On a cold October Saturday I woke up bright and breezy, excited at what lay in store for me.

Saturday 27th October was the first Halloween 'Owls by Moonlight' and so during the day I set to work carving pumpkins with my Mum, and Ben (who works in Duffy's coffee shop). We did various designs and when the public saw them that evening, they all commented on how good they all looked. Six pumpkins were carved and by 3pm my hands stank of pumpkin!

Julainne carving pumpkins

Later that day I started to decorate the park with scary spiders and big cobwebs. The pumpkins were positioned and the park looked great for the fun and frolics that would happen later. Ben, Lou Milly, Hugh and Gareth arrived and we all got into costume; everybody looked great - including Sam! However trying to tell everybody apart was difficult.

Once the public arrived we all set to work scaring people, and they all joined in with the Halloween spirit. Sam started his welcome talk at 7.30pm and so the rest of the scary gang went and hid around the park. I was right at the top in the kiosk, keeping warm and dry. When people were on their way to the flying display it was great to hear all the shrieks and screams. Once they got near me, I jumped up and screamed very loud; they were all very startled but laughed, which was good. The best bit was Paul, when he screamed like a girl in shock!

The finished items

When we had done all our scaring we all sat down to watch the first of the flying displays in the newly-lit Woodland Arena. I have to say I thought the display was brilliant. Gareth flew Gucci the Malay Wood owl and he looked amazing dodging his way through the branches. Sam and Paul flew Cinnamon the Siberian eagle owl next and he was breathtaking flying in and
out of the darkness.

Once the evening was over Gareth, Ben and I went down to the pub for a well deserved drink, pleased with the hard work we had put in to the evening.

All in all the whole day was a good laugh and everybody was full of the Halloween spirit, which was brilliant.