It’s decidedly autumn. It’s dark as I type though it’s late afternoon. Mornings I tend to smell silage which has been spread on the fields post harvest. There are hay bales sitting around. No more rabbits on my walks, as I expect they’ve started to hibernate.
Halloween is my holiday.
I manage through Christmas – I like the gift giving and the tree, but it’s been the same Christmas lunch for decades (plan is to shake things up a bit this year).
Post Halloween I’m all about the Winter Solstice and the slow return to light and heat.
But Halloween is the joys of paganism, of dark nights and jack o’ lanterns. Of the feel of being between the past and the future.
My pumpkin this year will become soup plus pumpkin and pecans rolls.
Sadly, the village didn’t celebrate much this year. In the past houses for trick or treaters to visit were marked with decorations and a week or so before signs would go up inviting people to post T o T-ing food and drinks at the local pub.
A friend went majorly wonderful this year with her Halloween box which I received a couple of weeks ago. It was full of soft plush pumpkins, Halloween treats, a glass pumpkin with a twisted stem, and, best of all, a pumpkin spice candle which smells really good and has the throw of something mighty. It’s definitely firmly in the autumn/winter rotation.
And, for the first time, I made pumpkin pie. This was one of my mother’s rituals in autumn/winter (along with the confounding fruit cakes she made and gave as gifts for Christmas — I don’t get the attraction of fruit cakes). My pumpkin pie recipe came from a Waitrose (fancy supermarket) monthly magazine which focused on Halloween food. I liked the pumpkin pie outcome and the whipped cream was quite nice if a bit overwhipped (I was focused on something else and let the mixer beat away). However, the pie made me realise as I’ve aged I now prefer pecan pie in autumn. Pumpkin really is meant to be savoury, IMHO.
My daily walks are now taken in the dark with a flashlight. I turn it on and off depending on how dark the lanes get. We have something here called Devon banks which are raised dirt banks to the sides of roads. They divide fields, lanes from houses. Mostly, these are around 5 foot high and rounded on top. Loads of things grow into the sides: wild primroses, snowdrops and daffodils in winter into spring, wild cyclamen during autumn. And they are largely topped with hedges (tangled gorse and holly – difficult to get through) but every once in a while you get an oak tree growing out of the top. These look ancient and witchy, catching my light and scattering it fractured as I walk by.
I wore a mystery fragrance on Halloween I’d been testing all week. That will pop up in next week’s post. Suffice it to say it worked well for Halloween.
I hope you had a pleasant Halloween if you mark it and would love to hear about the fragrance, food and activities.
Pics: mine
I wore Etro Messe de Minuit, Revillon Detchema, and Eau d’Italie Paestum Rose during Halloween week. Gave out treats to the kids who came to my door while dressed as a flapper. ALL of them asked what I was dressed as. One little girl said. “I like your witch costume!” HAHA I’m not fond of pumpkin flavored anything.
Sounds like you went the whole nine yards. I love the idea of the flapper costume … and am totally not surprised it was sort of an unknown. Love Messe de Minuit.
I love pumpkin pie, but they’re usually a little too sweet for me. And no to the marshmallows. We never got trick or treaters at my old place because they’d go to the big houses above Santa Monica Blvd (and I can’t blame them.) Then and now I’m close to the whole magilla that’s the West Hollywood Carnivale. 250k people. It’s colorful, it’s loud, it’s so not me. I heated up Chinese food and watched “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Mephisto Waltz” so a good time was had by all. I would have worn Detchema in honor of the former movie but wore Shalimar since it’s a plot point in the latter.
Never heard of the Mephisto Waltz. Will have to look at now. Oh, how I miss good Chinese food, along with decent Mexican. I think if we had either here that’s what I’d do for Xmas. We’ve got good Indian which is New Year’s Eve food.
“The Mephisto Waltz” is a very silly movie where aged and dying famous pianist Curt Jurgens (who is also a satanist) decides to prolong his life by taking over the body of young Alan Alda, so he can continue his career as well as his rather icky relationship with his daughter, Barbara Parkins. Unfortunately Alda is married to luscious young Jackie Bisset, who decides she like the new version of her hubby rather more than the old one and plots to switch her soul into Parkins’ body so she can physically become the woman he (Jurgens/Alda) wants. It doesn’t even make a lick of sense and is filmed in the most style-heavy way with no “mod” cliché unmined. It’s a hoot.
omg! I’ll have to ask Saturdays Francine about that one – sounds like a great Rainy Saturday movie!
I’m on a street with only one other house and my house is the Scary Dog House so for as long as I’ve been here NOBODY comes to our house. I didn’t see many kids out this year – the town has a downtown event and all 8 of the businesses (it’s a teeny town) give out candy – and the bowling alley gave out jello shots (yay, bowling alley!!) Halloween happens to be one of the happiest days of my adult life, as it is the (actual) day that El O dragged his sorry azz out of my driveway – in the midst of a blizzard!
The village I used to live in took the holiday much more seriously. Granted, it was bigger and actually had a primary school (even if it was a church school and thus hugely frowned upon a pagan holiday). So, loads of kids and loads (interestingly) of people who decorated and offered lots of candy. So, indeed, Halloween is where the past and the future diverged for you …
We had many, many trick or treaters at our house, and we enjoyed sitting out with bowls of candy, chatting with the adults. We don’t normally dress up, but my husband had cataract surgery that morning, so he was rocking an eye patch this year, so I guess he was sort of a pirate?
Everywhere I lived in the US was brilliant at Halloween. Philadelphia when I was a young kid was probably the best. And to boot the neighbourhood was full of huge Victorian era houses that looked very spooky even without decorations. Hope your husband heals well.
No T or Ters visited us either. Our little cul de sac is now full of people whose kids have grown & flown, so there are better rewards elsewhere.
I have never tried pumpkin pie. A friend from the Mid West gave me a recipe that had melted marshmallows in the filling. It hurt my teeth just reading it. Is that a traditional recipe?
My pumpkins usually go into dhal. It goes really well with the earthy lentils & spices
There should be no melted (or unmelted) marshmallows in pumpkin pie! Ever! Pumpkin pie is actually less sweet than most pies, and one of the few desserts my diabetic husband permits himself. I also love it, and it was such a favorite of my son’s I would make it year round!
I’ve never tried pumpkin pie either. There’s just something about the look and the apparent texture of it……
Def no marshmallows. The pumpkin is sweet on its own. The recipe I used was ok. I would up the spice content exponentially to counter the sweetness and give the flavour more oomph. The pie did set very nicely, so had a great texture. My dhal is very plain.
That pie looks great! It was always a staple at our house with the kids, who ate it for breakfast 😀 I’d love to take a walk with you in the evening, what a delight. Even though we live in a neighborhood with a lot of kids, there are no trick or treaters, no idea why. Stayed home and curled up with a book.
Oh, yes, I’d love night walks with you here in the autumn. I finally realised that the village lanes are much more interesting in the dark. Breakfast, huh … I think I get that. I did my mother’s flourless chocolate cake for breakfast — it was even better after a night in the fridge. I might try pecan pie for our modified Thanksgiving.