The Haunted Garden

I am feeling so brave.  My trusty ten year old Ghost Buster is feeling very brave too.  This in an advertising poster for an 'event' that we went to last night.  It was called 'The Haunting' and it took part in the gardens of Ragley Hall.

You can read a bit more about Ragley here :)

Do you remember the Ghost Train or the Haunted House, like that but outside, in the real dark!  In a setting that quite possibly has real ghosts of its own.  On the long, dark drive through the estate to get the house, my ten year old Ghost Buster no longer wanted to ghost bust at all.  He wanted to go home.  It felt like a real life Scooby Doo adventure.  I told him we should face our fears and we could always escape if we needed to.

    At the start of our adventure a leaf blew across the path, just a leaf, I thought it was a rat and it made me jump.  There were about twenty people in our group.  You had to be 10yrs or over.  We walked down a dark path where we were greeted in an alarming fashion by 'Edward The Gardener'.  When one member of our group screamed or shouted, we all screamed and shouted!  It was absolutely hilarious but nerve wracking.  I think Edward The Gardener is very lucky nobody struck him.  

  We stumbled around the garden in the dark not knowing what to expect.  I did not want to be at the back of the group and I certainly did not want to be at the front, I was not even happy at the sides.  I knew there would be goofs jumping out!  There were shrieks, growls, screams, cries for help and laughter resonating in the darkness and a bit of storytelling.  There were statues than ran after you and a horrible little ghoul girl with a loud scream.  The whole time we were trying to avoid Mildred, a murderous witch.  At one point a member of our party wandered off, we all tried to warn him and we shouted 'Hey you, come back' but he went and got murdered noisily behind a large yew tree.  Nobody lingered to check upon his welfare.  I think we all assumed it was a pretty thorough job and he was a lost cause.  I am not sure if they do that every show?  They must get through a fair number of employees.  I am not sure how they would get around the 'Health and Safety in the Workplace' regulations either.  

• Job duty description  - Go behind the large Yew tree and get garrotted.  

   You will understand the lack of my own photographs, no one in their right mind would hang about to take photographs.  The gardens looked really other worldly with the lighting on the trees and plants, the shadows and the silhouettes mixed with the topiary really over fired your imagination.  There were people running about in the shrubs in the dark, I think maybe some characters had more than one role and had to dart about.

   Edward the gardener offered us his last torch and left us to find our own way out.  I did not trust his gesture and thought the torch would be a signal for a baddy to get you!  I kind of wish I took the torch now.  I decided the best way out was to jog.  I could have sprinted at that point if I had to.  It was uphill and I was shattered when we got back to the car.  It really was ridiculously funny once you got safely locked into your car and it was over. 

   Whoever had this idea is a genius.  It was a great setting for such an adventure.  Halloween is one of those things that you either do or don't celebrate for whatever reasons.  I love this time of year.  I do not like all the over dyed food and Haribo.  Those are the true horrors of Halloween.  I do like a nice baked potato and pumpkin soup though.  I hope you are spending Halloween doing what makes you happy.

xx