Cakes

By tradition our daughter hosts a family Halloween party. She goes to a lot of effort to decorate her flat, her brothers go to a lot of effort to provide food to supplement the snacks, treats and chocolate she buys. I make cakes. The wee ones dress up.

That can't happen this year of course. However, our daughter, Cameraman and I are an extended household which means that we can visit each other homes. This evening we're going to L's flat for a scaled back event. She's decorated, we'll pick up fish and chips to eat and here are the cakes.

I've added an extra of the lantern in our window. It's been there all week and it is grotesquely collapsing in on itself as it slowly rots. It needs to go into the compost bin asap. Children in the neighbourhood are walking round spotting lanterns and being given sweets by their parents. No knocking on doors, no guising and no sweets or satsumas to be given out.

You might think I'm a big fan of Halloween. Actually I'm against what it seems to have become and, with apologies to blip friends across the pond, the way it has adopted the 'Trick or Treat' approach. In my young day it was a carved turnip, a treacle scone and dooking for apples. But things change and this year sees (another) big change in our routines, habits and expectations.