Released On 02 November 2026
Sheila's blog: Batten Down The Hatches
A moment to pause, embrace old traditions and raise a glass to those we miss.
An email arrived today from Kew Gardens to say they are closing early because of stormy winds. It’s October mid term, so it feels apt that the weather is telling us to batten down the hatches.
The children are exhausted after the start of the new academic year. For some this has meant new schools, for others the start of exam years or senior school, the first day of school or the first day of the last year of school. It has tired everyone out, and the weather seems to be reminding us, as it is darker and wetter. This is the last break until Christmas, so it’s a sprint until the festive season is upon us.
In the midst of that comes Halloween, which is actually an Irish tradition. It began as Samhain, the Gaelic celebration of the end of the harvest season. It was a night when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld grew thin, so spirits, fairy folk and the souls of the dead could cross over. People lit bonfires and dressed up to ward off the mischievous ones, and the whole community gathered round. Families kept a place by the fire for their own dead to come home to.
Growing up in Ireland, Halloween meant dressing up, bonfires, trick or treating, toffee apples and lots of fireworks, the old and the new all mixed together. We carved turnips, as there weren’t really pumpkins in Ireland. When the Irish emigrated to the US they found pumpkins easier to carve, and the pumpkin has stuck, because the new sits so well with the old. A lit pumpkin glows as happily on a doorstep as a turnip did, and trick or treating is a close cousin of dressing up to see off the spirits.
This mid term I’m going to mark the threshold, with a bit of the old and a bit of the new. I’ll take stock of the term gone, gather round a glowing pumpkin, and raise a toast to those who aren’t with us.
So batten down the hatches, light the pumpkin, gather your people, and raise a glass to the ones who would have loved the party.
Sheila has worked in the asset management industry for over 15 years. She is married to a wonderful husband, is mother to two amazing children, has Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis and lives in London. Sheila goes to the MS Therapy Centre in Harrow for physio and hyperbaric oxygen therapy once a week. Donations to support this wonderful organisation are very welcome. Sheila can be found on Instagram @MS_in_the_City. https://www.harrowmscentre.co.uk/donate
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