Chilling Tales for Winter Nights

The shadows lengthen at Newington churchyard on a winter evening

The nights are  only, just, by an almost imperceptible few moments each day, starting to lengthen.  It is that time of year that you can feel the darkness of winter begin to creep towards you.  As the earth turns her face slowly away from the sunlight, you can feel the freezing fear of what winter might hold  begin to crawl into your entrails.  It is a deep-rooted instinct to mourn the passing of the summer, to watch the leaves dying on the trees, the flowers drying and dropping their heads in fields burnt yellow by the strength of a sun that is ailing away.  And as we slowly pace towards the bleakness of winter, we become aware of the changing nature around us, and we are unsettled, as the birds are unsettled that have to take flight to warmer climates, as the animals around us are unnerved and scurry to find food and shelter for their long months of hibernation.  

We may be part of a modern world where day and night, summer and winter seem on the surface to blend into each other.  But we can still feel it.  Call it  nature, call it our own animal instincts to seek to secure shelter and sustenance for the long, harsh months ahead.  But just maybe it is that, as the earth turns and the winds change direction, and the tides alter their courses, the shadows of things we cannot see and dare not try to understand walk among us, hidden in the cold and the dark.

Chilling Tales for Winter Nights is a collection of stories that follow that ancient tradition of passing the long nights of winter in exchanging tales, some completely imaginary, some based on old stories, and all exploring the darker, hidden elements of life that make us fear what we cannot explain.

In this blog, we will keep you up to date with the progress of the publication of the collection of stories, and alongside that,  you will find a whole host of activities and ideas, as well as information about Halloween and halloween traditions, so that you and your friends can enjoy the season.

Look out for links to interesting websites and to pics and videos which we  have searched out for you.

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