Perfectly Ghoulish- Just in time for Halloween?

The ghostly author through a glass (window ) darkly?

We have had so many tricks lately we are due a few treats!!! Last week's trick- hubby was knocked off his bike by an idiot driver, left bruised and sore, glad that his tests and x rays were all good news, but none the less, shaken and a bit stirred. Unable to move or walk- barely, for a week, I had to brush up on my not very patient nursing skills....

"Dead bugs in a window frame of cobwebs"....mwoaahahaha.

My garden is full of freshly laundered sheets. This week's trick- Not in anticipation of Halloween ghost costumes, but unfortunately as a result of baby's first gastric virus. We spent all night changing sheets and bed clothes whilst the poor lamb vomited like something in a horror movie. Finally now, he is sleeping, and hopefully convalescing. I hope it is over. He was wretched..... The only thing to be grateful for is that this is his first bout. Many parents tend to gastric virus suffering babies on a regular basis and it is just awful.

Cobwebs in a Tudor window.....

(I've been saving these shots for months!)

Very Miss Haversham ......

I hate the scary ghoulish Halloween of ghosts and witches. Horror films, the glorification of violence and evil.

But I love pumpkins and Hogwart-esque wizards and witches. We Mummies of little ones, focus on that side the fun of dressing up and being silly, Room on the Broom sort of thing. Last year my tot was a cute Witch's Cat. This year a skeleton. Daddy will be a Wizard, of the Dumbledore school, and me, well, a witch of the Worst Witch kind- I even cast a broom seeking spell and found a fab one at the local garden centre, but lacking its MOT I doubt it is safe to fly........

We received an amazingly produced and hand crafted invitation to a toddler Halloween fancy Dress do. Hence my sombre and sober self and husband in costumes! Normally neither he nor I wouldn't be seen dead in fancy dress, but once you have kids, it is different somehow, You can't expect them to do something you aren't prepared to do also, it is for their amusement, not mine!!

I 'm also imagining (I love pumpkins!) pumpkin soup, pie, scones, pumpkin and carrot cake, pumpkin- everything is on the menu!

I like the idea of 31st October being the beginning of the Celtic New Year. Quote from Wikipedia;-

Halloween has origins in the ancient celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in or sau-an)^[4][5], which is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end".^[5] A similar festival was held by the ancient Britons and is known as Calan Gaeaf (pronounced kalan-geyf). The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes^[6] regarded as the "Celtic New Year".^[7]

The name Halloween (or at least an Old English name which the modern term derives from), and many present-day traditions, derive from the Old English era.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

The celebration has some elements of a festival of the dead. The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworldbecame thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home whilst harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces.^[13][14]

Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.^[15] Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.