The Darkening Sky.

It is 3.30pm and already the light is leaving us. Do you like Halloween? I love this atmospheric time of year, lighting candles, brief chilly afternoons, the low golden light. Plum cake, wood-smoke and ghost stories. I'm not really sure about some of the Halloween traditions though, it's has all gone a bit too bling I think. Every year I trawl pinterest for some good pumpkin ideas, but mine the kids ones ALWAYS look like this.

The kids really want to go trick or treating-do you do this? This year I am crying off with the excuse of the beginnings of a seasonal virus and Mr S is talking about having a wee drink with some work friends so for us I think some cake, sparklers and a good film.

After the kids go to bed I think I will curl up with some hot damson vodka and a good book. Do you like my 'scary' picture above? It is an Victorian or Edwardian oleograph that I had had since I was a teenager. My friend M and I were two incorrigible Goths and we used to spend all our wages on getting the train to Bangor to buy Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus bootlegs from this brilliant record shop that used to be there. One day I spotted this in an antique  junk shop and dragged it home. Mr S hates it and since it hangs over the bedroom fireplace I do have some sympathy with him but I still have affection for it. The colours are not as dull as this photos suggests but it is a tad gloomy. Do you and your partner ever pour scorn on the others taste?

While I am tucked up in my bed I am going to call over to Plain Jane's blog, she is having a spooky storytelling session today/tonight and I have retold one of our family ghost stories. Why don't you pop over and tell one of your own? Also one of my favourite Irish authors has also been story-telling for Halloween, you can find the link to Nuala Ni Chonchuir's evocatively creepy story on her blog, Women Rule Writer. Don't forget to put a candle in a dark corner and set an extra plate for All Hallows Eve, you don't know just who may visit.

Here is the beautiful Peter Murphy and the deliciously dramatic Bauhaus to keep you company while you wait...