

Wicked Hamish Macbeth

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On Christmas Eve Day something pretty amazing happened where I live in Washington State.

It snowed.

Photo A.M. Moscoso

We all had fun.

Especially my dog Hamish Macbeth.

Hamish had a lot of fun until he caught sight of something from his lookout spot on the playground:

Photo A.M. Moscoso

When I saw that look through my camera on his normally good natured fuzzy face this quote popped into my head:

‘By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.’

William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Or in Hamish’s case strike thumb and replace it with ” Paw”.

Photo A.M Moscoso

Hamish did this Ninja move from his perch and started to belly crawl – something he learned from my cats, towards his target.

Through the snow and ice- around a bush and a tree he made his way towards this:

Photo A.M. Moscoso

Hamish hates Garden Gnomes and Frogs with crowns and yard art in general.

You can give him his vaccinations, accidently step on his paw, take garbage from out of his mouth and not have to worry those giant white teeth of his biting down on your hand.

But if you are a plastic fairy, a wheelbarrow of flowers being pushed by a bee in overalls Hamish will try to take you down.

I wasn’t sure if destroying a snowman on Christmas Eve would have earned Hamish a visit from Santa or Krampus- but in my heart I’d have to say  we’d have been fine with either one.

 

PS: No Snowmen were injured or destroyed by Hamish Macbeth on Christmas Eve but if that Snowman doesn’t melt soon I can’t guarantee his well being much longer.

amm

It Was The Best Ghost Story EVER

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Photo A.M Moscoso

I ‘ve done a few posts about what my favorite Christmas films are- so what I’d like to share with you is how one in particular became my absolute  favorite and how it went on to inspire me in my own writing.

That film is  A Christmas Carol starring Alistair Sim.

I saw A Christmas Carol for the first time when I was a little girl. Very little. I was about five or six years old. So this would have been around 1969

I remember sort of catching bits and pieces of it, but the part I zeroed in on, the part that got my attention was when Scrooge came face to face with the  The Spirit of Christmas Yet-to-Come .

I was a scary movie buff by this time ( one of my favorite TV shows was called ” Nightmare Theatre” ) and it had recently brought me into the universe of spooky movies and  educated into the world of Ghosts, Witch Doctors, Zombies, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, Mad Scientists and things from Outer Space.

So when Scrooge ran into this dark, faceless obviously merciless apparition I was impressed beyond words-enchanted and pulled into the story right then and there with my blanket over my head and my arms wrapped around my dog who was NOT into being squeezed to death by his young mistress judging by the way he desperately tried to get out of my arms.

Not to worry. I was not defenseless.

I just ran after him and dragged him back to the front of the tv with me. It took some doing because I refused to turn loose of my blanket and that was one strong little dog. He was fond of taking lungfuls of air. What can I say?

Anyway.

I was terrified and falling in love with this movie scream by silent scream on that Christmas Eve.

It was a magical experience and from then on not only had I become a life long fan of the movie I went on to read every single book from Dickens that I could get my hands on.

To this day I read those books slowly- I savor each word. I only allow myself a chapter a night so that I can prolong the experience.

A nod to that Christmas Eve when I discovered one of the best ghost stories on film EVER

Favourite Christmas film (Christmas Special 2017 Writing Prompt #21 answer)