I came across an autumnal inflatable decoration that I knew I had to share with readers. But while most of my seasonal inflatable decoration posts end with the photos and some brief thoughts, I had a bit more to write in this one First about the camera I used to take the photo, and second on a seasonal theme for The New Leaf Journal in fall 2025. Without further ado, let us begin with an inflatable Halloween crow seen in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.
The Inflatable Halloween Crow in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
There is a certain residence in Cobble Hill Brooklyn, right on the Cobble Hill-Carroll Gardens border, which regularly puts out charming inflatable seasonal and holiday decorations. I have published six articles on these decorations, most recently a back-to-school pencil-clad gnome seen on September 22, 2025. The back to school gnome was replaced no later than October 2, 2025. I know this for a fact because I documented its successor, an inflatable crow in overalls and a straw hat holding a “FALL” banner.
You can also see the crow from the side:
I like this inflatable crow. It does not raise as many questions as some of the residence’s prior decorations such as the pencil-clad back-to-school gnome, a gnome in a bikini, or some strange Easter egg-bunny creature. It is very simple and to the point. The crow’s outfit and colors whisper autumn, and its all-caps “FALL” sign makes the symbolism clear on the off-chance that a passer-by misses the hints.
The crow also fits the area in addition to the season. The cawing of crows is not an uncommon sound in Carroll Gardens and, to a lesser, extent Cobble Hill. I very seldom see them on the ground, but I think they like the tall brownstones which are common in the residential stretches of Carroll Gardens and some on the far end of Cobble Hill.
Ubuntu Touch Camera Note
I have a small camera note for this photo post. The vast majority of my New Leaf Journal pictures have come from phone cameras, with my early articles being decorated with photos from my former BlackBerry Classic and more recent articles, including my two inflatable gnome posts linked in this article, coming from my GrapheneOS-powered Google Pixel 6a. I captured the crow with the camera on my Google Pixel 3a XL phone. That phone has also produced many New Leaf Journal photos, but all of those photos came when it was running an Android-derived operating system, either LineageOS or the now-defunct DivestOS. My Pixel 3a XL is now running Ubuntu Touch, which I am using temporarily while I muster the will to change the battery on my Pixel 6a. I first wrote about Ubuntu Touch in these pages back in July 2021 (in what turned out to be one of our most-visited articles), but this is the first-ever article centered on an Ubuntu Touch camera photo.
While my full review will come later, I will note that I have been struggling a bit with the Ubuntu Touch camera app, namely getting it to focus properly and mitigating its inclination toward over-exposure in sunlight. I applied some very light manual edits to the two crow photos in Shotwell to make them more amenable to publication. The final result is not bad (by my non-professional standards), although I do suspect I would have gotten slightly better photos out of the GrapheneOS camera app on my Pixel 6a (granting that the Pixel 6a has better camera hardware than the 3a XL).
Season’s Theming
I read an interesting July 18, 2025 blog post on Richard MacManus’ Cybercultural blog titled Seasons: A Fine Way To Structure a Website or Blog in 2025. The post suggested coming up with writing themes for different time periods, albeit not strictly matching worldly seasons. I like the idea broadly and in my case do want to match it to seasons given the aesthetic of The New Leaf Journal. Alas, I was busy when 2025 changed from summer to autumn and did not have time to fully develop an autumnal concept. But the fall is still young and a seasonal theme segues nicely from the welcome-to-autumn crow. I figure I can cobble together a fall theme and develop the concept more in the winter.
While fall in New York City has been unseasonably warm thus far (after summer went out like more of a lamb than March), the leaves will eventually fall. The orange leaves will color the sidewalks, setting the stage for winter to take over. But the fallen leaves are pretty, as I once demonstrated in a post on a golden maple leaf which found its way to my balcony.
My theme for fall will be doing new things with old things. This article serves as an example. While Ubuntu Touch is a live project and my phone is receiving regular updates, the Google Pixel 3a XL is an older device that no longer receives support from Google. I have several other legacy tech projects in the works including one centered on something called Pumpkin OS (fitting for October). But new things with old and legacy tech is not all you have to look forward to, as I noted in the 248th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, you can also expect thematic articles on everything from sports to music. Moreover, I have some ideas for revisiting old articles, including my recently published Ubuntu Touch app review which featured the return of the device I first installed Ubuntu Touch on in 2021 in a supporting role. Repair and renewal will also be part of the theme. My article on opening SIM card doors subtly previewed some upcoming articles of interest.
To be sure, my new things with old things and repair and renewal theme idea is not defined with the utmost clarity and distinction, but it will do in a pinch. Do note that I you can expect many articles that do not match the theme. The theme is not all-encompassing (and future better-defined seasonal themes will not be any more all-encompassing), but instead a general idea that will be explored in a non-insignificant number of my autumn 2025 posts.
