Halloween

We celebrated Halloween a couple of days early this year as Ian was going away for a week. We were very busy with work so I didn't manage to do any baking, but we got these wonderful cakes from the supermarket (no doubt the first and last time that I'll happily eat spider):

As usual we carved pumpkins. I decided upon a bat which we both agreed looked more impressive in the light than in the dark:


Ian carved a graveyard scene which looked fantastic when lit:


Mum got us a lovely little tealight holder:

and we brought out these lovely little guys that Ian bought in Sweden:

Harvest

It's traditional in my family to celebrate harvest by decorating the dining room with vegetables and sitting down as a family to a home-cooked meal. Over the last few years we haven't manage to keep up the tradition, but this year Mum visited us in October so we celebrated in Exeter for the first time.

After homemade soup for lunch we went for a walk around Stover Country Park

When we got back our neighbour's friendly cat Sweep dropped by for a fuss:

In addition to the fruit and vegetables we also decorated with the fake maple leaves that we bought for our wedding cake and with the hazelnuts that we collected on our walks:


We had a blackberry and apple pie for dessert and we used our delightful new pie crust cutters from Williams-Sonoma to decorate it:

Tintagel

During our trip to Cornwall we visited the village of Tintagel on the north coast. Tintagel and its castle are associated with the legends of King Arthur - see the wikipedia page for more information.

The Camelot hotel has incredible views of the Celtic Sea

The castle is partly on the mainland and partly on an island. To get to either part involves climbing a lot of steps. On the mainland:

On the island:

The castle ruins:



Merlin's Cave was very difficult to photograph, but I think this photo shows the atmosphere:

The cave is open at both ends and is only viewable at low tide. We just managed to make a quick stop there before the tide blocked it off.