October – my favourite month – darker nights, cosy blankets, thick socks, long boots, black cats, any cat, pumpkins, soup, apples, autumn colours, falling leaves, cooler weather, jackets, hats, scarves, gloves, hot chocolate, acorns, conkers, candles, frost, squirrels, bats, toadstools, mushrooms, magic, Halloween, and more…
What do you love about October?
You all know Autumn is my favourite season.
Here’s why…
Let’s start with the colours – Orange and Black. Now, strangely, I’m not a fan of orange, but I adore russet, bronze, copper, and flame. It’s all in the tone and the name! And black is a classic – the colour of night, the dark, and magic.
Orange is the sky before dusk, dragon flames, squirrels on mugs of hot chocolate, pumpkins, and homemade soup. Black is the colour of the sky behind a full moon, Raven cat, and dark gemstones.
© Lisa Shambrook
Then it’s leaves – every shade of russet and bronze, red, brown, yellow, olive, crimson, scarlet, and copper. As the tree turns passion burns…
I become a squirrel hunting for conkers, acorns, chestnuts, and acorn cups.
© Lisa Shambrook
My jewellery box opens with autumn gems and jewels – Amber glows like fire, Trollbead bracelets glimmer with stones and glass, and smoky quartz smoulders. Rose gold, copper, and bronze brighten the crisp mornings, and berries glisten like jewels in the garden. Gems of fire like citrine, amber, quartz, and petrified wood glow with autumn passion, and squirrels and foxes accompany me out.
© Lisa Shambrook
And then we’re out and about – with woollies and jumpers on dog walks. I’ll be back in my long, black Docs stopping off for hot chocolate and woodland picnics. Home in time for a good book, cuddled up on the sofa, and ready for midnight jaunts to stare up at the stars…
© Lisa Shambrook
How do you spend autumn?
🦇🎃 Happy Halloween! 🍁🖤
She’d been an easy baby, sleeping through the night since birth, and an even easier child, generous, benevolent, sweet – even. But the teens! The Teens. She kicked, bit, fought, and battled her way through and there was no way I could just stand on the side-lines.
I sometimes got those looks parents despair of. The side-eyes, the wry smiles, frowns of judgment that sort of thing, but none of that bothered me. I’d had those all my life. And my teens hadn’t been a walk in the park either.
They hadn’t liked the nails in my ears, yep, I do mean nails, real ones, curved into a loop, or my Docs, or the leather. But I did and that’s what mattered.
I was a bit of a conundrum.
Ravel’s Bolero echoed through my headphones, and its crescendo would catch me closing my eyes to conduct an invisible orchestra as I sunk into oblivion of ecstasy. I helped old ladies and walked the neighbour’s dog, and no one in the suburbs knew quite how to take me.
I fell for the boy next door and giggled in his arms as he snapped a selfie and promptly uploaded it. The comments, none of them hidden, crushed me; and the photo – proof that I’d briefly been his – left me glaringly vulnerable despite my studs and tattoos. I fell and he was never going to catch me.
It was anger and retribution that issued forth my vengeance. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing, but if you mix anger and humiliation, and candles and chalk shapes, and incantations you summon up something, or someone, quite explosive.
I don’t think I actually meant it either, invoking blood and guts and gore wasn’t really my thing. The flames of hell enveloped him and that photo of us became the least of his concerns. There were more photos, but they were of incineration and loss. His house had a wiring fault, but there might have been more to it.
I, however, gave and lost myself within the strong demonic arms I’d conjured of fire and hell and passion…
Then one day with eyes tightly closed whilst adrift with Jupiter resounding inside my head, my hands holding earphones tight, I collided.
They welcomed me into the hereafter with open arms – dying amid the swelling bars of Holst was an honourable way to go – and it was only there that my condition became apparent.
You thought there were no babies in heaven? Wrong – where else would the idea of cherubs come from?
Like I said, she’d been an easy baby, a cute toddler, and an adorable child. But when her downy white juvenile feathers dropped, no one had been prepared for what sprouted in their place. At first the little nubs, barely visible on her forehead, looked endearing – and maybe they’d hold her crooked halo a little more securely.
