The morning after the night before...

Well the party happened last night and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves - food, charades, fancy dress, and the pumpkin carving competition. So here are a selection of photos for anyone interested.

 

Sunday 31st October 2010

The morning of the party...

Well the morning of the party is here, and yesterday's day off work was well spent shopping for food and roasting chunks of pumpkin to turn into chocolate pumpkin brownies or Cajun pumkin soup today.

Above are a few of the decorations already up in the house, but tomorrow will see the pictures from the party and of some of the carved pumpkins that the guests will bring along.

Went to a great Halloween party last night also in Cheriton with home made pumpkin soup, chilli con carne thankfully without the threatened mystery ingredient of insects, and a variety of party games such as apple bobbing. I'll try to get some of those pictures on her over the next few days too.

Anyway, back to the cauldron for now...

Saturday 30th October 2010

Pumpkin carving practise...

Well I know there are better carved pumpkins out there, but I think my attempt tonight isn't too bad!

The local church youth club were carving pumpkins tonight, and I'm always asked to come along and lend a hand - and they expect me to be able to do one in about half an hour, with no stencil or anything and just make it up as I go along. So above was my effort!

Sunday 24th October 2010

A Philatelist's Nightmare! (Part 2)

America has been ahead of the game with stamps as these two show from many years before the 90s. But even the UK had previously had a horror themed stamp if you include the Hound of the Baskervilles from a set of Arthur Conan Doyle stamps.

More recently, Boris Karloff has appeared on another stamp in the US in 2003 which celebrates Hollywood and the art of cinema - in this case Jack Pierce's make up. And according to Sara Karloff, Boris' daughter, in a recent BBC documentary, her father has appeared on more US stamps now than any other person apart from the presidents!

In the UK in 2008 the Royal Mail celebrated the Carry On films and Hammer films with a set of 6 stamps - 3 from each genre. Below are the 3 Hammer stamps, but also I've shown one of the Carry On stamps as the film poster shown was Carry On Screaming.

Sunday 24th October 2010

A Philatelist's Nightmare! (Part 1)

And now for a rather big blog...

In 1997 the Royal Mail issued the first Horror themed stamps issued in the UK; it was just a shame they didn't go with their original designs...

And as other countries also issued stamps that year with a folk story theme, various other stamps soon followed; such as Romania issuing a set of Vlad Tepes stamps...

Canada issued a set of monster related stamps...

America based its designs on the Universal Studios monsters...

And Ireland issued some very camp Dracula stamps...

Yet both before 1997 and after stamps across the world have cropped up with Horror related themes... and my list excludes any Science Fiction stamps (of which the UK has issued stamps commemorating H.G. Wells, The Clangers & Daleks!) Tomorrow I'll upload some more stamps that I've found.

Saturday 23rd October 2010

More pumpkin soup anyone...

After making some disparaging remarks about the Covent Garden Soup Company's seasonal soup this year - I take it all back. It was lovely. It had a slightly smokey flavour, the beans added texture and it wasn't too watery.

Sadly I can't say the same for this year's effort from Tesco! It tastes Ok with a slight hint of ginger amongst the spices, however it is far too watery for my liking. My recommendation would be to make your own... or try the Covent Garden pumpkin soup.

Saturday 23rd October 2010

Black Magic Part 2

Back in July I decided on the day to see if there were any remaining tickets for what was Penn & Teller's first UK tour in over a decade. For many of us who live in the UK, we will remember Penn & Teller's TV late night on Friday evenings on Channel 4 in the early 1990s and then disappearing back to the US with virtually no trace apart from a couple of 1-off TV specials.

Well they did not disappoint! Lots of misdirection with cards, coins and other objects. Just the right amount of humour with a knife throwing trick done by a blindfolded member of the audience where the knives were pulled away to safety on the end of a fishing line! The levitation trick which had been performed on BBC1's The One Show a few days before was in there, as were some fire-eating and an exquisitely beautiful trick where Teller draws his knife across a silhouette of a flower vase causing the flowers to separate from the stems in the actual vase.

And then there was the 'trademark' sketches that the crowd were hoping for - regurgitating needles attached to a cotton thread (both of which were swallowed separately), and the trick that fooled John Cleese on Channel 4 where Teller in locked under water in a sealed tank whilst Penn messes up a card trick wrong causing Teller to apparently drown, whereupon he is rotated in his box only to show the missing card in his scuba diving goggles.

Let's hope it isn't another 10 years until they return to these shores.

Sunday 17th October 2010

Peanuts... or Halloween Snoopy

Well I've been a little preoccupied at work this week so haven't posted anything and yesterday discovered what Hell really is! (A 28 mile hike across the Romney Marsh following the Royal Military Canal from start to finish... although the scary part was not the intense pain from aching feet or torn ligaments - but the journey to the starting point at Pett Level. Well part of it anyway - the early morning bus from Rye to Pett Level across the marsh near Winchelsea beach. And I now fully appreciate the reality of films like Deliverance or the writings of HP Lovecraft about Innsmouth. I'm sure the locals on the bus had webbed fingers and gills!)

Anyway, the Halloween decorations went up last Saturday and the Peanuts diorama has this year taken pride of place on the mantelpiece. So here the pictures...

Charlie Brown, Lucy & Linus van Pelt

Sally Brown & Schroeder

Snoopy & Woodstock

Sunday 10th October 2010

The first of the Halloween food...

Well a trip to the local Tesco supermarket in Cheriton today saw me come home with some purchases not on my shopping list. They had even started to put out some of this year's Halloween decorations - but it was the usual tat - cheap, disposable and fit only for the lamest of kids parties.

As for the food, it is surprising how many companies are getting in on the act by changing their packaging to include a 'spooky' word just to sell, for example orange flavoured cup cakes or jam filled sponge mini-rolls. Anyway I did succumb to Mr Kipling's Fiendish Fancies and Devil Slices... well he does make exceedingly good cakes!

At last Tesco is selling pumpkin ravioli - something rival Waitrose has been doing for some years. I'll be trying it out tomorrow.

As for the New Covent Garden Soup Company - I always try out their seasonal Halloween soup, but making a lot or pumpkin soup myself, I tend to find that their soup's taste fails to live up to the excellent packaging design. Let's hope I'll be pleasantly surprised this year!

Saturday 2nd October 2010