To say that I love Halloween is perhaps the understatement of the century. The celebration of things that go bump in the night is, to me, not only spine-tingling fun, but, at its heart, I find the 31st a tribute to the natural world... OK, the unnatural parts of nature. I was hoping to do some trekking with my granddaughter after dark in search of strange creatures and, if I lucked out, York Peppermint Patties, but Stasia is fighting off a fever and a stomach ache, so, as twilight started to make itself felt, I was on my own. I was certainly also in the presence of full-grown haunts and spirits, from imperial storm-troopers and witches, to a trio of lovelies dressed as toy dolls. Well, one of them clearly was... the others might have been straight out of Salem. Oh yes, there were kids on the streets harvesting candy, too.