The nights are getting darker and my toes are getting colder, maybe it’s because our eco office hasn’t turned the heating on yet. Or maybe it’s the chills from Halloween weekend, wa ha haaah.

Some say pah, stupid americanised commercial money spinner (you  could buy a wooden broomstick in my local supermarket this year and a plastic pumpkin to hold your booty of sweets and a teeny-tiny pumpkin for carving for about 4 quid!!), but me? I can’t get enough of these opportunities for ruckus and collective celebration on a theme.

It gets quite good from here on in- a little sweetener to make up for the clocks going back:  bonfire night (simply one of the best, now it’s well into autumn I’ve lost all the despondency about the looming cold and dark after such a bloomin miserable summer and am ready to get cracking with some leaf kicking and smokey bonfire smells, especially seeing as there’s ACTUALLY more sunshine of late than the whole of the summer) , then, if you have any American connections (any! what-so-ever, like maybe you watched Dawson’s Creak once) it’s Thanksgiving, then it’s Chrimbo (and you could even count the first day you get to open your advent calender, and then every day from there on in, popping from its plastic mold a little tasteless chocolate, preferably before breakfast) then NYE (I know big old let down, but still every year I invest so much hope in making it the best night of the year), then after some gloomy self deprivation and whipping of one’s back with birch and things, it’s time for some good extra lovin’ on Valentine’s Day (another contentious issue with lots of people, like it’s just invented for hallmark to make money- I say, who cares! You don’t have to buy expensive pap and intensively grown roses you can just enjoy the moment of a day that celebrates Romance!), then and surely no one can argue with this old chestnut- Pancake Day woo hooo! Love it with lemons, love it with cheese, love it with bananas and chocolate, love the flipping, love the dropping on the floor…

Bung in a few birthdays and some,  you know, unorganised un-national celebrations of your own and that takes you pretty much back to spring and daffodils and little lambs etc where all should feel right as rain. But with no rain (plleeeeeeeease!).

What’s your fave festival out there, have I missed some crucial ones (probably)? Have you got any weird and wonderful traditions that you adhere to each year for Halloween or pancake day or new years day?

This week we are celebrating vegans at BioRegional by joining them in eating no meat or animal products for the whole week- see? Yet another festival to make the year go round!

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