Halloween in the UK

It was Halloween last night. It's a big deal in the US, pretty much non-existent in the Holy Land, so I was interested to see how it would be in the UK. Our local admin squints, put on a nice Halloween spread complete with fake spiders, scary eyeball chocolates etc. When I got home, I took the girly (the dog, not bwo) out for a walk in the neighbourhood. There were quite a lot of kids around, but most houses did not have pumpkins or Halloween decorations, so going door to door was not quite up to US standards (no one came to our door at all). So Roxy and I took our usual night walk down Sandy Lane towards the Ham Avenues.

It was dark, and cloudy with a light misty drizzle, typical autumn weather. The girly was a little spooked by the various short ghosts and ghoulies we met on the way, but in all she was much more interested in smelling out the fox scent in the area as we wandered aimlessly down the dark lanes. Unconsciously we found ourselves following a number of darkly dressed  being mysteriously drawn towards Ham House.

Ham House is the local National Trust treasure. Built in the 17th century (1610 to be exact) it's a stately house open to the public, overlooking the Thames, about 10 mins walk from our home. The house is supposedly haunted by the Duchess of Lauderdale and her dog, so it's a fitting destination of a Halloween eve. The house looked spooky lit up by various subdued coloured lights. The garden was filled with darkly dressed strangers milling about whispering softly amongst themselves. We took a few photos.

Unfortunately we saw no ghost dog. But as we walked back along Misery Lane (which joins Throatcutter Alley, real names really), we were surprised by a startled fox, which set the girl off barking for a while.

On the lane leading back to the house we met some of the neighbours kids dressed as skeletons. I asked them if they liked Halloween. "What's not to like? We walk around at night and we get free sweeties!"