“This is the Discworld, which travels through space on the back of four elephants which themselves stand on the shell of a sky turtle. Once upon a time such a universe was considered unusual and, possibly, impossible.
The Discworld exists right on the edge of reality. The least little things can break through to the other side. So, on the Discworld, people take things seriously. Like stories. Because stories are important. Stories have been blowing and uncoiling around the universe since the beginning of time. Stories, twisting and blowing through the darkness.”
(From Witches Abroad, a Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett).
Hope you’ve all had a great Halloween. I had a good time spending the evening with my brother and my friends at my friend’s house. I was already in the Halloween mood in the morning, like every year, and listened to all the classical Halloween scores from different movies while I prepared carving pumpkins. This year we had tree huge pumpkins, so it was a bit of a work carving them, but very fun as always! It’s a tradition I love very much. In the afternoon I prepared the sweets and cakes for the evening; later my best friends arrived from other parts of Italy for the occasion and it was amazing seeing them again and spend the night together. We decorated my friend’s house with black and purple candles, and my friends also made a Ouja board (only for decorative purpose), and with all the pumpkins the Halloween atmosphere was great. We played some games, watched a movie and took a walk in our neighbourhood, that has been a tradition every year. : ) Unfortunately, no full moon this year in the sky where I live. How was your Halloween?
Hi everyone, it’s been a while since last time. Actually, an entire year! Many things have changed in the last months and I have not had the time to update the blog, but I will try to update it more often in the future. Hope everyone is doing well and that you’ll have some fun tonight, whatever you’re doing for Halloween. If you’ll spending your night watching Halloween movies or doing a Harry potter marathon, or if you’ve plans with your closest friends or family.
Anyways, as you all know, I love Halloween, and one of the things I love the most is making Halloween cakes and carving pumpkins in the afternoon. Today I want to share with you my traditional Halloween chocolate muffin recipe, this has been a classic every year from my childhood, my mom used to bake these and now we have the tradition of baking them together at Halloween afternoon with The Nightmare Before Christmas playlist music in background. Actually, the traditional recipe is simpler, but here I’ll share it adding chocolate, because who doesn’t love chocolate, right? Here it is! : )
Ingredients:
40 gr potato starch
180 gr rice flour
200 gr sugar
60 gr cacao powder
50 gr chocolate drops
100 gr dark chocolate
150 ml milk
3 egg
115 gr butter
8 gr baking soda
Mix in a bowl the sugar, the cacao, the chocolate drops and the dark chocolate.
Melt the butter and mix it in a different bowl with the eggs and the milk.
Mix all the liquid ingredients with the solid ones.
Take the dough in muffins forms and cook in the oven at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
You can do all the Halloween decorations you want on them when they’re cooked. You have to try this delicious chocolate recipe if you love strong chocolate flavour like me. Enjoy! : )
Hi everyone, it’s been a while. But, Halloween is finally coming, and I’m really excited to show you some of the stuff I bought this year for this day. Having always done something special at Halloween, I’ve already got loads of Halloween decorations, but every year it’s tradition I buy something new to add to my collection of spooky things.
This year I bought something I never had before, a set to carve pumpkins! Has someone of you tried it? I haven’t tested it yet, but I’m really looking forward to it. There are utensils to carve Jack O’ Lantern’s eyes and the scary smile, and a thing to open the pumpkin at the top, and another one that should help extract all the pumpkin pulp. Also, I bought some black and orange candles, some skull paper cups, a mural bat decoration and marshmallows.
By the way, I bought everything at Tiger, I think it is a great store because they have a large variety of Halloween gadgets.
I’ve already written about the movie The Blair Witch project, one of my favorite horror movies based on the legend of a witch and three student filmmakers that wants to find out how much of the story is real and film a documentary in mystic woods in Maryland in 1994. (If you’ve not read it yet, here is the link to the article).
But, what’s the real story behind the film? Let’s find out.
The Blair Witch Project was filmed in 1999 in Burkittsville, a little city with only 75 houses, a church and a post office. There were actually local legends around there, in the little mystic cemetery; it is said that Civil War Soldier Ghosts wander around there, and apparently there is also a legend about a mythical dragon that laid an egg in the hills.
But, what about legends of witches? There is a very creepy place there called Spook Hill, in the woods you can find an old house, where it is said the real Blair Witch lived. Many that camped nearby says they have witnessed several paranormal activities, such as strange glowing lights and, absurd but true, if you happen to be on a road trip there, on the road of Spook Hill into the woods, your car will roll backwards up the hill! We don’t know if it’s an illusion or there is a scientific explanation to this, but something is really happening, and for sure it’s strange.
After the great success of The Blair Witch Project the major of Burkittsville spoke out saying that it was crazy there, and people with cameras were everywhere.
Anyway, a spooky fact of the movie was that they finished shooting it at Halloween Night, and the actor Michael C. Williams said that there was an incredible surreal atmosphere that night in the woods.
Let’s continue the journey into spooky mansions and castles around the world. Sauer Castle, in Kansas City, has an incredible history worth telling.
