31 Days of Halloween: Day 29

On to Saturday now, and another busy day with several costume changes!

Today's Tea

Saturday's tea was the final vial from my Rosie Lea Tea gift set... Wolfsbane! It's green sencha with sea buckthorn and cornflower petals. Wow, I've had more sea buckthorn than I was expecting this Halloween!

Today's Story

Saturday's classic tale of horror was 'The Damned' by Algernon Blackwood.

‘The Modern Hallowe’en’

I read another chapter from Ronald Hutton's The Stations of the Sun on Saturday... 'The Modern Halloween'.

Litter-Pick in the Woods

It was the monthly Friends of Bailey's Wood litter-pick on Saturday morning, and in honour of the spooky season, fancy dress was encouraged. Am I fleeing the Castle of Otranto? or am I on a community litter-pick? It's hard to tell!

Hannah’s Bookshelf Halloween Special

Saturday was also the day of my Hannah's Bookshelf Halloween Special on North Manchester FM, featuring the shortlisted (and winning) entries for this year's 3 Minute Scares competition. And, as is tradition, I presented the show in fancy dress!

Dinner with my Mother-in-Law

And it was Halloween Dinner (potato pie), dessert (pumpkin pie), and a film (The Lost Boys pie) at my mother-in-law's on Saturday night.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 22

Another slightly late post, but there's quite a bit of stuff on this one. Hopefully, I'll finally get back on track with these posts before the big day!

Today's Tea

Saturday's tea was another one from the Rosie Lea Tea gift set... Dragon's Blood. It's a very fruity infusion of elderberry, apple, hibiscus, blackberry leaves, seabuckthorn berry, raspberry, strawberry and blackberry.

Today's Story

Saturday's classic tale of horror was 'The Judge's House' by Bram Stoker.

Halloween Earrings (1)

My first pair of Halloween earrings today were little lowkey ghosts.

Pumpkin and Parsnip Soup

Since Rob did such a good job carving the pumpkin shell, it was only fair that I did something with the flesh. I made a pumpkin, parsnip and red chilli soup with (half of) it!

Halloween Earrings (2)

My second pair of Halloween earrings on Saturday were my silver broomstick-riding witches.

Family Halloween Dinner

We had a lovely Halloween-themed dinner with my mum and dad on Saturday night, including a cheeky red wine and a gorgeous apple cake made by my mum.

Live and Spooky Campfire Stories (Reggie Oliver)

On Saturday's Campfire Stories video from Flame Tree Press, Reggie Oliver read from his short story, 'The Black Ship'.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 15

After a week of not leaving the house due to my horror cold, I decided it was time to get back into the holiday spirit. I even put on my pumpkin dress for the first time this year, as we had a day of festive fun planned that I really didn't want to miss.

Today's Tea

Today's tea was another one from the Rosie Lea Tea gift set... Felix Felicis. It's a black tea with vanilla, liquorice and heather.

Today's Story

Today's classic tale of horror was an old favourite... 'The Monkey's Paw' by W.W. Jacobs.

Halloween Earrings (1)

As I was leaving the house after a week of quarantine (exciting! and exhausting!), I celebrated by wearing a pumpkin dress and sparkly pumpkin earrings.

Pumpkin Picking

Today we went pumpkin-picking Dunham Massey Ice Cream Farm! And we're very happy with our pumpkin choices. We'll be carving those later this week.

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

I got some pumpkin pie ice cream from Dunham Massey Ice Cream Farm as well!

Halloween Earrings (2)

Second pair of Halloween earrings of the day... as we were off to see a horror film at the pictures, it felt right to switch to my Billy the Puppet earrings for the evening.

Smile

Saturday night at the movies! We went to see Smile tonight, which was very good fun.

The Black Phone

And when we got home, we watched The Black Phone (also good fun).

Live and Spooky Campfire Stories (Brad Abdul)

Another very enjoyable Campfire Stories video from Flame Tree Press today... Brad Abdul reading from his upcoming debut novel The Devil's Advisor.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 2

It's the second day of Halloween for me. It's been a bit of a tiring day, but I still managed to get some seasonal stuff in.

Today's Tea

Tonight's tea was one of four included in a rather stylish Halloween gift set from Rosie Lea Tea. I chose Phoenix Tears today. It's a sweet caramel flavoured rooibos tea.

Today's Story

Tonight's classic tale of horror is 'An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge' by Ambrose Bierce.

Litter-Pick in Crumpsall Park

This morning we were at the monthly Friends of Crumpsall Park litter-pick. It wasn't technically a Halloween event, but I made sure I found as much seasonal stuff as possible while were out.

Ghost Files

We recovered from a bit of tiring morning with a facon and egg roll and catching up on the latest episode of Ghost Files on Watcher.

October Readalong

This afternoon I started reading Ghost Story by Peter Straub and getting things ready for my October Readalong. We're starting off with the prologue this week.