That time again

Well, at least the blasted Yankified import of Halloween has been and gone - this year only one little kid in a Scream costume, and accompanying mum, who got the usual couple of apples saved from the home grown crop and a couple of satsumas. Last year there were 3 teens, who got a bit more than that.

I do like giving out fruit. If people are going to join in this custom which has been going on over here for less than a decade (pumped by the greetings-card industry and US TV imports), then the expectations can at least be subverted.

But now it's fireworks fortnight - no longer just the 5^th and maybe an adjacent Saturday. The sooner fireworks get restricted to professional displays, the better, if people can't keep them to just the day, and thus cats have to be kept in for the night for days on end.

At least the village bonfire on Saturday will give me the chance to dispose of a lot of garden debris (bits of pollarded elder tree, mainly) that have accumulated over the past year.