Why read Gibbet Hill for Halloween

I have blogged last Saturday about horror stories of Bram Stoker, recomending that you read them this year for Halloween. I mentioned the recently rediscovered Gibbet Hill. This Halloween 2025 has been for me, so far, the year of Gibbet Hill. Because it is the perfect read for Halloween, for many, many, many reasons, which I have listed here:

• It's set in mid-October, so it's already both autumnal and of course fittingly in the Halloween season.
• The autumn atmosphere is brilliantly rendered by Stoker. 
• Gibbet Hill is a real place in Surrey, for added authenticity. Also, you can actually visit it, if you live in England, for a sort of scary pilgrimage.
• It has snakes in it. Seriously, snakes deserves a more prominent place among Halloween critters.
• It features a strange and mysterious cult, practiced by two Indian girls and a blond boy. It's not merely a ghost story witha single antagonist, Stoker gives us a glimpse of something larger scale, a threat to civilisation. He will develop this in Dracula, of course, see this post from 2024.
• In the end, nothing is fully explained or rationalised, which adds to the unease. 
• There's just something about an old ghost story set in late XIXth century. 

 So yes, if you have to read one horror story this Halloween, it has to be Gibbet Hill.

Bram Stoker for Halloween

For tonight's countdown to Halloween reading suggestion, this book, a small collection of short stories by Bram Stoker. Not for The Burial of the Rats of the title, which is maybe not purely a horror story (although since I'm scared of rats, it's pretty much one for me), but for the other ones: The Squaw, The Judge's House, Dracula's Guest (well of course) and Gibbet Hill. The latter being the recently rediscovered ghost story and worth the purchase in itself. It's a genuinely scary ghost story, with creepy, cruel children and snakes, fittingly set in mid-October. I will blog more about it later in the month, but otherwise, the other stories, particularly The Judge's House and Dracula's Guest, are really great Halloween reads. You get the ghost of a hanging judge, more rats, a vengeful cat, weird cults, creepy children, an iron maiden and, well of course, vampires. My happy discovery this year, even though I read them all same one. And you can't go wrong with Stoker.

Snake and Ladders?

Sometimes, you find strange things second handed. So anyway, we went to a sort of very small, neighbourgood's local fayre, people selling tea, cakes and, well, second hand stuff. Mostly toys, games ans books. And this game of  Snakes and Ladders, which I did not buy, even though I love that game since childhood. Because we have one set already, which really looks much nicer (see here), but also because, well... Have you noticed it? Pretty obvious when you see it, isn't it? No wonder it's on sale.

Snake Alert!

 Here's some critter news which I wanted to share and blog about: there are snakes on the loose in England! To be more precise, the RSPCA has issued a warning about escaped pet snakes. You don't read that every day, not in this country in any case. There has been an increase in sighting of snakes, they even found bona fide pythons in Lincolnshire! Something came to my mind about the story: if some of these serpents remain in the wild and survive long enough, they might be mistaken for other creatures and we might have new cryptids. But this is my imagination talking. All the same, this country is now on a Snake Alert.

Medusa in a Zoom meeting

You may know that I love all things regarding Greek mythology and that Medusais by far my favourite Greek monster. So when I saw this meme, it really made me laugh. I thought I could share it today to brighten up your Monday. Although, I must say, from a pure geeky point of you, I don't think this is accurate at all: Medusa's reflection is harmless, in fact this is how Perseus kills her, using the back of his shield as a mirror to find her and chop her head off. But anyway, what do you think about it? Worth the risk?

Greek Mythology for Easter

 Looking for something to read this Easter? How about some Greek myths? I don't know why, but I often associate Easter with Greek mythology. Maybe because of the true Pagan origins of the celebration and its imagery, maybe because I find Springtime celebrations more fitting a Meditterranean setting. Be that as it may, I have started this book from Roger Lancelyn Green. I bought it for Wolfie, but truly it is for me. And it has a great Medusa on its cover. I know all the stories, but I don't care: it's just fun to rediscover them on a new perspective.

