Halloween decorations by Fairy Elle

“Dinner at Bertha's”

It's October 31. Fairy Elle is excited. She has a black scroll in her hand, written in red ink, which she has had from Live, the Gnome girl teacher of life and good manners.
She has already played the trumpet and is waiting for all Bosco's inhabitants to reach Pine-House ...
We are ready. Let's begin!

This is a true adventure, happened to me and Molla. You have to believe our words, really!
Yesterday afternoon Molla and I were looking for mushrooms and blueberries but our baskets were still empty. So Molla asked me to go a little further than usual.
"But Molla, we are alone. Anything can happen to us."
"What do you want to happen? ... we know all Bosco's inhabitants. They are all friends.
Come on, do not worry! We go only up to Red Road. I know it like my pockets.
I've been there many times and have always found so many mushrooms ... Do you want to eat your favorite polenta dish tonight? Yes or no? "
I am a great glutton and so I gave up right away and followed him grumbling no longer.
The day was so beautiful!
Bosco is fantastic towards Red Road. The pines give up their place to large trees that in this season are all colored in yellow and red.
We walked on a carpet of colorful autumn leaves. Now and then we also found some nuts and I had almost filled my basket. The nuts are not the blueberries but they are very good. And Grolla makes delicious cakes with them and tasty green salads combining them with radicchio. But the mushrooms? No mushroom.
At one point Molla stretched his legs to scan the horizon and pulled my sleeve.
"Live, there they are! At the bottom of Red Road. They seem very beautiful. Come on. How good feed tonight! Leave here your basket with nuts. Needless to carry many burdens. Let's go to pick them up."
Both of us were very far from even imagining what we would see a little later.
We reached quickly a small clearing where my friend had seen so many beautiful mushrooms. But walking I felt a strange sensation. As if the sun had fallen on the horizon. It was colder there. Dark shadows stretched on the ground. I looked at the sky but the sun was still shining. What was ever happening?
A little frightened, I looked at Molla that, on the contrary, seemed quiet. Indeed, he was whistling a cheerful tune.
"How many stories in my head. They are all fantasies - I muttered to myself at one point.
But as I approached the group of mushrooms I enveloped me more and more into my big
shawl ...
Molla had seen well. There were plenty of mushrooms, all firm and beautiful. They seemed to call us ...
"Pick us, pick us ... you will see how good we are ..."
Molla filled his basket quickly.
"Come here, Live. There are still some mushrooms behind here. Do you borrow me your apron? Then I'll took it on my shoulders. Do not worry!"
Molla was bent over the ground - um, he had also forgotten to bring his legs back to normal - too busy in his work to see what he had in front of him.
A huge mushroom.
But was it a mushroom? I looked at it shocked. I could not say a word.
A mushroom with the door? windows? balconies?
And then there was something strange in the air, so strange that I felt goose bumps.
Bosco was really gloomy on that side. I felt suffocated and then, suddenly, I heard a groan. Feeble. Barely perceptible. A source of pain.
I shivered and began to pull Molla's sleeve.
"Just a moment Live. What's on? But look at this mushroom: how beautiful it is! I want to pick it ... but how hard it is! It isn't a mushroom! why a stone mushroom? "
Molla turned to look at me and knew immediately that something was wrong.
He turned again. He straightened up. Then he looked carefully at the strange huge mushroom, surrounded by many little stone-made mushrooms.
He went near, slowly, quietly. He looked inside the mushroom through a window.
He rubbed his eyes and looked in again.
He turned to me with a bemused expression.
"There's a dinner table inside. I do not understand. But who can live in a mushroom? Do you want to see it?"
I was so scared that the first instinct was to turn and run ... maybe I could have done it! I was nailed to the ground. Unable to move. That complaint was increasing and filling the empty space around me. Why wasn't Molla able to hear it?
But Molla seemed deaf. He was not afraid. He was simply curious. He placed a big stone near the huge mushroom. He lifted me as I were a feather and put me at the right height to see inside through the window.
Folks, you can't imagine what my eyes were able to see ... once get used to the darkness.
I began to notice a large table lit by a flame in a lantern. Near the lantern a big crow croaked and ran around a plate of spaghetti. But they were very strange spaghetti ... At first they seemed to me topped with tomato sauce ... But looking better ... Wow! Those spaghetti were moving and there was no tomato sauce on the top. Suddenly a ghost came to life from this pasta dish. He looked down and then began to sing a strange lament.

