Halloween Fancy Dress ~ some ideas

Looking for ideas for our Halloween Fancy Dress Competition  at The Orchard Tea Room & Farm Shop, Wisbech ? We thought we'd give you a few ideas:

A pirate and his pals

A great Halloween mask for a monster / devil outfit

You can do wonders with face paint

Just look at these Dia de Meurtos (Day of the Dead) outfits

Clowns for a classic Halloween outfit that you can re-use for other Fancy Dress parties

Our Halloween Fancy Dress competition is on Friday 31st October  there's also a carved pumpkin competition and a Spooky Orchard Walk. Details here:

Halloween at The Orchard, Redmoor Lane, Wisbech.

We have lots of pumpkins for sale in our Redmoor Lane farm shop, they're all shapes and sizes from tiny to GIANT so if you want a pumpkin for Halloween do come and see us.

Carved Halloween Pumpkins ~ some ideas

 With just one week to go before Halloween and our Carved Pumpkin Competition at The Orchard Tea Room & Farm Shop, Wisbech, we thought we'd share some pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern designs to give you inspiration.

Happy Face Pumpkin

Spooky Face Pumpkin

Odd Eyed Pumpkin Face

We have lots of pumpkins for sale in our Redmoor Lane farm shop, they're all shapes and sizes from tiny to GIANT so if you want a pumpkin for Halloween do come and see us.

And remember we have a fun Halloween planned for Friday 31st October with a fancy dress competition as well as the carved pumpkin competition and there's a Spooky Orchard Walk too. Details here:

Halloween at The Orchard, Redmoor Lane, Wisbech. 

Art at The Orchard ~ Julie Parker Art Show at The Orchard Tea Room Wisbech

Have you seen Wisbech local artist, Julie Parker's collection of original illustrations and prints here at The Orchard yet?

Julie who obtained her art degree from University College Falmouth first passion is children's illustration and her  delightfully quirky illustrations are hand-rendered in ink and watercolour.

You'll find framed originals and mounted prints on display at 

The Orchard Tea Room, Redmoor Lane, Wisbech, PE14 0RN. 

Open daily 10-4. 

They will also be on display during our Halloween event at The Orchard on Friday 31st October 4pm-6pm.

Halloween at The Orchard Redmoor Lane Wisbech Oct 31st 2014

Join us for a children's Halloween at The Orchard

Bring your Jack-o-Lanterns along for our Carved Pumpkin Competition 

to be judged by The Witches of the East

Dress up and enter our Children's Fancy Dress Competition

judged by The Witches of the East

Join The Devil on a Spooky Orchard Walk

who knows what you might see!

Refreshments available including Blood or Snot Soup

Halloween at The Orchard

Friday 31st October

4pm -6pm

Tea Room & Farm Shop open from 10am

£2.00 per child, adults free

All children must be accompanied by an 18+ adult, max 2 children per adult

For the Spooky walk: Please bring a torch, also if necessary, due to weather conditions, wellies and other wet weather gear

Except for cases of negligence or other breach of duty by the event organizer participants will be responsible and neither the event organizer nor its servants or its agents will be responsible for any loss, theft, injury or damage which results from attendance at and participation in any The Orchard event. This includes, but is not limited to; personal injury, mental or physical or death, loss, theft, injury or damage to vehicles their contents, fittings accessories, items of personal property. The event organizer does not seek to limit its liability in any way for  loss, theft, injury or damage to anypersonal injury or death caused either by the negligence of the event organizer or its servants or agents or by any act of omission of the event organizer or its servants or agents. The event organizer does not seek to limit its liability in any way for any loss, theft, injury or damage to personal property caused by the negligence of   the event organizer or its servants or agents.

Mushrooms (fungi) in the Orchard

The warm / wet Autumnal weather has been brilliant for fungi this year, the orchard would definitely be a great place to go on a mushroom hunt.

Super fun for the children to find and collect different types of fungi (wearing gloves of course), take them home and try and identify them with the help of a book and then take spore prints.

Our tea room and farm shop customers are very welcome to "hunt" mushrooms in the orchard during opening times and you never know you might just find

a fairy ring!