Another Snakes & Ladders

I try to get Wolfie interested about board games, with varying degrees of success. I do this because I love board games myself, but also because I often find it more fun than video games. And more educational too. You know that I love playing Snakes and Ladders, even though it is pure dumb luck and has zero strategy in it. It's just because I find snakes cool. And I just like the board of Snakes and Ladders, they are always different from one another. So I was happy to find during Wolfie's last play date that his friend and her brother have the classic game. Strange to see the ladders being as twisted as the snakes.

Cobra (the beer, not the snake)

My wife orders stuff from Hello Fresh and sometimes she gets freebies. Like this one, for instance: a small can of Cobra beer. Not really my kind of beer, but it was a feebie and thus in my price range. It's also an easy one to drink before dinner is served (or when you eat curry, for some reason that seems to be the go-to beer for curries). Wolfie loved the name, because it reminded him of a villain's name of his invention. It is fitting, as one if the brand's variety is named King Cobra, just like said villain. So anyway, I drank this recently.

Adders in Bucks

Here is a bit of news that might be useful to some of you: a higher number of adders has been sighted in Buckinghamshire. Enough so that the RSPCA has issued a warning to down walkers. If you go in long grass, an adder might be hiding there. As you may know, especially if you have been following this blog, adders are the only poisinous snakes in the UK. Dangerous animals, such as venomous snakes, both frighten me and fascinate me. So I get a bit of a shiver of excitement reading about this... shall we say resurgence of adders? That said, I will of course remain careful when we walk. Especially since the article reminds us that there has been recently incidents of snake bites.

Snakes, Ladders and... Monkeys

I know I blogged on the same topic not long ago, but there are times when a topic comes back very quickly just because. You know my long time interest for Snakes and Ladders, even though it is not the most challenging board game. Something about snakes makes it kind of atmospheric and cool. I always loved it. So anyway we went to see Wolfie's family on his mother's side last weekend. And the grandparents had prepared this game of Snakes and Ladders. It's a very special one, as it is also a jigsaw puzzle (you can see it if you look closely). it also features cheeky monkeys on it. Which changes nothing to the game per se, but it makes it cute. And the snakes don't look too nasty either. So there you have it; two games into one and some monkeys on top of it.

Giant Snakes & Ladders

We went to Wolfie's school a few weekends ago for a special fayre. I always love these events, they are a lot of fun. I found out that on their playground, they have... a giant Snakes and Ladders board. Now that is uber cool and I hope the children play it t break time. Snakes and Ladders was the first board game I ever played and I love it. Now this one is a bit limited, as it only has three snakes and three ladders (I think). But who cares, it's giant!

Medusa the Gorgon

This image was taken from Gods, Men and Monsters from the Greek Myths. We had many of them growing up. For some reasons, I associate Greek mythology with Easter. Maybe because I find it a more Mediterranean holiday? Be that as it may, I thought I shared this picture on the blog today. Medusa is by far my favourite monster that was created by the Ancient Greek's imagination and this is one of the best rendition of Medusa, so all the more reason to share it. She is absolutely terrifying.

About English snakes

 Last week during our school run, waiting for Wolfie's day to be over, we were chatting with the mother of one his best friends. She was mentioning that her son was obsessed about snakes and for special days out they go to see snakes in zoos and other places. I then said: "Thankfully, there are no venomous snakes in the wild in England." She corrected me: "Apparently, adders are poisonous." I replied: "Well, that is not reassuring." which made her laugh. I think it deserves to be a new great unknown line. Later on, I checked on the NHS website and she was right: the adder is indeed poisonous, thankfully it is also the only one.

New Snake

 We went to a birthday party last weekend, one of Wolfie's school friends. As usual in these events, the children receive a number of freebies, little party bags presents and so on. Among the freebies, Wolfie got this snake, which he chose as a reward after doing some activities. The snake is not exactly similar, but is pretty much based on the same model as the toy snakes I bought last year, thenselves exactly the kind of snakes that were all the rage when I was growing up. I don't think we can have enough of them, so I am glad we have a new one in our menagerie. Well, Wolfie's menagerie, but you know what I mean.

