Had my usual Halloween party on Saturday to which we had 17 guests. Some of the carved pumpkis are shown below as is the fcentral display in the living room. Not surprisngly the pumpkin of Spike fromthe film 'Gremlins' won, narrowly beating Spiderman (which had Venom on its reverse)
We had a couple of hours to kill yesterday before collecting a friend, so happened across, and thouroughly enjoyed, doing a Halloween Scavenger Hunt in Folkestone's Old High Street, looking for cats, ghosts with letters on them to spell out a seasonal word, and ingredients for a witch's cauldron. Well done 'Folkestone Rocks' shop for providng the entertainment. We're looking forward to next year's hunt...
I must admit I completely forgot to visit this local store until Saturday 30th by which time most of their Halloween stock would have been sold. To be honest I've never bought anything from their Halloween offerings to add to my collection, although this year it did appear from what was left that there were some different and more interesting items. Apart from the biggish figures / decorations in the first photo, in the second photo theire were the remains of more craft relatied items such as Halloween stencils and pumpkins and giant eyes that could be made, for example by crocheting.
I'm looking forward to eating this, which I found in my local Morrisons store yesterday - Pumpkin Spice Wensleydale Cheese.
Success... found a new beer bottle this year. Trooper, which is a beer brand owned by rock group Iron Maiden, and featuring their skeletal character Eddie on their bottles, has come up with a limited Day Of The Dead design for their beer this year. Available in Morrisons supermarket.
Snapped up the last of these little ceramic bonbon dishes from John Lewis Bluewater yesterday.
Saw the below pictured tin of biscuits for sale in M&S Bluewater yesterday. Only £5 for a tin that also has an LED inside to turn the tin into a haunted house ornament after you've eaten all the biscuits.
I also popped into the Fenwick department store, just to see if they had any black garlic vodka, that I remember them selling a couple of years ago. I couldn't find any, however they did have vodka sold in a glass skull bottle and gin and rum sold in devil's head shaped bottles.
Whilst in Canterbury today I came across a gift shop called Typo that I'd never heard of before. Anyway they had these 1000 piece jigsaws with a nice retro design on them.
Next have been advertising a lot of really nice pumpkin design cookware on their website, however the local store must either have not had any in or that it sold out straight away. Anyway they still had these effective looking plant holders; however at £18 each and with the pumpkins and the plants all plastic, they did seem a bit overpriced. Nicer though were ther really small ceramic pumpkins with an air plant in.
Danish chain Flying Tiger has a few confectionary items laid out at the front of their store in Canterbury. Also to the right are some make-up and other creative items and decorations and some plastic candy dishes and pumpkin lights.
The Canterbury store has a lovely display of pumkins and squash for sale. M&S are also doing their usual selections of food and tableware and some masks etc for young children which can be found at the end of aisles. So if you fancy a 'Zombie Percy Pig' cake you know where to go...
Saturday 9th October 2021
It seems I spoke too soon. The Hythe store had a couple of designs of plastic ornaments depicting Nightmare Before Christmas characters. £18 for something that stand a little over a foot high and is lit up by a light inside.
Sainsburys have now put out their halloween offering in the local Park Farm store, and of all the supermarkets, this year I think Sainsbury have the more tasteful designs. Sadly no Nightmare Before Christmas decorations like last year, but there were pumpkin shaped mugs, other pumpkin bowls (shame they were silver, not orange though), wreathes, garlands, cake making tools, tea light holders, games for childrens parties, costumes, sweets & treats, partyware and a fair sized selection of halloween books for younger children. A nicely designed and laid out display.
Morrisons in Folkestone has now stocked up their half an aisle of halloween goodies - a few chldrens costumes and partyware beofre moving on to the sweets and treats. There were a few empty spaces, and I don't know whether that was for stock not yet arrived or stock that had already sold out. Either way there was nothing I was particularly after. Morrisons is some times different in that it produced halloween party games for children's parties, but this year all I could find was the 'Pin the Hat on the Witch' and they did not appear to have the Jenga style game with all the blocks made in the shape of bones. Disappointlingly though Morriosons has always been better than most supermarkets for their selection of ale and often has a selection of autumn ales that are themed around halloween with names incorpoarting e.g. the witch in their title. For the last 2-3 years though these beers have been notable in their absence sadly.
Of all the big 4 UK supermarkets, I don't usually hold much hope out when visiting Tesco for Halloween decorations as a collector, but some years they do surprise me with the odd gem, such as a few years ago when they had CDs of vintage 1960s halloween songs. This year the only item I bought was the ceramic pumpkin with a lid and inside was a pumpkin latte smelling candle. Otherwise the selection geared more towards their target audience of kids.
The local Folkestone Asda store finally had their aisle of decorations out this week. Somehow it seems a bit more muted even than last year and seemingly less stock, but I'd read that the offerings from all supermarkets would be less this year as they were finding it difficult to predict whether there would be another COVID lockdown and they would be left with surplus stock. Anyway, the usual fare from Asda - so great if you want sweets, kids costumes and partyware. The most striking decorations when I approached the aisle were the skeleton toys and there were some nice Disney Halloween bags for only £3 each. There looked like there had been some Disney Villains, Winnie The Pooh & Mickey Mouse Halloween cups and glasses but most of these had already been snapped up.
Its getting harder each year to find pumpkin spiced beers or beers with a different halloween or horror themed design. In Folkestone's independant 'Beer Shop' I was buying some smoked beer for Ocktoberfest and came across this can with a nice skull design on it, but with all that mess of hair, is it supposed to be a zombie Boris Johnson?
Before it rained I though I'd harvest this year's crop from the garden. 6 Turk's Turbans that we planted - not huge in size but was still pleased with the results. The other 4 self-seeded in the vegetable patch from compost from my compost bin.
At last the long awaited Pumpkin Spice Houmous is now on the shelves. Containing pumpkin flesh and topped with pumpkin seeds, the houmous also has a subtle, but not overbearing, spice taste from cinamon, nutmeg and ginger. Get it while it lasts.
The local Poundland store in Folkestone has started putting out its display. A central shelf as you enter with all the sweets and trick or treat buckets. Then in store there's part of an aisle with decorations etc. Again nothing of real interest for a serious collector but there were some glasses with jack o'lantern faces on them and some mugs in the shape of a pumpkin or a cauldron that I'm sure will sell quickly. They don't look the greatest quality mugs compared to some I've seen, but then they are only £1 each.
Well it looks like the Halloween decorations are fizzling out now and being replaced by Christmas decorations already. There are still plenty of pumpkin spiced candles though. Anyway I went to the bigger store at Ashford and most of the remnants were on one table including a curiously bright orange plastic dinosaur with a pumpkin body and very little detail to its features!
Tuesday 21st September 2021
Still the local TKMaxx is the only shop with halloween decorations out but not in vast quantities like in previous years. There are plenty of scented candles, include a very large ghost candle (coming in at c£25!) pumpkin salt and pepper shakers, and some cushions.
Sunday 5th September 2021
