Wisley Pumpkins

I was visiting the RHS Gardens at Wisley yesterday, as a means of doing something for a family outing with my 99 year old grandmother; and on the way to the big tropical hothouse, noticed a greenhouse stacked with these pumpkins that had obviously been harvested from their vegetable garden.


Thursday 1st December 2016

Halloween Party Pumpkins

Had five pumpkins brought along to this year's party and we all voted on the best one. Charlotte's cat won...












Wednesday 2nd November 2016

Folkestone Zombie Walk 2016

Well it was a change of venue this year, and instead of walking through the town centre the route was to start in the derelict Folkestone Harbour Station and walking up the Harbour Arm to the Lighthouse and back down again for the prize giving. This new route, albeit shorter, meant that there was no need for road closures.

With about 15 minutes to go, there seemed to be a lack of zombies compared to previous years and a surplus of photographers - however the living dead were bolstered at the last moment and the pier did seem a good venue in that there were plenty of tourists and sightseers all enjoying the fun.

The weather was mild which also helped make the event a success, so let's hope it continues next year. Here are some of the day's pictures...
















Saturday 29th October 2016

M&S Shop Display

Whilst in Canterbury today I passed by M&S which had at least made a tasteful effort with it's window. Inside there were just the usual food items... ah, long gone are the days when they produced beautiful ceramic pumpkin teapots and cups!




Thursday 20th October 2016

Morrisons, where's the beer?

I've been holding off putting up pictures of Morrisons Halloween decorations and goodies this year until they got stock in of a Halloween beer they are advertising in-store and on their website. 'Pumpkin King' appears to be flavoured with actual pumpkin and I was looking forward to tasting some, however the Folkestone store doesn't seem to be selling it.


Other than that the decorations are much of a muchness with the other leading supermarket chains with nothing really outstanding for the collector, but plenty for kids parties.




Tuesday 11th October 2016

Tesco disappoints this Halloween

Sometimes Tesco puts something amongst their Halloween partyware and sweets that is really worth buying; such as when they sold a series of CDs containing many rare and vintage Halloween tracks from the 1950s and 1960s, or very nice tea-light holders. Sadly this year is not one of those years! Amongst the usual children's costumes and sweets are make-up, masks and props that make Poundland look like John Lewis!

The only things notable are plastic reusable Mickey Mouse plates, cups and beakers for £1 each, but even then I was not overly impressed with the designs.






Thursday 6th October 2016

More Halloween Stamps

For the philatelists out there, the US Postal Service issued a set of 4 Jack O'Lantern stamps on 29th September 2016.


Thursday 6th October 2016

Sainsburys Halloween 2016

Popped into the big Sainsburys near me at Park Farm and they have got their Halloween decorations out... so just Tesco and Morrisons to go out of the Big 4.

And this year Sainsburys seem to have realised that there's more money to be made and has come up with a few more interesting items. Below are a few pictures of the main aisle, excluding shots of the usual sweets and some of the partyware... but there was also another aisle perpendicular with childrens costumes, children's halloween cartoons and some CDs (nothing really different to CDs covered on this site in previous years). Also the DVD section had plenty of low priced horror DVDs (nothing I was desperate to buy - but for horror fans - they had Trick'r'Treat for only £4 is a must).

Anyway amongst the usual family friendly decorations, Sainsburys seem to have gone down the Asda route and put in a few nicer (and a bit pricier) items. The 'Ghosts & Goblins' board was nice and vintage looking at £10, The wooden vintage bunting was also great, only 1.5m in length when unwound, but still worth it in my eyes.

The heavy resin skeletal body on which to put a carved pumpkin as a head looked fun and the body lit up too, but at £15 I passed up on this, only simply as I'm on a budget and am running out of room to store things!

The metal tea light holders showing a haunted house and a row of trees also was a bit different for Sainsburys, and there were also wicker pumpkins, ceramic pumpkin mugs filled with marshmallows, and ceramic cauldrons which I also thought were quite nice too.

The only things that piqued my interest at a distance, but failed to live up to their promise on closer inspection were the ravens and owls that looked just too fake. Less glitter and more realism perhaps next year!

On the food front, in the chiller cabinets, were and own brand spicy pumpkin soup, a butternut squash risotto soup, and pumpkin and sage pasta. So that's the next few days eating sorted out...









Wednesday 6th October 2016

Wilkinsons Halloween 2016

The shop staff member was still putting out the costumes when I popped in today. Slightly different stuff again. The ceramic and earthenware pumpkins were relatively cheap, but personally I don't like the painted ones and the earthenware ones didn't look of sufficient quality to be frost proof if left outside, so I resisted. The decorated pumpkins on the bottom shelf of the second picture initially looked more interesting until on closer inspection I found out they were plastic and not that great looking close up. Otherwise a good selection of sweets - but no scary clown toilet seat cover like last year!




Thursday 29th September 2016

Asda Halloween 2016

Asda seems to be the first supermarket to put out their display in the UK. There's the usual decorations, costumes and sweets. However of note this year are the Mexican Day of the Dead design partyware, the return of the haunted telephone prop and a shadow projector to be used outside to project ghosts on the outside of your house.






Wednesday 28th September 2016

TK Maxx again...

This time in Westfield, London. I bought the skeletal crow sitting on a pumpkin but despite some nice items had rather a lot to carry anyway and so resisted. The pumpkin bowls were very nice, but at £9.99 each, perhaps not an essential!





Saturday 24th September 2016