
October has arrived and with it the scarecows, pumpkins and skeletal decorations that bring the fun of the Halloween season into our fair town. Not only the children but many adults enjoy going around to have a look at what their clever or funny neighbors have come up with this time.
Lately, however, we at Weird Nazareth have noticed some outdoor alterations whose nature seems uncertain. Beautifully growing trees around town have been hacked into grotesque and mutilated trunks with stunted branches allowed to protrude here and there, bereft of leaves that might soon have glowed with autumn color.
We can only assume that their owners or pruners are creating a new kind of Halloween art--the Horror Tree, in imitation of the dead and rotting trees we often see in horror films or Halloween art, often with ravens or vultures perched on what remains of their branches!



Or perhaps it's some kind of art fad, in which people express their existential angst through the form of the trees on their properties, giving voice to their horror at life's vicissitudes, deforming the trees as they feel their lives have been deformed beyond their control, as if Edvard Munch had pruned trees instead of painting
The Scream.
Whatever the cause, we hope everyone will take time to observe these creations, for people have sacrificed their magnificent trees, rebelling against all rules of good pruning, in order to present you with these stunted and twisted roosts for the darker birds of the town.
[
vultures in these photos added for effect]