Ok, something with orange in it...

Almost every blip today is a pumpkin, or a skeleton... anyone would think it's Halloween... It is of course Samhain if you're Gaellic, or Calan Gaeaf if you're Welsh, or Ancestor Night, Feast of the Dead or of course All Hallows Eve. 

Whichever path you walk, it is clear this time of year is connected to those who have preceded us into mystery. It is a time, if not for seeking to reach through the thinning veil and connect the dead directly, then a time to honour the memory of your beloved dead.

As for me, I've spent the day painting the extension ceilings - white top coat onto white plaster coat, and if you think that's easy in bright sunshine and high contrast shadows... well, you'd be wrong. It was with something of a sigh of relief that I escaped to the late afternoon garden, seeking a blip.

Pumpkins? No, but orange nonetheless. This Red Admiral has clearly got itself caught up in some spooky cobwebs, but that's not going to stop if feasting on the cosmos... Samhain was a time of death, too, as too costly to feed animals were sacrificed and feasted upon prior to the onset of winter.

Butterflies don't really do sacrifice, but they do like a nice drop of nectar. Sláinte, and Hail Ancestors!