Countdown to Halloween!

 It is the first of October, therefore the Countdown to Halloween has officially begun! To say that I love this time of year is an understatement. Vraie Fiction will be exclusively focused on my favourite holiday for the rest of the month, I will post about all its aspects, but especially its spooky nature. Expect to read about a number of scary stories or tropes of scary stories. If you are curious, this picture was taken two weeks ago or so at the Cancer Research UK shop of Wallingford. I just loved the display, so perfectly perfect, even better than the window display of our local one. I suspect Wallingford to be a great place for Halloween. In any case, happy countdown everyone and watch this space.

Spices Chai at Coffee #1

Sometimes, we visit the town of  Wallingford. This is what we did last weekend. It has a lot of lovely places to stop by, but my wife and I have a special spot for Coffee #1. Like other cafés, they have their seasonal menu available, so of course we stopped there to order something. Pushed by my wife and even though I don't like milk in tea, I decided to try their Spiced Chai. I suspect it was because she wanted a sip or two. Even though my wife is not a tea drinker, she loves a chai latte, especially if it's spiced. It was too sweet and it had too much milk for my taste, but I did enjoy it, if only because it tasted autumnal. I guess I can take it off my bucket list.

The God Sucellos

The things you learn sometimes thanks to a café. I took this picture the Coffee #1 in Wallingford, one of my favourite quaint English towns. So I learned about the Celtic god Sucellos (or Sucellus). I might have read about him before, but have forgotten. I must confess I don't know all that much about pre-Christian Celtic lore, except from what transpired through and into the Arthurian legend. He seems, in appearance at least, to be the Celtic equivalent of Thor, what with his hammer. Anyway, I'm glad I know a little bit more now about Celtic mythology.

Poppies in Wallingford

Today is Remembrance Day. I commemorate with a picture I took recently in Wallingford. They had figures like this of soldiers with a poppy at the breast. Simple, beautiful and touching.

All Hallows Graveyard

Quick countdown to Halloween post, my third(!) of the day, but there is a lot to share until Halloween. For those living in England, especially in the South East, I wanted you to know that there is a All Hallows Graveyard in the lovely village of Wallingford. I took this picture in June 2023 quickly, to remind me that this place existed, promising myself to revisit it in autumn, near Halloween, where the atmosphere is at its best. I think this needs to be the setting of a horror story, a proper ghost story set on Halloween night. Or day. Seriously, this is on my go-to list next time we are in Wallingford.

Rose anglaise

J'ai pris cette photo à Wallingford, petite ville anglaise comme figée dans le temps. Ce n'étais pas loin du château. Mais enfin bref, c'est une rose anglaise qui est un peu seule dans un jardin désolé. J'ai quelques commentaires à faire à propos des roses et de la rose anglaise en particulier. Un, une rose seule, comme celle-ci, surtout entourée de terre brune, ce n'est pas si tant joli. Deux, on dit des belles femmes anglaises d'une beauté typiquement anglaise qu'elles sont des "English roses". Ma belle-mère a donné l'épithète à de ses filles, même si leur père n'est pas Anglais. Ce que j'ai toujours trouvé un brin ironique.

A post box in Wallingford

My readers know that I love the little town of Wallingford. We try to go there as often as we can, because it is so darn enjoyable. During our last time there, we walked pass a post box with a pink crocheted dog on top of it. Although I am not a dog person, I found it so cute and quirky that I could not resist taking a picture. I believe it was placed there by a charity to raise awareness for breast cancer. Many post boxes in the UK have little extra things like this for special occasions, that makes them stand out. It brings a bit of fantasy to the mundane and trivial.

The horses of Ascot in the window

I blogged before about the hat shop in Wallingford that has special displays. Last time we went there, the display represented the Ascot Racecourse.Well, we went back there not long ago and sadly there was no display anymore. It was also closed, so I could not get in and check for their men's hats and ask when the enxt display would be, well, displayed. And what would it be. All the same, here is a picture of the last one. Looks pretty cool.

Summer Books 2023

Well, I don't like summer much, as you know, that said my last visit to the Wallingford Bookshop gave me at least one good reason to tolerate it. A new season means new books being released. And they had a leaflet about it. Some freebie provided by Books Are My Bag. Since freebies are in my price range, I picked one up. I must confess, while I always take one of these leaflets when I see them in an indie bookshop, I have yet to buy any booklisted there. But it is always nice to see the new releases. And when I read something good, it makes summertime go faster.

The Werewolves' New Moon

 I blogged back in 2017 about The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, a card game/board game and borderline role-playing game about, well, werewolves. So it is a horror game of sorts. I bought one formy  brother Andrew in its original French version,then years later I bought the localised version for Blonde Tickler. But never for myself. Then, to my great surprise, I stumbled upon its first expansion, called New Moon, in a toy shop in Wallingford. Now how cool is that? I am very tempted to buy it next time, and get my hands on the original, so I can play it during my countdown to Halloween. This seems to be the perfect game when the season of the witch comes.

Ascot Racecourse (in Wallingford)

We saw a lot of nice things during our last trip to Wallingford. This is what I love about this town: so many nice little palces and nice sights. There was one shop, a hat shop, which I never set foot in yet, that always has a really nice and inventive window dressing. It isalways topical. Last time, it featured a representation of Ascot Racecourse. My wife has been to Ascot at least once, I never went. I am not really into horseracing, but I can understand the appeal. It looks kind of glamorous. I think I prefer it like this with figures. It is still, but it looks all neat and fancy.

