Happy Halloween!

 It is here at last: Halloween 2022! Sitll a long way until it is time for trick or treat. To my readers: Happy Halloween! I may not have time to blog more about it today, because I will be busy making memories with my son. He will go for trick or treat for the first time. I will relive my Halloween of yesteryear, albeit by procuration, but more importantly I will share a lot with him.

Le matin de l'Halloween

 Joyeux Halloween à tous! Le jour est enfin arrivé. Ou peut-être devrais-je dire: déjà? À chaque année je trouve que ça passe trop vite. J'ai sans doute déjà blogué sur le sujet, mais j'aimerais que mes lecteurs songent un instant à la longue attente avant la nuit de l'Halloween, la journée qui commence et le jour qui semble ne jamais tomber. C'était long avant de pouvoir passer l'Halloween. Je sais que Wolfie est très impatient et son impatience me rappelle la mienne lorsque j'avais son âge.

Carving Jack O'Lanterns

We got busy today, Wolfie and I: we carved no less than six Jack O'Lanterns! Tomorrow I will place them for in the entrance trick or treat. This one you see here was designed by Wolfie himself. Iwas not too sure about it at first, but I think it looks really good. It reminds me of the ones my dad carved when we were children: they also had square teeth. Oh and tomorrow is the big day. Wolfie is getting really excited: he kept asking when was Halloween coming when he went to bed. He fell asleep asking this. Tomorrow will be the first time he goes trick or treating, so it is a big moment for him. He really developed a spooky mind this year.

La première citrouille

 Nous avons eu une journée chargéa aujourd'hui, petit loup et moi: nous avons creusé six citrouilles, des petites et des grosses. Ceci est la toute première. Le design était de lui. Les miens sont plus effrayants. Cela dit, je trouve qu'il a beaucoupde talent. Demain, il ira passer l'Halloween pour la première fois.

Witches: sense and nonsense

For today's fourth(!) countdown to Halloween post, a bit about witches, from English Heritage. They published an article called Witchcraft: Eight Myths and Misconceptions. I don't want to sing my own praise, but I know a lot of them already. Be that as it may, as I am a little bit of a historian myself, I am happy the article sets a lot of things straight. I would also like to add that I have been working (very slowly) on a horror story involving a witch. I haven't finished yet, but you can find in this post from 2018 the basic idea. Maybe I will have something for you for next Halloween.

L'heure des chauves-souris

Bon, je partage une autre photo des chauves-souris de papa un peu arbitrairement, pour mentionner une chose: c'est le changement d'heures aujourd'hui. Ma femme n'aime pas, moi j'adore. Je gagne une heure de sommeil. Et je suis heureux que le changement arrive à temps pour l'Halloween.

The Scarecrow Festival this year

 Yesterday, we went to the Scarecrow Festival of a nearby village. The third one since 2020. Wolfie loves it, for him it is like a scarecrow hunt. It is a festival that is just as much about Halloween and Jack O'Lanterns than it is about scarecrows, so it is also for us a Halloween tradition. A tradition that emphasises the autumnal aspects of Halloween as well as its association with harvest. We did not spend as much time as we wanted, but enough to see that the friendly scarecrow with the pumpkin head on the promotional leaflets is now also real one. He looks quite friendly, I must say. It is pretty much their mascot. Maybe we should give it a name. Make your suggestions in the comments.

Danse Macabre

Avant que j'oublie, il est passé minuit, nous sommes dimanche, c'est donc l'heure de la la Danse Macabre, que jepartage à chaque année. Je me suis dépêché de trouver une version avant que l'Halloween ne se termine. Elle est assez récente.

Three Jack O'Lanterns

My father got ahead of me and carved his pumpkins yesterday. He carves three, a big one and two small ones. Sadly we will not be able to go trick or treating that side of the Atlantic, but Wolfie and I might start carving pumpkins tonight.

Les chauves-souris

 Photo envoyée par mon père: il a décoré le portico avec des chauves-souris. Ca a un air gentiment effrayant. Ici nous n'en avons quelques unes, une gonflable (grosse erreur), une autre en plastique avec un cordon que l'on pend, une autre en feutre, etc. Et nous en avons aussi des vraies dehors qui volent la nuit. J'avoue que j'aimerais en avoir autant pour mettre dans l'entrée, il y a jamais assez de chauves-souris à l'Halloween. Je crois que j'en achèterai pour l'année prochaine. Je me demande si elles vont effrayer les jeunes halloweeneux qui vont passer par le portico.

Brio's Spooky Train Station

For today's countdown to Halloween post, a toy I wish I had bought me... errr, I mean, for Wolfie. Anyway, you know our son loves train sets, especially Brio designs. My wife found a few weeks ago that they sold a Spooky Train Station, with a zombie action figure (they say ghostly conductor, but I think he looks like a zombie, albeit a more gothic one), ghostly sounds and all. We didn't buy it, for some reason, but I have been kicking myself since then. It could become a new Halloween tradition for next year. I keep thinking trains and train stations are pefect settings for horror stories. We could create our own spooky stories, we'd have our inspiration and prop.

Des monstres sympathiques

Autre photo prise par mon père lors de ses promenades. Ah, l'Halloween qui approche! Cela dit, je me trompe ou ce n'est guère macabre? C'est un peu bonbon, pour ainsi dire. Me semble que je me rappelle d'un temps ou c'était beaucoup plus sinistre.