Royal Python

One of our favourite places to visit during our trip to the the Isle of Wight was to Amazon World. They had many exotic animals, including a handful of scary reptiles. Among them, the royal python. Can you see it through the glass? I know I'm not the best photographer, but still. My wifewas scared, I had a delicious chill, both afraid and fascinated. It is amazing how well camouflaged it is. You could easily get caught unaware, ensnared and strangled.

Pour qui est ce serpent?

Quand Blonde Tickler est devenue la gardienne de petit loup lorsque nous travaillons l'après-midi, elle a apporté un truc ou deux en cadeau pour lui, des jouets ou des bibelots pour passer le temps et le garder intéressé pendant quelques heures. Dont ce serpent. Pourquoi un serpent? Aucune idée. J'ai trouvé ça drôle, parce que la toute première fois que j'ai rencontré Blonde Tickler, il y a plus de dix ans, elle s'amusait avec un serpent-toutou. Celui-ci, elle ne l'a pas ramené chez elle après sa première journée (demi-journée en fait) de travail. Il semblerait que le serpent soit la propriété de petit loup.

Snakes & Ladders

Some bits of news which I have been wanting to blog about for a while: I recently bought our very first family's Snakes and Ladders. It might sound trivial, but there are so many versions with the snakes and ladders leading to different squares, it was actually a rather hard choice. I ended up choosing this version, just because I thought it looked nice. And I played with Wolfie. The very first game he completely massacred me. I don't know if it was beginner's luck, but he only reached squares with ladders and won the game easily. I was aroun square 14 or something, far, far behind him. The second game was more exciting, mostly because the snakes were far more involved. I won by the skin of my teeth, which disappointed Wolfie, but he took it pretty well and did not get angry. The good thing about Snakes and Ladders is that you don't spend ages playing it, so it is ideal for a young child. So yes, it is the very first board game Wolfie ever played, at least properly.

The Snakes

If you remember, I blogged about a month ago about these plastic snakes we played when we were kids, you held the end of their tail and it slither like the real thing. They were cheap toys we really loved. Well, I did not receive them for my birthday, so instead I bought a pack. I received five for the price of four, there were two yellow ones in the bag. That makes for a rather nice bunch. Of course, Wolfie absolutely loves them. He has the blue one, that is "his" snake and I have the green one. His mummy has the red one. They are generally up to no good and when we play with them, they go for all sorts of mischief. I love having a son.

Snakes as presents

There is another birthday of a friend of Wolfie coming soon and he is invited. As he is a really good friends of Wolie, maybe his best school buddy, my wife wants to give a proper present and not just cash,like we usually do. The boy really loves... snakes. Not sure why, but there you go. So my wife is looking for snake related toys to buy him. This brought back old childhood memories. Back in my youth, there were these plastic snakes that were made of little pieces joined together, they would move really nicely, as if they were real snakes. One of my best friends had some, which we loved. His house got burglared one summer holidays when they were away, and my brothers and I were glad the thiefs had not taken the snakes away. Later, my parents bought us the same snakes. Don't know what happened to them, but I found the exact same snakes on Amazon. But my wife has a different gift idea for the little boy, something less cheap and cheap looking. That said, my own birthday is coming soon, so I put this on my list of presents. Needless to say, Wolfie approves.

Snakes and Ladders

We haven't had any occasion to play board games in years, or we haven't made the effort, but I have decided to make an effort and rediscover this activity. So I am considering buying our own version of Snakes and Ladders. Its simplicity makes it ideal to play as a family. Wolfie already has one, a freebie received in one of his friends' birthday party (picture here), but it's very small, something you'd use for travelling, and I think we need a decent size one. It's maybe the first board game I ever played. I remember my grandmother had a huge wooden board with a few classic games on it, each one taking one quarter of the board. One of the games was of course Snakes and Ladders. So I will either put it on my list of birthday presents or I will buy it myself. There is that wooden one I found on Amazon, which kind of reminds me of my grandmother's (and it looks really good), but there are so many versions, my choice isn't set yet.