Apples for the birds

We've talked about feeding the birds before on this blog and we do sell wild bird seed mixes in the farm shop but do you know just how much birds love to eat apples.?

Take a look at this series of photographs showing a male Blackbird feeding his young.

If you'd like to feed the birds apples in your garden we now have large nets of "bird" apples for sale in the farm shop  on Redmoor Lane, Wisbech at only £1.00 a net.

Chickens, ducks, geese etc love them too.

 Not to mention horses & ponies, tortoises, monkeys, iguanas, peacocks and pigs...

And of course you can eat them yourself, juice them, make cider, chutney, apple pies, apple cakes....

Mr Fips Wonder Circus £2.00 off per person coupons for Wisbech shows

Mr Fips Wonder Circus is coming to town! 

Just up the road from our tea room on what is known as the Pink Tractor Field.

The circus will be in Wisbech from Wednesday the 22nd of October, until Sunday the 26th and we have some £2.00 off per person vouchers to give to our customers.

So come on down to The Orchard Tea Room & Farm Shop, Redmoor Lane, Wisbech, PE14 0RN and grab your £2.00 off per person voucher for Mr Fips Wonder Circus ~ quick before they all go!

And if you have children you might like to attend our own Halloween Event on Fri 31st Oct click

Halloween at The Orchard, Redmoor Lane, Wisbech, 

for more details 

The Complete Amateur Gardener by H.H. Thomas ~ Rainy day Vintage at The Orchard

Did you know that we have vintage (and other) books at The Orchard for you to peruse at your leisure. Borrow to read in the tea room or buy to take home. They do make lovely gifts for friends and family.

On a rainy day how about a spot of armchair gardening?

The Complete Amateur Gardener by H.H. Thomas

full of lovely illustrations and practical advice

Perfect to dip into whilst enjoying a lovely cup of coffee!

10 Things about Halloween

October means pumpkins in the farm shop and of course Halloween so here's 10 things you may or may-not know about Halloween:

1. Did you know that the custom of trick or treating is believed to have developed from a medieval custom called souling?
 The poor would go from door to door asking for food in return for prayers for the dead.

2. And do you know why folk dress up for Halloween?
Why to fool the spirits that are wandering on All Hallow's Eve when the veil between the world of the living and the dead is said to be at it's thinnest.

3. Do you know the legend of the Jack O Lantern?
 Apparently Jack tricked the devil into agreeing never to collect his soul. Unfortunately for Jack when he died he wasn't allowed into Heaven and because of the agreement the Devil had made he wasn't allowed into hell either. Jack's spirit was left to wander the earth moaning about how dark it was. Someone took pity on Jack and tossed him a lump of glowing coal which he put into a hollowed out pumpkin which he now uses to light his way - especially on Halloween!

4. And did you know that large turnips (swedes, rutabaga) were once used to make Jack O Lanterns in the UK?
Pumkins were very much a North American crop but now they are very popular in the UK too and they make a far more dramatic, and easier to carve Jack O Lantern.

5. Do you know why orange and black are such popular Halloween colours?
Well orange is a symbol of strength and endurance and black symbolizes death and darkness. These two colours  symbolize the demarcations between life and death and as the veil between the living world and the world of the dead is said to be at it's thinnest during Halloween they have been adopted as Halloween colours.

And did you know that some people suffer from a Halloween phobia?
No me neither but they do and it's called Samhainophobia.

6. Do you know that Halloween is also known as Samhain?
Samhain is a Celtic festival, a pagan sabbat, that marks the end of harvest.

7. And did you know that Samhain / Halloween is also The Celtic New Year? 
In the old Celtic calendar the New Year began at sunset on Samhain.

8. Do you know that Halloween is the perfect time for scrying, trying to see the future?
There are many ancient Halloween traditions for trying to see into the future, especially for finding out who you are going to marry.

9. And did you know that Halloween is a time to honour  the dead?
Many cultures honour their dead and remember their ancestors at this time of year in a way we do it too with Remembrance Sunday in November.

And if you have children and are in the Wisbech area you might like to attend our own Halloween Event on Fri 31st Oct click

Halloween at The Orchard, Redmoor Lane, Wisbech, 

for more details