Her wings though, gave it away; black as the night and as dark as her soul. No feathers but sleek leather like a dragon or a bat. Puberty can be a tough time for angels.
© Lisa Shambrook and Bekah Shambrook
Spellbound is a Halloween tale written for Laura, Cara, and Ruth‘s Monster Mash 2018. Check out the other dark stories in the links on GetWordy‘s blog. You won’t be sorry, spooked, but not sorry!
See what I did there? The Beast Bits…
Posting a day early to celebrate the Spookiest Time of Year – Halloween.
Trigger Warning – There is (not real) Blood in this Post…
I love Magic and the Moon, and Pumpkins, and Blood and Gore (when it’s not real), and lacy Spider Webs, Bats and Potions, and Haunted Houses, and Cats…I always love cats! And they all come together for October 31st – Halloween.
So what is Halloween for you?
Bats flying free, Trick or Treat, or Hot Chocolate in a cosy coffee shop decorated with pumpkins. Do Dragons sparkle across your Autumn sky? Gargoyles and Demons slink about amid the curl of Death as flowers and leaves dry while the Fae hold court. Pumpkins, carved and soup, Potions and Poisons, beware and be careful!
We’ve never shied away from blood and gore… Rayn’s make-up artist years have served us well with Guts and Zombies, and Slit Throats, Bullet Holes, and Pencil Protrusions. As a family we embraced our Halloween Evil. Do you fear Clowns, Darth Maul, or Vampires, or does the Grim Reaper haunt your soul?
We’ve also embraced the softer side of Halloween, I mean, who doesn’t love a Black Cat? We’ve rescued Bats, listened to Owls and kissed Toads! We love Magic and any chance to Cosplay.
And then there’s the Creepy side of Blood, and Skeletons, and Black Magic. Can you deal with Creepy Crawlies, and their fragile Webs? Full Moon and Darkness fill the Autumn night and take us into chilly Winter. Toadstools, Candles, and Cauldrons, and have you ever stayed in a Spooky Haunted House?
What makes Halloween for you?
Autumn is the season that inspires me – a season of falling autumn leaves, woollies, hats and gloves, boots, hot chocolate and autumn tone jewellery, cosy cats, apples, acorns, conkers, Halloween and pumpkins, candles, toadstools, and autumn colours of bronze, brown, red, amber, yellow, silver, and gold.
What do you love about Autumn?
Yellow Leaves – Oak and Acorn and Acer © Lisa Shambrook
The leaves fall patiently, Nothing remembers or grieves,
the river takes to the sea, the yellow drift of leaves.
– Sara Teasdale
Woollies and Sweaters and Boots © Lisa Shambrook
Fallen leaves are autumn’s equivalent to snow – they bring out the child in you.
– Anon
Hot Chocolate and Autumn Jewels © Lisa Shambrook
The morns are meeker than they were, the nuts are getting brown;
the berry’s cheek is plumper, the rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf, the field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned, I’ll put a trinket on.
– Emily Dickinson (Nature 27 – Autumn)
Cosy Cats © Lisa Shambrook
Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it,
and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
– George Eliot
Apples – Acorns – Conkers © Lisa Shambrook
A few days ago I walked along the edge of the lake and was treated to the crunch and rustle of leaves with each step I made. The acoustics of this season are different and all sounds, no matter how hushed, are as crisp as autumn air.
– Eric Sloan
Halloween – Candles – Autumn Colours © Lisa Shambrook
Colors burst in wild explosions, fiery, flaming shades of fall.
All in accord with my pounding heart, behold the autumn-weaver,
in bronze and yellow dying. Colors unfold into dreams,
in hordes of a thousand and one.
The bleeding, unwearing their masks to the last notes of summer.
Their flutes and horns in nightly swarming. Colors burst within.
Spare me those unending fires, bestowed upon the flaming shades of fall…
– Dark Tranquility (With the Flaming Shades of Fall)
Toadstools © Lisa Shambrook
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
– Albert Camus
What are you loving this autumn?
