The haunted garden - Halloween Party

Mystery surely flutters around delicious October! October is a bird carrying on its mellow wings secrecy and all sorts of mysteries, it sings and breaths little things in my ear as he rustles through the grass... Ah yes, October is the most mysterious of month ever! And I can attest to that because I was born in October! But of course, silly me, that’s not exactly the type of mystery I’m referring to! It’s the garden... some people think it’s haunted!

It was especially creepy this evening during my daily walk at dusk.

There was something lurking in the underbrush I’m sure, and dangling from the branches of the crabapple tree I saw the most disturbing of things ever... a hanged man! Of course, it was just a Halloween dummy made of old clothes stuffed with straw that perhaps some weird kid from the neighborhood had left there the day before, but either way you can imagine how startled I was by it! More disturbing things kept happening that evening. The strangest of mist started to creep in, and an unsettling flutter of wings was heard in the otherwise quieted garden. When I turned around I thought I saw the creepiest of image across the water in the birdbath.

A face... I’m sure it was a face!—a mystifying face like those faces you see in ghost stories and books and movies of the sort! Oh the eeriness! Oh the creepiness of the moment and disturbing atmosphere! As you can imagine, I quickly collected my skirts and run back home as fast as I could... Running... running.... tumbling over the flowers, down the empty ivy path I went... through the bushes, through the maple trees, through the gates... Until I was finally safe in the comfort of my home. As you would expect, sleep would not come to me easily that night. The moon shone in my window and slanted across my bed, and a night breeze brought the smell of roses and honeysuckle into the room. Outside, leaves rustled, but I didn’t hear anything else. No goblins’ voices, no ghostly sobbing, no strange cat meowing... just the sound of the night breezes in the garden.

Slowly I finally drifted off to sleep, but much later I woke up again. The house was silent, and my cat Morning was crouched on the windowsill at the foot of his bed. His body was tense, his ears cocked forward, and his tail lashed back and forth furiously. As I sat up, I heard him growl softly, not at me but at something outside.

Cautiously, I peeked out the window. At first I saw nothing but the moonlight whitening the grass and blackening the shadows...

Then something moved near the garden, and Morning growled again... It was a white cat! He was creeping along the edge of a shadow, but while I watched, he paused and looked up at my window. The moonlight reflected in his eyes, making them two silver disks. When he meowed softly, Morning lunged against the screen, tearing at the wire with his claws and growling.

Grabbing my cat, I pulled him away from the window, but he writhed free and disappeared under the bed, still growling... as Morning vanished, I looked fearfully outside. The white cat was gone, but the scraggly bushes moved with the breeze and the shadows they cast swayed on the grass... the sweet smell of roses filled my room, and I shivered as a gust of wind blew over me. Then, as if it wasn’t creepy enough, things got even creepier! I heard something in the darkness outside. It wasn’t the breeze in the leaves or a cat meowing or a night bird calling; it was unmistakably the sound of a child crying... Truly afraid, I fought against a strong urge to scream, or run away. As if he sensed my feelings, Morning came out from his hiding place. Purring in my ear, he curled up on my pillow until finally the two of us fell asleep together... The whole thing was creepy, so very creepy, indeed! But that was last night! Now the warmest of sun has return to the land vanishing all shadows of fear! Bathed in wonderful morning sunlight, the garden has lost its sinister quality, and I find myself delighting again in the shady center of my little hide out.

I wouldn’t be scared away by a white cat anyway… would you? Of course not! Especially on a day like today, when I’m having the most delightful time celebrating the enchantment of October with tea and friends and visitors from all over the world.

If you haven't heard of it yet, there is a party soon to start at Frosted Petunias. Oh, it promises to be pure magic underneath the full Halloween moon! And I surely would not want to miss it! So with that said, I am going to change into my little witchy self and head over there right now! You're welcome to fly with me in my broom if you like, but don’t delay, dark is almost upon us, the night garden boast a magic all of its own, a magic that must be shared only at our party, so hurry!

"Double, double, toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble."