Hallowe'en lantern

First time in many, many years I've carved a traditional Scottish tumchie* lantern!  Enjoyed doing this, and had the innards for lunch with lots of butter and black pepper. The shell will go to the hens tomorrow, and the top slice to the goats for supper, so nothing wasted :)

Hallowe'en when I was growing up in a wee village in Scotland was great fun - all homemade and a couple of days before was plenty of time to get organised. Lots of 'What are you going as?' talk in the playground; we called it guising, and anything would go, didn't have to have a specific costume, just had to make sure you were unrecognisable - I remember blacking faces with the burnt end of a cork, and the smell of the turnip cooking inside the lantern. We had a wee carrier bag, and would sing, tell a joke or recite a poem or tale in return for monkey nuts, wee oranges, tablet, treacle toffee, apples. Good times :)

* tumchie = turnip, what the English call a swede