Les matins de l'Halloween

Nouvelle photo prise à Québec que je partage ici afin d'illustrer mon propos. Tout d'abord: joyeuse Halloween à tous! Nous sommes le matin de l'Halloween, ce qui à une certaine époque était pour moi une longue, longue et parfois difficile attente. Enfant, je passais devant les maisons décorées sur le chemin de l'école (quand c'était la semaine) en ayant très hâte que le soir arrive afin de finalement passer l'Halloween. Maintenant, c'est plus facile d'endurer ça, comme célébrer en tant qu'adulte se fait différemment.

Man-Size in Marble for Halloween

I know I have suggested this ghost story by E. Nesbit before and more than once, but Man-Size in Marble is for me the story to experience on Halloween night and I read it at least once during the season. Here it is in one of the few audio versions I found on YouTube, not the perfect one, but I thought it was all right. I hope you enjoy it.

Halloween diurne

À mesure que l'Halloween approche, je deviens plus fébrile comme bloguer, car il y a tant de choses à partager. Tout ça pour dire que je partage cette photo prise par mon père à Québec. Parce qu'on voit rarement autant de dévouement pour décorer sa maison ou son terrain ici, d'une part. Et parce que le jour, l'Halloween peut être apprécié tout autant, mais sous une perspective (sous un jour, ha, ha, ha!) différent. Je crois par exemple que ces araignées géantes et ce spectre, pour ne parler que d'eux, sont tout aussi terrifiants le jour. C'est de l'horreur diurne. Qu'en pensez-vous?

Pumpkin soup for Halloween

Once upon a time, I used to have pizza every Halloween night: it was eaten quickly, then I could go off and wander into the night for trick or treat. That was before I grew up, became a responsible adult (sort of adult anyway) and moved to England, where I discovered New Covent Garden Soup. I blogged about the brand in the past, as early as 2008, my first year as a blogger, in 2014 and 2015 as well, among other times, always around Halloween. Because the company makes a soup of the month and every October this soup is a variation of pumpkin soup and of course it is inspired by Halloween, for my greatest pleasure. It has become one of the staples of my Halloweens in this country: every year I have their pumpkin soup at least once. Even my wife, who never liked soup much, actually enjoys them.

This year's soup of the month of October is a simple creamy pumpkin. Apart from pumpkin, it has carrot, cream, honey and a bit of coriander. It tastes quite nice. I love a good hearty soup on a cold October night like the ones we have now.So this will be our dinner for Halloween.

Fantôme en bouteille

Mon fils commmence déjà à aimer l'Halloween et ses manifestations. Il a aussi commencé à contribuer à mettre de l'atmosphère à la maison en faisant lui même certaines décorations lors de ses cours de créativité. Bon, sa mère l'aide un peu, mais il est quand même le maestro, enfin tant que le sujet l'intéresse. C'était le cas lorsqu'il a fait ça, une sorte de lampion avec lumière et surtout à l'intérieur un vrai de vrai fantôme. Le visage, c'est mon petit loup qui l'a dessiné. Il est vrsi que les fantômes, il commence à les connaître: son livre préféré ces temps-ci les met en scène et il m'appelle "dadda wooo". Alors on a maintenant parmi notre collection de créatures un fantôme en bouteille (ou, plus précisément, dans un pot de confiture).

The vitality of ghost stories

A friend of mine sent me this article from The New York Times about the strength of ghost stories in contemporary American literature. I thought I would share it for today's countdown to Halloween post. It talks specifically of American literature, but it could be said of any Western culture, really: in an age of rationalism, ghost stories are still thriving, even and especially in contemporary settings. It could be surprising, in an age when the hypothetical existence of the soul is at best challenged, at worst thwarted, by our knowledge of the human brain. However, phantoms in fiction reveal more about the living than the dead. Ghosts are often a mirror of human psyche, their guilt, fears, desires. You can read my own thoughts on ghosts in this post. But I would be curious to read in the comments what you think makes ghost stories so appealing.

Question existentielle (336)

Nouvelle question existentielle sur l'Halloween, mais qui a cette fois-ci une importance personnelle:

-À partir de quel âge un enfant peut-il passer l'Halloween?

Ma femme et ma mère trouvent que deux ans c'est trop tôt pour notre petit loup.

Pumpkin carving time!

This evening was the time to carve our pumpkins. It was a family activity, although I did all the work. Not that I mind: I love making Jack O'Lanterns. My wife is not as into Halloween as I am, but she witnessed it. Wolfie was too young to assist me, but he did play an important role deciding the designs to use: he vetted each and everyone of them.