Sauer Castle is a mansion that was for the first time a residence back in 1858, when a business man called Anton Sauer decided to live there after the death due to tuberculosis of his beloved wife, after they moved to America from Vienna, Austria. He would not expect what was going to happen there, and apparently the mansion had some sort of evil spell, that would have lasted for generations. In fact, after marrying another woman, Maria, in 1869, they had together five children, and one of them dramatically died during infancy inside the mansion.
Consequently, both Anton Sauer and Maria died in the same house in horrifying circumstances; Anton was found dead in the second floor master bedroom, and Maria committed suicide by hanging.
Their children decided anyway to continue living in the mansion, but horror was not over. In fact, Eve, one of the Sauer’s daughters, married a man in the mansion, William, that also committed suicide in the house, with a handgun. You would say that this is it, it could not be possible that in the same mansion something else happened after all these horrible things. That’s wrong; generation after generation, something extremely dramatic continued to happen, like a girl drown in the swimming pool of the house and other mysterious deaths.
From the year 1930 many ghost stories about the mansion were told and everyone was scared of this place.
Anyway, in 1987 the mansion was sold to a man called Bud Wyman, that hoped to turn the location into a bed and breakfast, but the plan didn’t go as planned.
Someone suppose there have also been murders inside the house (but historically there is no proof of that), someone else think you can find treasures and secret hidden passages inside the mansion, and secret tunnels. Obviously, the most common rumor is that of the presence of the ghost of all the people that suffered inside this mansion, since its construction.
Nowadays, neighbors and the community have reported several paranormal activities, such as crying, laughter and shouting that have been heard coming from the house, lights have mysteriously appeared in the tower, and in the same tower, on Halloween, two apparitions have been inexplicably seen dancing.
Here is the link to a video of Sauer Castle, where you can see how it is.
Exciting news for all horror-movie addicted: on August 11, 2017, the second entry in the Annabelle film series will be released in the United States.
It will be interesting to see how this movie turns out, given that the director will not be the amazing James Wan, as it was for the first film. But, I’m pretty sure this movie has great potential, because his substitute will be the Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg, that has also worked with Wan, directing Lights Out, another successful horror film that had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2016.
We all remember that the scary part of the movie is that it’s based on real events, in particular it was inspired by the story of a doll named Annabelle told by Ed and Lorraine Warren. I made a post some time ago about the scary and incredible real story behind the film, and here is the link to the post in case you haven’t read it yet –
Anyways, the upcoming Annabelle movie will tell us the tragic story of a couple, a doll maker and his wife, that lost a daughter twenty years earlier. After an orphanage has been closed, the couple decides to open their home to a nun and many girls; but, things will not be as they expected, since the doll Annabelle is in the house.
My laptop is now fixed, so I’m finally here again. I’m so excited to be back into The Mighty Castle.
Today I’ll talk to you about my Halloween night and how it was. I had a great night with my brother and one of my best friends; how you can see from the pics, we love decorating for the night, so there were a bunch of funny and scary decorations all over the house.
We also love to bake for Halloween, and that’s a tradition to have Halloween muffins, and several other cakes just for that night. So we ate very well I have to say.
We began celebrating Halloween in the afternoon, carving a big pumpkin for the evening, and putting make up on. I love how the pumpkin reflects the light in the garden that night, it really makes the Halloween atmosphere.
We spent the night having a horror movie marathon, chatting and eating. We watched some episodes of the Goosebumps (we’ve always loved them, and watched them through the years since we were younger), then we watched the first movie of Chucky, from 1988, the story of the famous possessed doll, one of the most recognizable horror icons. Several films have been made about it, but this is the first.
Usually we have a long night walk where we live at Halloween night, and that’s so special. But this year, I was not able to do that because I was not feeling very well with my back, so we decided to watch another movie instead. And it was funny as well! A movie most of you have seen I guess, Scream, created by Kevin Williamson. And the rest of the night we just had fun together, gathered around the table with candles on and reading some ancient mystic books we had, telling some scary stories. Hope you too had an amazing night with the people you love, I surely had. 🙂
The Scarlet Letter has been considered by many critics as one of the books that established the modern tradition of American literature. Set in Puritan Boston during the years 1642 – 1649 and telling the story of a woman charged with witchcraft, this is a perfect Halloween reading.
Hawthorne wants to underline, through the protagonist Hester Prynne, how dangerous and mean people’s judgment can be, especially in the famous 17th century Witch Trials period. The book is very interesting because it explains historically what happened during that period, mixing information with a very powerful story.
Hawthorne began writing The Scarlet Letter in September 1849, after his mother’s death. The author was born in Salem.
The book is divided into two parts, in my opinion one very different from the other. Only at the end of the book you manage to find out the real meaning of the first part, named “The Custom House”.
Hester is different from all other characters in the novel, because she chooses not to conform to the Puritans strict rules and beliefs, and for that, she will be isolated by the Puritan society, both physically and spiritually.
The Scarlet Letter is a perfect picture of the society, very realistic. Many important themes are analyzed by the author, like the importance of freedom, faith and how the man can change his destiny if he wants.
I think Hawthorne wants to identify Hester with the change of the American society, the hope of a better way of facing life and situations, remembering to not commit the same mistakes of the past.
The Mighty Castle 