Secret Souls Walk

Let me start by publicly declaring my love for the Public Dreams Society. For those of you that don't know the society, I'll let their "Vision" statement tell you what they're all about - "To nurture the magical heart and creative whimsy of each community by unleashing audacious artistic expressions." That pretty much captures, for me, the excitement that is Public Dreams.

They've just celebrated 25 years of passion and, although we've tried to attend as many of their events over the years as we can, we've never been closer. When the incredible people behind the organization have been able to hold their Parade of Lost Souls, it's always been an amazing part of Halloween celebrations along and around The Drive. This year the regular route wasn't available due to park renovations, and, lo and behold, our house was actually on the substitute route for this year's alternative - the Secret Souls Walk. How great is that?!

The only unfortunately part of the event being in our neighbourhood was that the route was kept a secret until the last moment and we didn't even know about the Walk until we returned from our vacation. That didn't really leave us any time to get fully caught up in the excitement and doll up our house and yard for the thousands of folks parading by. We managed some lights and our monster eyes but it barely scratched the creative surface that was our neighbourhood that night.

There was no way, however, that I could let the occasion pass by without adding another bottle to The List.

630. 2009 Bodega Carchelo - C (Jumilla DO - Spain)

This is the second vintage of Carchelo C on The List. The first was back in the summer (#517) when a 2008 helped propel Spain into the finals of our World Cup of Wine. Mr. D. is a big fan and he brought the '09 along for the night. OK, so Spanish wine might not be the most thematically consistent juice to serve up with Venetian masks and outfits - but most people thought we were pirates anyhow. So, maybe we just needed to forget playing with Casanova's passion and put a bit of a Spanish accent onto a guttural "ARRRRRGH!"

I do want to further discuss the winery and Jumilla region but that might have to wait for another bottle - I'm just a tad strapped for time since the whole Argentina/Peru trip has put me quite a bit behind on my postings. At least I know that there'll be one. For the time being, I'll just mention that C is a blend of 40% Monastrell (or Mourvedre), 40% Tempranillo and 20% Cab Sauv and is a prime example of the new generation of wines coming out of Spain.

If I'd been smart during the night, I might have stuck to quaffing back a bit of wine but the Vixen and some others came by to take in the evening and we quickly moved on to martinis. After all, we have these cool black, skull and crossbones embossed martini glasses and there aren't exactly a lot of opportunities to use them. While the martinis weren't exactly the death of me, it was a little too easy to stand in the raised backyard garden bed, watch the parade of costume after costume and raise our little black glass to all the "lost souls." in fact, we were enjoying that aspect of the evening so much that we lost track of time and we didn't even get to go on the Walk through the lanes ourselves.

By the time we'd reached the end of our own lane around 9.30 - having finished playing Dexter in a neighbour's garage and dancing to a zombie band - we were told that the Walk was now officially closed and that we couldn't proceed any further on the route. Whoa!! Bummer man. I guess it kept the hood well-behaved, but I was so "saddened" that I just went home and called it a night when everyone had moved on. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I think I've also determined that sticking to wine - over martinis - is going to be a smart plan down the road. I'll certainly remember that approach should Public Dreams visit our neighbourhood again next year.