So this is what we have now. Not my best, but a good effort and I think they are quite nice overall. One of them is Wolfie's pumpkin and the design has been especially chosen by him. I will let you guess which Jack O'Lantern it is. He was very impressed and fascinated by the work. A bit too much sometimes: we saw him shaking in fear at some moments looking at them. But he kept going back to the Jack O'Lanterns to take a good look at them. He was also very proud to show them to his grandparents.

La peur du loup

J,ai pensé ce soir faire une nouvelle suggestion de lecture pour l'Halloween, dans un domaine plus encyclopédique: La peur du loup, qui est dans la même collection que cet autre ouvrage et apprend bien des choses sur les perceptions fausses et la vraie nature du loup. Tout  y passe: le loup-garou, la Bête du Gévaudan, le petit chaperon rouge, etc. C'est un ouvrage de référence pour ceux comme moi aiment le loup, mais sont aussi fascinés par la peur irrationnelle qu'il a suscitée et suscite malheureusement encore chez certaines personnes.

Sunday roast and Halloween

Today is Sunday, which means we might go for a Sunday roast. We went to a local restaurant last week and this is what I had: one of the fanciest Sunday roasts I had in ages. Sadly service was very slow and it ended up a bit of a frustrating experience. What does this British traditional meal have with Halloween you may ask and why am I making it the topic of today's countdown to Halloween post?  There is a fairly simple reason why: Halloween is associated with both food and autumn and the Sunday roast is a very seasonal meal, being very hearty. You need at least one of these meals to celebrate autumn and the coming of Halloween. Also, because of a more fantasist reason: when you fight the Forces of Darkness, it is not merely a spiritual battle. You need to be physically strong and have plenty of stamina. And what more sustaining than a Sunday roast? Sure, heavy food can give nightmares and make you irrational (see this post). But try ti fight off a zombie, a vampire, a ghoul or what have you on an empty stomach. So think about it today and don't walk in the woods or in a dark alley on an empty stomach.

L'heure normale enfin!

J'ai récemment blogué sur l'heure normale. Nous y sommes enfin. je ne veux pas retourner le fer dans la plaie de ceux qui l'attendent encore ou ceux qui n'aiment pas le retour de la noirceur plus tôt, mais pour moi qui suis un être de l'automne, je prends ça un peu comme une délivrance. C'était le temps que ça arrive. Si ce n'était que de moi, le changement d'heures arriverait bien plus tôt en octobre ou durerait l'année longue.

Pumpkin carving tomorrow?

I always wonder when is the best time to do the carving of the pumpkins. I thought I might do it tomorrow, or at least start with one or two. Halloween being on Wednesday, the Jack O'Lanterns should stay fresh and we will have enough time to appreciate them. Sadly unlike the last two years, it will not be possible to have the Ticklers this year for a proper pumpkin carving party. But there will be Wolfie, who at two will appreciate more than before, as he will be more conscious of it.

Madame la Corriveau

Vous connaissez j'espère la légende québécoise de la Corriveau, cette histoire d'empoisonneuse sans doute sorcière qui a conclu un pacte avec le diable et dont le cadavre hante la croisée des chemins où elle a été exposée dans une cage de fer. Ça m'est venu à l'esprit en relisant ce billet récent sur les sorcières. Je parlais du fait que la sorcellerie était un crime de droit commun pour les Anglais, ce qui faisait que les sorcières étaient pendues et non pas brûlées. Or, toute la légende de la Corriveau part de là, du fait que son cadavre ait été préservé sans sépulture pendant un temps. Et c'est peut-être passer du coq à l'âne, mais je termine ce billet, delenda Carthago oblige, en disant qu'il faudra bien un jour ramener la Corriveau dans le folklore québécois de l'Halloween.

Rambling about werewolves

I took this picture in Morisson's. Not the best image to accompany my post, but there you go. So I was recently thinking writing a post on werewolves, when it struck me that I have not read that many stories about them, and most stories I read are fairly recent. Werewolves seems to be the poor relative of all the Halloween and horror critters. He has been overshadowed a long time ago by the vampire and more recently by zombies. Even the way a human becomes of werewolves in modern fiction is rather reductive: it is more often than none through contagion, by the bite or clawing of another lycanthrope. In folklore, there were many different ways to become one and contagion was not even one of them. A werewolf could owe his condition to a curse, the alignment of stars in the sky at birth, to witchcraft, to a magic ointment, etc. It would be interesting to revisit this character of horror stories and these methods of infection. The werewolf could benefit from a bit of variety.

