Halloween in Scotland

Halloween on this side of the pond is a little different than the US. Costumes happen. (This one was spotted on my walk home.) Trick-or-treating happens in some neighborhoods, but pumpkin carving seems to be a bit of an unknown (but growing) thing. (Many people remember carving turnips as kids. I have no idea how they did that!) So, Stan and I had a few friends over recently to show them how to carve a pumpkin...
     Our flat is a little tricky to find, so we put out marker pumpkins at the key corners.      They worked great, although by the end of the evening, they'd all grown legs. HA!
     So first came the lessons...Everybody learned quick and got into it - goo and all!

And they were so proud.


We lined them up on the balcony when they were done - happy!
     When we weren't carving we were eating. Stan purchased most of the fixings for the evening and we set it out artfully. I thought the cheese tray turned out especially awesome. In this land of amazing cheeses, it's hard to go wrong.
Connie brought a lemon polenta cake with raspberries, which was to die for!

Of course, it was all destroyed before long. Carnage!
     Connie grabbed Stan's camera and took some great action shots for us, with us actually in some photos for a change! Thanks Connie! Here I am with Catherine (from Chile) - she has the desk in front of me, so we've become fast buds.
Connie got a great photo of Stan taking a break from roasting pumpkin seeds.

And one of me. I like this one. I look happy, which I am.
     We've been here just over two months and we've been so lucky to meet some amazing people, from all over the world, who are well on their way to becoming good friends. This pumpkin carving was a great experiment to see how many of these new friends we can fit in our little flat - turns out we can fit about as many folks as we want, so the next get-together will be even bigger!
     The guest room is waiting for our friends from the US to join in - although in this ancient city, it might come with a ghost...      In fact, this whole town has its share of ghosts. I love this article at the Scotsman: Edinburgh's Most Haunted Pubs. I've been to three of these. In fact, the Star Bar is one of our more popular haunts - Bwahaha! Sorry. :)
     I hope you had a fabulous Halloween, wherever you were!

P.S. - The image at the top was taken by Stan out our dining room window one evening. If you click it, you'll find a larger version to use as a screen saver if you like.