Witch Lady of Eldorado ready to entertain weekend trick-or-treaters
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Call her the Witch Lady, the Pumpkin Lady or the lady of Witch Way, but a new marriage and a move to a new town has only inspired Amanda Morton to expand her haunted yard to greet trick-or-treaters.
Morton has relocated from Harrisburg to 2318 Illinois Ave., Eldorado.
"It's two houses past the high school and look for the pumpkins," Morton said.
In 2006 Morton won Best of Show in a yard decorating contest from the www.ZombiePumpkins.com Web site, the company of a Connecticut graphics designer who manufactures stencils for people to use in carving ornate jack-o-lanterns. That award encouraged her to expand on her past yard decorating. This year her new yard will bring a display larger than ever.
"The yard is bigger so I have more of a canvas to work. The graveyard has been a standard, but now it's spread out and is more of a focal point," Morton said.
Her father, Ernie, has delivered 40 bales of straw she has used to control the flow of traffic around the display, keeping trick-or-treaters and photographing parents from bumping into each other.
Glowering over the yard is a scarecrow of grapevines and wispy black fabric with a jack-o-lantern head. This year Morton has added a dragon made of pumpkins.
She has not heard direct feedback from the neighborhood, but believes she has support.
"I've had no comments, yet, about this, but lots of people are driving by and giving me thumbs up," she said.
Morton and her husband, Adam, spend lot evenings in the yard brainstorming and arranging, preparing for their Halloween guests. She is accepting visitors starting at sunset Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
She will be in character as the Witch Lady, a green-skinned witch generous with candy. Friends and family operate behind the scenes keeping the atmosphere effective.
"I'm a character in the display and I will have two or three people running in the background taking care of music, lighting, fog machines, refilling candy bowls. I'll have a lot of people here helping me," Morton said.
"Invariably, a cord gets stepped on. I couldn't do it without help."
Today and Friday is pumpkin carving time. The pumpkin carving must wait until the last minute to be sure they are fresh through the weekend.
"I have about 30 I'm looking at, so it's quite a few jack-o-lanterns," Morton said.
Each pumpkin takes about two hours to carve. She also has about 30 foam pumpkins ready to go that take about four hours each to carve.
<ul>
<li>
DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
</ul>