Le Deauville: RIP

Petit billet de vieilles nouvelles régionales, pour varier un peu: je savais que le restaurant de Chicoutimi Le Deauville avait fermé ses portes, mais je ne savais pas qu'il avait été démoli depuis notre dernier séjour. Et ça, je trouve ça triste. On ne va pas se raconter des histoires: j'y suis allé une fois, enfin je peux me rappeler une seule visite, pour un brunch, et ça n'avait pas été transcendant. C'était un restaurant de mononcles, disons-le franchement. Mais j'ai toujours aimé le bâtiment lui-même, avec sa tour quétaine et son taureau sur la devanture encore plus quétaine. Ils auraient pu garder l'immeuble, il me semble. Et puis malgré ses défauts, il a représenté un peu Chicoutimi. Pour les occasions spéciales, il y avait de la place au Deauville. Le brunch dont je parlais plus haut, c'était avec la famille é;argie d'une ex, ça doit faire vingt ans de ça. Et puis les parents de mon filleul ont fait leurs fiançailles au Deauville. Rien que pour ça, j'aurais aimé qu'il demeure en place.

Pumpkin patch

Yesterday, my wife and our son went toa local farm where they had prepared some special activities for Halloween. Including pumpkin carving. The pumpkins were all available in the pumpkin patch you see here, guarded by a rather friendly looking scarecrow who wouldn't scare anyone. Little Wolfie chose himself the pumpkin. He took it in his arms and put it in the wheelbarrow. He's not a big boy, but he sure is strong. He then refused to carve the pumpkin, so my wife had to bring it home. Which is fine: now we have three pumpkins (good number) and we will carve them together as a family and make them all spooky Jack O'Lanterns. And there is a special pumpkin for Wolfie.

L'araignée géante

Il y a des jours comme celui d'hier où j'aimerais pouvoir les passer avec ma famille. Ma femme est allée avec petit loup, une amie et sa fille à une ferme pour enfants du coin où elle a un laisser-passer permanent. Ils avaient décoré l'endroit pour l'Halloween, en plus de faire des activités spéciales. Petit loup a pu voir, notamment, une araignée géante dans son enclos. L'Halloween n'est pas l'Halloween sans quelques araignées, géantes ou non, alors je la partage ici.

A portrait of Dracula

Today's countdown to Halloween post is a followup to that one. So you know that I developed early on a fascination and literary passion about Dracula by Bram Stoker. It had predated reading the novel, but once I had read it, it became pure obsession. It was not enough to have read it, in fact, I had to re-read it and own the book. So I received the novel as a present on my 16th birthday. It was this edition, with this very cover. I was very happy to see the cover, for one reason. One of the many shocks I had reading Dracula for the first time was discovering that the Count did not look like Bela Lugosi or even Christopher Lee. He was not an aristocrat with a clean shaved face and dark hair, but an elderly feral looking nobleman with a thick white moustache. His appearance changed throughout the novel as he drank blood and grew younger, but this is how he appears early on, as a nasty old man, all clad in black. Suffice to say, that I find this description far more terrifying than any of its very liberal adaptations. So the portrait on this book cover is not perfect, but it's very close to how I imagined Dracula from the first time I read the novel onward. I hope this is the image you will have of the most famous (and infamous) vampire too.

Les chauves-souris du petit loup

Notre petit loup et sa mère vont à chaque semaine dans des cours de créativité, qu'il aime beaucoup. Cette semaine, le thème est l'Halloween et il a "peint" des chauves-souris avec ses pieds. Je vous laisse voir le résultat. Elles sont à la fois mignonnes et effrayantes. Et dans un cimetière en plus, avec la citrouille et les chats noirs, j'aime vraiment ce tableau.

Invited to a Halloween party

Quick countdown to Halloween post today, simply to mention that we have been invited to a Halloween party. A mother who is friend of my wife, not very close friend but someone she knows from her network of mummies has invited us to a Halloween party she will give to her children this weekend. This is one thing I love now that I am a father: getting a social life with other parents. Our social circle has somewhat increased, although we don't always make the best of it. Another good thing, heck a great thing, is that Wolfie can enjoy Halloween with children his age and really get into the atmosphere of the spooky holiday. My way to celebrate nowadays, with scary stories and scary movies, is definitely the one of an adult. I hope one day we can organize a Halloween party at home.