Thread 10 - TalkLair: “The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles.”

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 9).

Although the nights are gradually drawing in, the new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey inside. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

How lovely @duc748 . I am currently in the UK with my eldest granddaughter, 11 and a half. She met her cousins for the first time this weekend and they all got on swimmingly. As the oldest of 3 siblings, Em is used to younger children and played with K, aged now just 7, and 4 year old S, so nicely they now adore her. We are off to see Shakespeare’s Globe tomorrow but jetlag is doing a number on both our sleep patterns.

macman was one of the original Globe Theatre thatchers, back in the 1990s. This is an old Globe postcard with him about to catch the bundle of straw, standing on the ladder like it’s solid ground.

It’s been rethatched at least twice since then, I think.

Water reed, not straw, tsk! I should know better.

My Dad has introduced me to the work of Irish author Claire Keegan and wow, she is an amazing writer! Just read her novella Small Things Like These, and am halfway through her first collection of short stories Antarctica. Thoroughly recommend her to you all.

Mavis, have you ever tried thatching?

We shared some work space with a group of thatchers for a while and learned a little about their craft. It looked fascinating, if labour intensive. This was on a farm and there was an issue of there being no toilet we could use, so we got together and made a straw bale composting toilet and they thatched the roof. Mr Tric made the actual thunder box out of scavenged marine ply. Once the outside was plastered and white-washed and a stable door attached, it looked fantastic.

MmePoppySeedDefage Yesterday 21:59

Ha ha! I did something similar, once. I put my clocks forward and went into Newcastle at what transpired to be 08:30, on the day they'd gone back. I wandered round, somewhat bemused and a copper asked me if I was all right and we established my foolish error....

On the ship, we've had two changes, as we came over from the Netherlands on Friday. CET to UTC over two nights.

Not tried it myself, @Tricyrtis2022 - you need big strong hands and I fail even at the hazel spar twisting. But he did rethatch our roof a few years ago, not ‘cos it needed doing but because it was a bit of a thin, mean thatch previously, and I think a thatched roof should be fat and blousy. I did a lot of admiring him, and loved climbing the scaffolding and ladders. The cats also loved the scaffolding and ladders.

This is marvellous!

Thatcher's Bwitain!

How lovely to have that extra layer of thatch, I do like a nice fat thatched roof. I'd have been admiring too. Agree about twisting hazel spars and, with the best will in the world, I couldn't do it either.

The thatching in London must have been quite a spectacle. Imagine how long it must be since you'd see a roof being thatched in London.

How lovely about the thatching!

Re Claire Keegan - my husband recently discovered her and so I've followed his lead - she is a beautiful writer.

I shall have to give Claire Keegan a go. I finished a book by Ruth Jones yesterday. I love her as an actor and TV writer but didn't think her novels would be my type of thing at all but Snoop picked one up for me when I was stuck in Bloody Guildford hospital because the only book I had with me was shit. Turned out to be a really lovely book and I will probably read her previous two now.

I was at the Globe theatre today and I hate to tell macman this but the thatched roof is covered in green weeds. Perhaps he should come and rethatch it.

That's a great action pic of the thatchers. And I agree thatch should be good and thick.

This thread is confirming my ongoing refusal of the Sparks card: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4931933-do-i-win-the-prize-for-the-worst-freebie-ever-on-sparks-card?page=1

We've got the cauldron of sweets, we've strung up the fake cobwebs, we've displayed our big shiny pumpkins. But a combination of poor weather this evening and half-term holidays means that we're not looking good for trick-or-treaters.

Also DD2 braved the rain this afternoon to do a recce of our road and thinks we're the only house with Halloween decorations. If true, we're not going to be attractive to more distant kids either. (And it probably is true, in previous years our road has never been good for Halloween decs - never quite understood why, as there are loads of families).

I suspect DDs are secretly hoping for no customers so that they can eat all the sweets.

Fingers crossed for your DDs, Kuc.

We live at the end of a long dark driveway so never get trick or treaters. There have been the occasional political canvassers or religious people during the day, but never after dark.

We've just had 3 little boys scary vampires/ghosts! DDs were so excited that we got customers that they forgot to worry about the loss of 3 sweets

I changed my Ring doorbell to make a HOWL-cackle-scary-voice which I hope was suitably terrifying for our visitors!

HOWL-cackle-scary-voice

Nice one.

I'm curious to see how this goes. Man wants his first tattoo to be on his throat, and in runes. Wife not happy.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4932403-dh-is-getting-a-neck-tattoo?page=1

We’re getting lots of guisers this year. Child 2 out with MrM and Child 1 and I are fielding the visitors. All good jokes so far except the quartet of teenagers who improvised some terrible jokes and clearly weren’t up to speed on how things are done! (In my day, you had to do a poem for a treat, a joke was a poor offering!)

This is in keeping with today's date, and marvellously bunfighty:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4932533-peed-off-at-parents-who-drive-their-kids-to-our-street-to-trick-or-treat?

I'm not sure what my girl did last night. I got her a Grim Reaper suit 3 weeks ago and she sent me a series of messages, complaining that the hood isn't attached, the sleeves are too long and it drags on the floor.

As I'm rubbish at sewing, I asked my wife (she's good at sewing) to help her and reminded DD to ask her again. I don't think it would have taken long.

She said she was going to dye a sheet black, even though I told her it wouldn't be dry and that we have no black dye.

She hasn't replied to any of my messages since I got up at 21:30. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do from a ship sailing from the Humber to bloody Leith!

My sister’s street has a system where if you have a pumpkin lantern outside your door, you’re up for trick-or-treaters, without a lantern no-one disturbs you. Most houses have pumpkins, it’s lovely, and it’s quite a long street so nobody has to go (or drive!) somewhere else afterwards.

Yes, that seems to have been the thing since before our girl started going.

There was a large American community in Beirut when I lived there as a kid, so we trick-or-treated there, but it simply wasn’t a thing back then in the UK, and I’m not sure when it really took off over here?

I first noticed it in 2005, if I remember. There was a knock at the door and a mam with a couple of costumed kids were there; I hadn't even realised that it was Halloween. I scurried round to the shop to buy some sweets and only go another 2 or 3 customers.