The Halloween Nature Play Challenges! We pick pumpkins and carve them; pick sticks and make a broomstick; go on a bat walk; make leaf and cobweb lanterns and finally, put them all in a display. Then we use it all to decorate the front garden for Trick or Treaters.

87 – Pumpkin Picking

Sunday 5 October.  Windy.  13°C

The joys of a local pumpkin farm! I’d never visited one till I had B and now it’s an annual highlight. She generally moans and then gets obsessed with which one to pick. We always buy far more than we meant to.

It’s cold this morning and we’ve underdressed but we’ve remembered gardening gloves and secateurs so it’s not a total disaster. B has fun wheeling the wheelbarrow. We ignore the amazing specimens picked and waiting at the entrance of Vale Pick Your Own and head off into the fields to find them for ourselves. There we separate, each obsessed with finding the BEST one.

We end up with 7, which is better than it could have been. We’ve gone for little this year as opposed to last (where we tried to find the biggest we could, ended up with two massive ones and struggled to get rid of them). We name them, of course.

84 – Making leaf lanterns

Thursday 9 October.  Cloudy.  16°C

A few days ago we got obsessed in the park with collecting Autumn leaves. There are some beautiful colours on the trees at the moment. One branch alone had lots of mixtures of red and purple and green and orange. We competed to see who could find the prettiest leaf and ended up with a whole bouquet of options.

Back home we’re looking for something to do with them. I’ve seen lots of great leaf crafts to make but we end up going for leaf lanterns. B made one at brownies last year and it made a nice addition to the kitchen for a while. Plus it means we get to light candles, which is something B is keen on at the moment.

We dig around the garage and craft boxes to find old glass jars and glass tealight holders and dig out the craft glue. After some discussion we decide to glue them on the outside (“so they don’t catch fire”). The results are pretty and prettier still when it gets dark and we get to light them. They throw lovely shadows out and the colours of the leaves is brought out even in the dark by the candle light.

72 – Collecting cobwebs

Monday 20 October. Mixed. 14°C

We’re hunting for cobwebs in the back garden. Typically I’ve just removed loads from the garage as part of a clear out but we reckon there must be some left. We’re wondering if we can make lanterns with them, like we did with the leaves. Failing that we reckon they’re going to be useful for our halloween display.

We find a perfect one just outside the garage window. We ‘collect’ it carefully with a stick and it, predictably, shrinks down to nothing. Hmm. We toy with whether we can collect them more carefully but give up on that idea before attempting. We’re not delicate. Instead we go for bulk.

In the inside of a garage window we find a thick, old cobweb, filled with generations of flies and spider skeletons and go for that. It shrivels a bit too but looks big enough to be noticeable and very grubby. The lantern idea doesn’t really work. It would be lovely if we could just persuade a spider to make a web round the glass but our broken webs are too lumpy. They’ll do for the display though.

71 – Going on a bat walk

Tuesday 21 October. Cloudy. 14°C

One of our local community groups is in possession of three bat tracking devices. The wonderful Dan voluntarily uses them to give free bat talks and bat walks around the town. We haven’t been on one this year, though we have spotted quite a few without the detectors, now our eyes are trained. Halloween seems like the perfect time to go along.

It’s in a different spot than we’re used to with more open skies. We arrive twenty minutes before sunset with a few other families and Dan tells us the bat basics. We’re looking for common pipistrels and soprano pipistrels. He shows us exactly how big they are (they’re teeny) and how much they weigh (a 1p or 2p coin). Then he introduces us to the bat detectors and sets the frequency so they’ll make a noise when the bats are flying. Then we wait…

It feels like ages but then, ten minutes after sunset, they emerge. There are at least four of them, probably more and, as the sun goes down, they fly lower and lower. Dan says this is because the insects they eat are flying lower as the temperature falls. Before they appear the bat detectors make a flickering noise and we all look for where they are. Finally they’re almost at head height and we have to duck. Dan can age them by their size and spots one of this years babies.

It’s really exciting. We go home keeping an eye out to see if any of them follow us.

70 – Carving pumpkins

Wednesday 22 October. Rainy. 14°C

It’s time for Spotty, Green Groo, Angel, Lemon, Muddle, Octo and Puff to evolve from pumpkins into lanterns. B has a friend over and we all set too it. I offer them both the option of carving the pumpkin themselves but they opt to draw it with sharpies and leave me to do the cutting. This is less stressful. I’ve found some new long pumpkin carver knives for £2 in Sainsburys and they’re working well.

I’m sure we have done scary faces in the past but the girls aren’t interested this year. They’re making them cute. We forget we have to cut off the top so they go back to add ‘hats’. I’ve never worked out a way to get the hat to stay on without filling the house with the smell of burnt pumpkin. This year I try cutting them down a bit, so there’s more of a chimney.

After a lot of mess but, thankfully, no cut hands, they’re ready and we light them. We all agree they look very sweet (which might not be the point, but hey). I even remember to keep the middle and the next day make some soup. Which is nice.

69 – Gathering sticks for a broomstick

Thursday 23 October. Sunny. 11°C

We’re going to make a broomstick for Halloween! We’re both excited, I think. We did it back in 2020 but B was too young to really get it. First we need the sticks…

The trouble is, to get the right sticks for a broomstick (ie, thin and about 50-60cm long) you need a messy forest. Round us all the parks are far too well kept. They’re tidy and the number of sticks on the ground is minimal. We decide the country park is the best bet.

There’s definitely a type of tree that gives good sticks. I don’t know what it is but at first they’re all big trees and the sticks are a centimetre or so wide. Too thick really but we pick them up anyway. Then we finally find some which are thinner but they’re not the right shape. They’ve got multiple stems and go off in all directions. This is harder than I expected. Last time we were in a forest and all the twigs were the right shape. If we’re going to do it again we might need some tree research.

We make do and gather an armfuls worth. We also find quite a nice bigger stick to be the main body of it. Getting them all in the boot of the car takes a little while but we get there in the end.

68 – Making a broomstick

Thursday 23 October. Rainy. 13°C

Back home we sort through them in the garden, pulling out the thicker sticks first to go round the ‘broom’ and then putting the thinner ones on the outside. I think last time I tried tying them with string but this time I’m going for gaffer tape. It doesn’t look as pretty but it’s tough. We put string round the outside. I’m sure they’re all going to fall off but they don’t. It actually holds and stands up. We’re very proud.

67 – Making a Halloween display…

Thursday 23 October. Rainy. 13°C

It’s time to make the Halloween display… and we find all the things we’ve done over the previous weeks quite helpful. We’re ready.

62 – Decorating the front garden for ‘Trick or Treaters’.

Friday 31 October.  Cloudy.  13°C

B and I are a bit rubbish with Halloween usually. We tend to go away to see relatives and are normally away from home. This year we arrive back on Halloween itself. It’s too late to gear up for Trick or Treating but helpfully we find the house full of things to make a halloween display with.

I get it all to the front garden and B arranges it, finishing just as the first trick n treaters wander down the street. It feels like everything’s come together nicely and ‘hosting’ is a lot of fun. We see some wonderful costumes and a lot of B’s friends before taking it all down again and collapsing on the sofa for a well earned rest.