About Dracula's Castle

For today's countdown to Halloween post, yet another trip down nostalgia lane. My longtime readers may remember that I sometimes blog about the Dracula Game, a make-belief game my brothers, my friends and I played when we were young.As we hadn't read the original novel, we used  J.H. Brennan's gamebook Dracula's Castle as inspiration. Now as I wanted to blog about it again, I discused with my brother PJ about the reasons why this make belief game worked so well that we still talk about it to this day. One of the reasons resides in the antagonist himself: Count Dracula is not only a vampire, but a centuries old nobleman and ruthless warrior, who dabbles into sorcery and whose ultimate ambition is world domination. This is a worthy adversary for a group of vampire hunters, suitable for the ensemble cast that we made with our friends. The other reside in the setting itself: a Carpathian castle and its surroundings, especially as described in the gamebook, had plenty of atmosphere and was also very suitable for a classic "dungeon crawl", with lots of monsters to fight, and not only vampires. Ghouls, zombies, all sorts of undead, demonic entities, wolves under Dracula's control. There is one last element that made the game memorable: it allowed our characters to have all sorts of cool weaponry and equipment. We had of course stakes, crucifix, garlic, holy water, as well as conventional weapons: guns, knifes and the likes. Anyway, as we never finished the game, I hope this blog will encourage some of your children who have a spooky mind to make their own "Dracula Game". No Halloween could be complete without a bit of Dracula in it.

Le passage secret

J'ai blogué sur le "passage secret" (l'allée entre le jardin et la rue) en automne en 2017 et en 2020. J'en ferai peut-être une tradition chaque automne et chaque Halloween. Car notre passage secret prend un air un peu inquiétant, de jour comme de nuit. Je l'ai déjà dit: j'aimerais en faire le lieu d'une histoire d'horreur. Il me semble que ce serait l'endroit parfait pour de l'horreur diurne. J'y pense à chaque fois que je le traverse. Mais si j'ai le lieu, je n'ai toujours pas d'histoire.

The Ideal Haunted House

For today's countdown to Halloween post, another trip down memory lane and another post about Usborne classic All About Ghosts, a chilchood favourite of mine. There is a whole section on haunted houses, two pages back to back, with lots of phenomenons one could expect in such places. This is, in essence, an ideal haunted house, with enough ghosts or manifestations to fill a whole neighbourhood. The house has an uncanny resemblance with the Victorian house I lived in during my time in Liverpool. The surroundings are a bit different, but the basic architecture is similar. But anyway, when I was a child, this haunted house because the haunted house of our games. I once said that the problem with haunted houses in horror stories was that one could just leave the darn place. That said, I wonder if one would just live there just experiencing paranormal activities. Maybe it is my spooky mind talking, but isn't this place a dream house, haunted or not? Be that as it may, this haunted house in All About Ghosts became the inspiration for many, many games and will one day I hope be the inspiration for one ghost story or two.

Photo automnale

Je partage une nouvelle photo de l'automne à Chicoutimi, rien que parce que c'est vraiment superbe. La photo a été prise au début d'octobre. Les feuilles doivent être tombées en bonnes quantités maintenant et l'arbre doit être plus dénudé.

A Book of Horror Stories and its Cover

Yesterday, I finished Frankie Abbott's Great Big Book of Horror Stories. Generally, that means I would recommend it for one of your spooky reads, but I am only doing it with caution. In fact, I am not certain that I can recommend it, in all honesty. Not that the stories are bad: they should give you a few chills and maybe a few laughs too, as he is not devoid of dark humour. The problem lies elsewhere: its cover. Because yes, the cover lies. Not a single one of these stories is set during or around Halloween, the holiday is not even referred to and there is no Jack O'Lantern or pumpkin. This got me disappointed. With thirtheen stories and 123 pages, it's not eactly a big book, but I'll let it slide. I bought it for the cover. My mistake. If you read it, I recommend that you read it near the beginning of your countdown. Which is end of July for me. Anyway, for the days left, I will reread old tried and true Halloween stories. I should share a few here.

Un squelette dans un hamac

Il y avait bien des décorations pour l'Halloween lorsque nous sommes allés au zoo pour enfants en fin de semaine. Moins que les années d'avant, mais quand même. Peu étaient vraiment effrayantes et certaines étaient humoristiques. Dont ce squelettes dans un hamac. Se faisait-il bronzer? Il avait le teint bien blafard. Outre sa pose plus humoristique, je le trouvais bien macabre. Moi, je l'aurais mis dans un cercueil. Enfin bref, j'ai bien aimé le squelette (ou le squolette?) et j'ai donc pris une photo afin de le partager sur le blogue.

The witch in the tractor

We went to a petting zoo this weekend, a place Wolfie loves a lot. They make something special for Halloween, with lots of spooky decorations. As it was one of the last time in the year when we could do it, we went for a tractor ride. And they had spookified (spelling?) it: we saw this lurking in the driver's cabin. A bona fide witch, with a nasty smile and shining malevolent eyes. She looks deliciously sinister. So I had to take a few picturesof it, which was quite a challenge in a tractor in motion. But I got a few decent shots. I'm surprised Wolfie did not get scared. I shivered a bit when I saw her, but I think it was more excitement than anything else.

Les citrouilles cette année

J'ai pris cette photo dans le zoo pour enfants en fin de semaine. Il y avait un champ de citrouilles où on pouvait aller cueillir les citrouilles. Wolfie en a choisi deux. Avec celels que l'on a achetées avant, cela nous en fait six en tout, si je ne me trompe pas. Des petites, des moyennes et des plus grosses. Pas autant que celles que l'on trouve au Québec, mais ça fera l'affaure et ce sera joli pour les halloweeneux. Petit loup a très hâte de les creuser. je songe aussi à en acheter des toutes faites en céramique, comme celle-ci. Pour être certain de ne jamais être à court de citrouilles.