Oh, you were my flesh.
Oh, you were my bones.
Tonight, you fresh,
not the usual scones
the food are of ... guess ...
the witch is now your owns.
Tonight be my proud flesh
no tears, no groans.
I fell into Bertha's mesh
don't fall into moans

Meanwhile, the crow seemed attracted by a strange pot, placed in a corner of the table. Making its way between the webs, spiders, bats and ghosts it approached the pot. I looked better ... It was a witch's cauldron. And inside ... I seemed to see ... yes ... a lot of eyes ... for all the Gnomes of tBosco .... but certainly ... eyes pierced with pins!
Who could have prepared those dishes? only a witch could be capable of so much and then ... gosh ... we were peering into the house of a witch ... her kitchen ... I started to shake like a leaf with fear ... I lost my balance, but Molla, still unaware of everything, caught me and put me back on the stone.
I do not know how I found the courage to take another peek ...
I was scared but also curious.
So I took a deep breath and continued watching through the window.
What was there still on the table?
- What a strange tablecloth the witch uses. - I remember it perfectly: I thought so.
Then I looked better. It seemed stained with something red.
- She will have splashed tomato sauce. By the way stirring her spaghetti ... things that happen to bunglers. - I thought there and then.
- Oh, no - Suggested a little voice to me.
- Ouch. That's not tomato. It's different. Blood? - I thought.
The truth was there, but I persisted in not seeing it. The mat was made with skin. Torn directly from the witch to his victims. But what victims?
- The best? not to inquire - I said to myself.
But this was too much. I nodded I wanted to go down.
Just in time.
A movement of air warned me that the witch was coming back. I could only read her name on the door.
Bertha The Witch.
I lay down in the tallest grass, dragging with me Molla that still did not understand. But he would understand very soon. I assure you.
I tore out of his hands my apron and used the mushrooms to camouflage.
Berta got off her broom. Undoubtedly she felt a strange smell around. We heard clearly she breathed the air, deeply, but her hunger won, in the end.
We heard her say, moving her chair:
"Finally! Without the Diavolicchio wine you can not eat" and then it was just a series of scrunch, scranch ... Horrible!
We waited patiently for her to finish her horrid meal and when we heard her snoring heartily Molla and I got up little by little ... making no noise. Sssst!
Then I lifted my skirts and ran like the wind ... but when I turned speechless ... Mollla was not there! But where was he? I waited a little, breathless ... Suddenly he materialized beside me ... that fool had picked all the mushrooms again!
He winked at me and linked his arm with mine. So we went home, arm-in-arm.

None of us had the courage to tell the others what had happened at Red Road.
Grolla cooked a large pot of polenta and mushrooms that night and all we Gnomes enjoyed that extraordinary dinner.

To be remembered

Molla and Live

Fairy Elle rolls the scroll she has just read. She is not very happy ... witches .... victims ... skin ... pierced eyes ... she has a lot of questions but when she looks about her face is back to serene.
A long table has appeared (magic? her extraordinary, great magic) from noting in front of Pine-House.
An accurate reproduction of what she has just read. And there's room for everyone.
Instead of skin and victims there is delicious and quite harmless food.
The party can begin.
Fairy Elle and all the inhabitants of Bosco can celebrate Halloween tonight!

And you ... what are you waiting for making your own, little magic?
Dinner at Bertha's

Remember. The recipes on Bertha's table are:
The soup of pierced eyes
Bertha's preferred spaghetti dish

Do you want to taste Grolla's recipes, dear children?
Polenta and mushrooms
Green salad with apples and walnuts
Pepperedbread (panpepato)