halloween

five

3 November 2017

A couple of weeks ago (excuse the delay!) It was our daughter's 5th birthday, yes FIVE, what?

It's crazy I know.

We had a small gathering of her friends (under the rule of amount of kids = years of life). It was nice and although I had minor panic attacks about hosting my first ever party games, it all went rather smoothly. I drank a lot of wine and that helped.

My mum made a fantastic butterfly cake this year so that was one less things to panic about!

I made the food for the adults, it was a surprisingly warm and sunny october weekend.

I have been gradually sorting out our house a bit over the last couple of weeks too. decluttering and arranging things differently. It's very therapeutic I find.

We've also had a fantastic halloween, trick or treating with friends, carving pumpkins with friends, drinking a lot and being merry.

I looked bit like this by the end...

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halloween

26 October 2015

Halloween is not something I've ever really celebrated in my life, not sure why? I have lately been doing a little research to find out what is really all about...and I was quite surprised to read about its true origins from the north of Britain and Ireland. You can read about Samhain here.
I suppose I'm not much interested in the time of year for slaughtering cattle, or imagining that dead relatives are invited for supper, but I do like that Autumn does mark the boundary between summer and the darker months, and some history explains that it was sometimes perceived as the new year.
You can sort of see all this happening in the woods...things dying, turning to seed. Harvest time, animals gathering supplies for winter etc...
I sometimes feel like doing the same during Autumn, so it is a kind of 'new start' of the year in a way.

We love the pine forest near to our house, but sadly these were planted during the 60s and are not indigenous. They carpet the floor and block out many natural species. However, I love them so much (and the red squirrels seem to like them too!).