Return to the Wallingford Bookshop

We went to Wallingford recently, one of my favourite towns in England. Of course I made time to return to the Wallingford Bookshop. This had been long overdue: I think my last visit dated back to September. I behaved, I only bought one book. It is my wife who found it. She just said: "I have seen one you might like." I asked her to show it to me to save time, as it was late in the day. And yes, I did like the look of it and bought it. It's not the first time it happened, and in this very bookshop. I said I only bought one book, but this is not quite true: I also ordered one through them. I will tell you which one in another post, but let's just say now that I find it nice that I will buy a novel that is now hard to find thanks to a bookshop and not Amazon. I feel kind of proud of my initiative.

Une girouette

J'ai pris cette photo à Wallingford, il y a environ un an. Je suis toujours à l'affût d'une image qui me plaît quand je suis à Wallingford et ça faisait longtemps que je voulais partager celle-ci. Pourquoi cette girouette en particulier? Parce qu'on en voit assez peu ailleurs, des girouettes, tout d'abord. Parce que celle-ci est assez originale. Et aussi parce que les labours se font en général, selon ce que je crois comprendre, à l'automne, surtout à l'automne tardif, après les récoltes. C'est donc une girouette "automnale". Et c'est bien assez pour moi.

Vintage Wallingford

My readers know that I love the little town of Wallingford. Because it is quaint, old fashioned, just quiet the way it should be, but never too much as to look deserted. You go there and you sometimes have the feeling to live in a different time. And it is even true of their local magazine, as you can see on this picture. I stumbled on the May 2023 edition of Window on Wallingford and saw this vintage car. You look at it, you feel like it belongs to another time. So anyway, we went to Wallingford not too long ago and we hope to go back there soon.

Le monstre-citerne

De retour de notre dernière visite à Wallingford, il y a quelques jours, nous avons dû être à la traîne d'une grosse machine. Un genre de camion, enfin selon ce que l'on voyait, mais très large et très haut. On aurait presque pu rouler en dessous pour le dépasser. Quand il a tourné, après qu'on l'ait suivi pendant une quinzaine de minutes au moins, j'ai vu qu'il transportait une citerne. C'était un vrai monstre de véhicule. Je n'ai aucune idée de son nom. Quant à son utilité, je soupçonne que c'est un engin de ferme (il y en a pleins par ici) qui répand des pesticides (parce que la citerne et le boyau). Tout de même, je ne vois pas ce qu'il faisait sur la route.  Mais si vous savez ce que c'est, dites-le moi dans les commentaires.

A Bookshop during Christmastime

I found this picture on the Facebook page of the Wallingford Bookshop. I had to share it here, just because this window is so gorgeously seasonal, with the fox, the robins and the rabbit. The bookshop always makes wonderful window displays, but their Christmastime one is particularly gorgeous. I haven't been to Wallingford in months, haven't visited its bookshop in ages and I really regret not going there for Christmas shopping. We have a local bookshop which I love, but the Wallingford one always had a special place in my heart, as it made me discover indie bookshops in England.

Trottoir aux cerises

 Nous étions allés, lors de notre dernière visite à Wallingford, à une sorte de festival avec des stands qui vendaient bien des trucs, dont bien entendu des desserts. Nous en avons acheté pour notre repas du soir. Je ne sais pas pourquoi, mais j'avais envie d'un truc aux cerises. J'ai donc acheté un trottoir aux cerises pour moi. Les Anglais appellent ça un cherry slice, ce qui m'amuse, parce que c'est le même nom qu'on leur donne au Saguenay, slices. Sauf que ceux qu'on faisait chez nous étaient aux fraises ou aux framboises. Enfin bref, c'est ce qui m'est passé à l'esprit quand je l'ai acheté.

The books in the coffee shop

 I blogged recently about the new (although I don't know how long exactly it's been there) Coffee #1 in the little town of Wallingford. I loved it for many reasons, one of them being that they have bookshelves. It is nothing new, but reading in a coffee shop is one of the things I love to do and do too seldom. I also love flicking through the books in a coffee shop, smell them and see the variety they have. It just makes the place so much classier and so calming. So anyway, the staff must have thought I was crazy, but I took a picture. I cannot wait to go back there.

Coffee #1 is in Wallingford

We made one happy new (re)discovery during our last visit to Wallingford: believe it or not, they have a Coffee #1. You may remmeber that I discovered this chain back in Cardiff, one of the best things during a trip that had been overall pretty lacklustre. It's a fairly small chain, they had a few coffee shops in Cardiff but little outside and none nearby. None until we found that one in Wallingford, that is. Now I don't like coffee at all, but love a good coffee shop, for everything else: the seating place, the atmosphere, and so on. Going back to this one, I remembered why I enjoyed it so much: it is a very nice setting and the staff is warm and friendly. Wallingford has many nice places like for a drink and a quick bite (or a lazy afternoon), so it makes sense that they opened a franchise there. We will go back.

The Old Nags Head

We went to Wallingford recently and we had a few walks there. In one of these walks, I saw this pub ensigne: The Old Nags Head. Strangely enough, it's "Old Nags" and not "Old Nag's". Be that as it may, it looked great and it was such a cool name for a pub. it makes a change from The King's Head, The Queen's Head, The Duke of This or The (Insert Colour) Lion. I thought we could stop there for a quick pint and then go our merry way. Alas, we were sorely mistaken: The Old Nags Head is no longer a pub, but a private residence. We nearly walked in someone's kitchen. Whoever had this idea was an architectural sadist.