Hallowe'en/Samhain 2026

Last Saturday (31st October) it was Hallowe'en and Samhain. I celebrated by carving a pumpkin, putting up some decorations and making some food and drink. I baked gingerbread skeletons, made potato salad (based a recipe from the book The Kitchen Witch by Soraya) and also made my favourite Demon’s Blood drink (a recipe from The Real Witches' Kitchen by Kate West), which is ginger beer mixed with orange juice and apple juice, and dyed green. I had the potato salad and drink with some food from the supermarket. 

Here's a picture of the pumpkin:

Summer-Autumn Update (2026) + Happy Samhain/Hallowe'en!

It's now October, so it's time for my summer-autumn update! :) You can see my previous updates of 2026 at the links below:

Winter-Spring Update (2026) + Happy Beltane!: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2026/04/winter-spring-update-2026-happy-beltane.html

Spring-Summer Update (2026) + Happy Lammas!: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2026/07/spring-summer-update-2026-happy-lammas.html

 

I didn't do much in July. At the beginning of August, I celebrated Lammas. You can see my post about it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2026/08/lammas-2026.html

In mid-late September, I celebrated Madron/the Autumn Equinox. You can read about it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2026/09/madron-2026.html

 

Similarly to the last update, I haven't been up to much else. I've just been going to Happy Café (Action for Happiness Meetup events) about once a month and to the library. I went to the park as part of my celebrations for the sabbats.

Here are a couple of photos I took during the summer:

Churchill Square, Brighton- Aug.

 

Madron 2026

Last Wednesday (23rd September) it was Madron, also known Mabon/the Autumn Equinox. (Although for some it was Tuesday the 22nd, depending on your time zone.) My main celebration for this sabbat is baking. I most often make some kind of ginger cake (before that I made gingerbread, like I do for Lammas but occasionally do something different. Last year I baked a buttermilk spice cake.

This Madron, I decided to go back to ginger! I baked a gingerbread sheet cake. The recipe is from Cloudy Kitchen: https://cloudykitchen.com/blog/gingerbread-sheet-cake-with-maple-cream-cheese-frosting/

It's a one bowl recipe (made all in one bowl) and has a maple cream cheese frosting. I used treacle instead of molasses and mixed spice instead of allspice because both of those are more readily available in the UK. 

The cake was quite nice, although as I've mentioned before, these types of cakes can be a bit heavy (probably due to the treacle). I made a gingerbread traybake for Madron 2024 and I think that was a bit lighter because it also had golden syrup in it.

Here's a picture:  

 

Lammas 2026

The Saturday before last (1st August) it was Lammas. (Although some people may celebrate on 31st July or 2nd August.) I normally celebrate by baking, most often gingerbread. This year I made gingerbread and bread (a mix), like I have for the past couple of years.

The gingerbread recipe is one from BBC Good Food that I've used for the past few years: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gingerbread_men_99096

I could only find the smaller gingerbread cutter, so I made some "men" shapes and a few round ones too. I made up my own icing (icing sugar mixed with water) which I do most often. I iced some completely. Here's a pic:

The decorating got a bit messy! lol.

 

Spring-Summer Update (2026) + Happy Lammas!

I normally post on Sundays or Mondays but didn't manage to get this finished yesterday, so I'm posting today instead. :)

We're just over halfway through the year, so it's time for my spring-summer update! :) You can see my winter-spring (first update of 2026) here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2026/04/winter-spring-update-2026-happy-beltane.html

 

Easter was at the beginning of April this year. I baked a frosted white chocolate Easter cake (one if my favourite cakes to make for Easter). I also had a family meal and got a couple of chocolate eggs. 

At the beginning of May I celebrated Beltane. You can see my post about it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2026/05/beltane-2026.html

During May I baked some condensed milk after tea cakes for my mum's birthday (using this recipe from Lavender & Lovage). I've made them before and they're nice. 

I also made pico de gallo using this recipe from The Doctor's Kitchen: https://www.thedoctorskitchen.com/recipes/pico-de-gallo 

I made it along with some potato salad (using a recipe from Apply to Face which is one of my favourites) to have with some food for the supermarket when I watched the Eurovision Song Contest. I didn’t take a picture but you can see what the potato salad looked like in my May Update post from 2019: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2019/05/may-update.html

 

In mid-June it was Litha. I wrote a post about my celebrations: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2026/06/litha-2026.html

 

I haven't been doing much else apart from going to Happy Café (Action for Happiness' Meetup events).

Here are a couple of photos I took during the spring:

Ship Street area, Brighton- April.

Litha 2026

The Sunday before last (21st June) it was Litha aka Midsummer/the Summer Solstice. I usually celebrate this sabbat by making salad and lemonade. However, this year I couldn’t get hold of lemons easily (left it a bit last minute) so I made limeade instead, lol. 

I normally make tomato and onion salad for Litha. My favourite recipe is from The Kitchen Witch book by Soraya. Last year I'd lost the book, so I partly based my salad on a recipe from This Italian Kitchen. I've found the book since then though, so this year it was back to the usual recipe!

I had the salad for lunch along with some food from the supermarket- chicken drumsticks, garlic ciabatta slices, Doritos and guacamole. It was quite nice. Here's a pic:

 

 

Beltane 2026

The Friday before last (1st May) it was Beltane. (Some people celebrate from sundown on 30th April to sundown on 1st May.) I usually make guacamole or salad for this sabbat. In recent years I've tended to make a salad and buy guacamole, most often kachumbari (Kenyan tomato and onion salad). But in 2019 I made both.

This year I decided to make an avocado salad, which I've made a couple of times before. The recipe is from Precious Core (whose recipe for kachumbari I also use): https://www.preciouscore.com/simple-healthy-avocado-salad/  

It's similar to kachumbari (I shared both of them in my Salads for Beltane + Extra Ideas! post in 2024). I had it for my lunch with some ciabatta rolls, savoury eggs, feta parcels, chicken sausages, sea salt and vinegar crisps (chips), and onion and garlic dip. 

Here's a pic: 

The cutlery got in the salad a bit!