Just recently I looked back at the things I’ve been doing for fun,
and it made me search out the Bucket List I made a few years ago!
What have I done since writing it?
Eleven years ago, back in 2005, I wrote a list. I realised as I came out of a long period of depression that I just wasn’t happy, we weren’t having fun – and I wanted that to change! The list included some easy, simple ideas, and some bigger, more out of reach dreams. Some of the simple things: meal out with the family, go swimming, paddle along the shore, swim in the sea, kick autumn leaves, play football on the beach, build a sandcastle, have a barbeque, write a poem, build a snowman, do a big jigsaw and more… The bigger things included: fly in a helicopter, romantic evening with Vince, night away with Vince, learn Welsh, paint a dragon, take a family holiday, outline a new story, take a maths GCSE, fly in an aeroplane, do Vertigo, buy a Suburu with rally decals…
We did some – as you, and your family, get older there is often a little more money available and we managed a surprise trip to Edinburgh on an aeroplane. We bundled the children into the car at 4am and took them on a mystery tour ending up at Cardiff airport and spending the day in Scotland! We went up in a helicopter for Rayn’s 16th birthday as Vince had a client who flew a helicopter and he was paid in kind with a ride up in the sky! Beaches were easy and we had barbeques, including getting pushed off the beach by the rising tide and finishing the barbeque at home in the back yard, in the rain! I swam in the Blue Lagoon at Aberieddy, a 90’ deep lagoon, loved it! Vince and I have had some nights away. Ice skating on the Isle of Wight, bought a real Christmas tree, family holidays to Butlins, got a dog, I passed my motorbike test, decorated some amazing cakes, took some awesome family portraits. I began a whole new career as an author and published three books. Vince flew a plane, and I got air sick.
I even did some things not on the list: I started a business – Amaranth Alchemy. I got my first high heels, got my first Dr Martens too. I didn’t paint, but I did create art and many stories. I went to the ballet and saw Giselle. We went to Harry Potter Studios, saw Les Miserables in the West End, wrote a book in 30 days doing NaNoWriMo – twice, and I’ve dived from a 10ft diving board and lots more!
Some things will be crossed off the list because they are no longer important to me: I have lost the desire to skydive but my oldest child did a couple of weeks ago – and it wasn’t as big a thrill as they’d hoped! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to afford piano lessons or a piano, I don’t want a rally car anymore, and I don’t feel the need to complete a maths GCSE, I’m at peace with my F grade!
So what is there now? I’ve flown in that helicopter, I’ve done Vertigo at Oakwood Park, I passed my bike test, and taken the kids on a surprise holiday, and we even slept out in the wild in a tent on Dartmoor when we went wild camping, and began a pottery class.
There’s a lot more to come!
My new/current Bucket List contains more dreams
and some I haven’t ticked off my last list.
Build a big, old fashioned sandcastle on the beach.
Go to a Spa.
Visit the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland.
Ride a gondola in Venice.
Climb the Eiffel Tower.
Go up in a hot air balloon.
Climb mount Snowdon.
Ride a long zip wire.
Rewrite my dragon books and publish.
Paint a dragon!
Stand out in heavy rain and get soaked.
Swim in a tidal swimming pool.
Learn sign language – I did once, but have forgotten it.
Travel with Vince on our motorbikes.
Get a professional massage.
Go on a Norwegian Fjord Cruise.
Drive a rally car – but not own one!
Do NaNoWriMo again.
Have a gardener fix my wild garden so I can redesign it.
Achieve consistent book sales.
Write a best seller.
Visit Canada.
Visit Iceland.
Bathe in hot springs in Iceland.
Walk on a glacier.
In my debut novel Beneath the Rainbow, Freya leaves a list behind and her family vow to do the things she’d wanted to do… One of her dreams is one I share – to build a big sandcastle, on the beach complete with turrets and a moat!
What about you, what’s at the top of your Bucket List?
What have you already ticked off your list?
Get out there and have fun!
Autumn shows us the beauty of letting go and cosying up together…
Warm Blankets and Snug Sweaters…
Don’t you just love cosying up?
© Lisa Shambrook
Revitalising Hot Chocolate…
Nothing better than a delicious hot chocolate to warm up an autumn day!
© Lisa Shambrook
Back to Boots…
I love my boots, Dr Martens and anything I can kick leaves in!
© Lisa Shambrook
Pumpkins, Halloween, Fire and Fireworks…
Dressing up is definitely our thing, light up the dark nights!
© Lisa Shambrook
Homecooked Soup and Comfort Food…
Coming home on a frosty day to a beautiful hot meal!
© Lisa Shambrook
Falling Leaves…
I’m a child at heart, kicking through crunchy leaves and loving the colours!
© Lisa Shambrook
Woodland Walks and Strolls…
Early sunsets, turning leaves and that freshness keep me on my toes!
© Lisa Shambrook
Scarves, Hats and Gloves…
Stay warm, snuggle up in your favourite coat and accessories!
© Lisa Shambrook
Acorns and Conkers…
Yep, I am a squirrel…
© Lisa Shambrook
Jack Frost’s Chill…
The thrill of the chill and the delight of breathing dragon smoke is mine!
© Lisa Shambrook
How is your Autumn and what’s your favourite bit so far?
© Lisa Shambrook
Autumn is the time of year when we realise that change is good.
When the cool breeze refreshes and revitalises our senses.
When mortality is evident in the air as leaves fall,
and living becomes full of urgency and passion…
© Lisa Shambrook
After a very difficult summer and slipping into the grip of depression, autumn is very welcome in my life. It’s the month that recharges my worn batteries and lifts me from doldrums and anxiety.
I dig out my soft, cosy jumpers and relish a hot chocolate on a cold day. Scented candles offer autumn fragrance and leaves fall in red, gold, orange and brown ready for me to kick through! I pull out my favourite hat and scarf, both stolen from my daughter, and delight in the bliss of my beloved leather jacket. Apples, fresh from the tree, and rich purple plums, and pumpkins ready to be carved fill my Halloween, and nothing beats homemade soups and bread to fill the autumn belly.
Tell me – what are you looking forward to most this autumn?
We don’t shy away when it comes to dressing up – you’ve probably noticed, but pumpkins are another thing all together!
We’d never carved pumpkins before and trying to decide what to carve took more time than sculpting them!
I also made ghost fairy cakes…to take for the treat table.
Rayn opted for Pikachu from Pokemon, and the following day Caitlin spent a long time choosing to carve a howling wolf and I, with no idea, finally decided to carve a pumpkin inside a pumpkin!
Outfits, of course, were well-planned and fun, and we were ready to party, or at least hang out as socially as those with social anxieties do.
Note: we don’t all have socialising issues, hubby can be quite the extrovert, especially when disguised as Death!
We missed Dan, and we wonder kind of Halloween celebrations go on in Canada? So if you miss Dan too, like us, here’s a throwback to the Year 2000…and a contrast with now!
…and lastly, my pumpkin won me bubbles and ballons! Yay!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!
How are you celebrating?
With Halloween just around the corner,
we’ve recently restocked our Etsy shop and it’s all good!
So pop over and have a look and see if anything catches your eye…at Amaranth Alchemy…
We’ve got necklaces, and boookmarks and quotes… Think Dictionary, Sherlock and The Hobbit
Dracula and Frankenstein…bookpage bookmarks…
Ravens…black as night…on our Dictionary Scrabble style necklace…
Welsh peg magnets to hold your precious secret recipes and potions…
The moon on a dark Halloween night, and Smaug…dancing with fire before it…
Wizardry with Harry Potter and the Cheshire Cat’s smile…creepy…
Dragons flying across the full moon…on our Scrabble style necklaces…
We’re gearing up for Halloween and then there’ll be, dare I say it, Christmas…
Like our Amaranth Alchemy Facebook Page and you’ll be the first to know when our Giveaway starts and you’ll always know when we put out our special offers!
Find us on Etsy…
The Last Krystallos 