Ghost Hunting at the Dollhouse Museum, Bertie Hall, Fort Eerie, Ontario

The weekend before Halloween, the P.I.S.T. paranormal group descended on The Dollhouse Museum, also known as Bertie Hall.

I was very excited as I'd been hoping to do an investigation there before the opportunity is lost forever, as no one is certain what will become of this historic residence in Fort Eerie, Ontario.  Information about Bertie Hall

There were going to be two investigations over Halloween weekend. The first one was the Friday night one that I attended.

The second one was the Saturday night, complete with a gourmet feast and séance.

It was a mind-numbingly cold night, at least in that house. I heard the first hail of the season while I was in the basement in the dark talking to ghosts.

Since I'm used to being abnormally cold most of the time, I had several layers of clothes on in anticipation of freezing cold haunted houses. It paid off nicely!

 There were thirteen of us, of course. We were split into groups and sent to various parts of the house to use our equipment.

I felt completely creeped out the whole time I was there but didn't "see" stuff like I had hoped.

On the cameras, there were all kinds of weird orb behaviour. Events happened that certainly couldn't be explained by bugs or dust.

These doll house rooms were creepy and I didn't stay long in any of them. I don't know why I didn't like them, it makes no sense, but I didn't.

It felt to me like there were ghosts around, just out of reach, hoping for a communication but reluctant for some reason. Perhaps there were too many people in the empty house?

But there were sightings when the museum was crammed full of dollhouses and people.

Events happened with the dollhouses. I suspect a lot of the spirits hitched a ride with their favourite dollhouses at the auctions.

This is the wall that was blocked off where the underground railroad used to be.

This is the false wall where soldiers from both sides would hide with the slaves during turbulent times.

I've not heard if people got good evps from it. There seemed to be the sense there would be some great ones. A few people could "hear" the spirits talking. The ghost boxes said some interesting things as well.

I'm very glad I attended the ghost hunt and would go again!

Ghost Adventures on Alcatraz

 Ghost Adventures Alcatraz Lockdown

The other day I watched the episode of Ghost Adventures where they went to Alcatraz.

They spent most of the investigation focused on a few cells in solitary confinement where several people unrelated to this particular investigation had felt something earlier that day.

As I watched, I remembered that I too had felt "something" in those cells when I was there in 2010.

Back in 2010, I went to San Francisco to attend the Haunted Mansion retreat. I arrived a few days early in order to visit with Rain Graves before we headed up to the mansion. While I was there, I went on the Alcatraz tour, which I had had arranged in Toronto, before I arrived in San Francisco. I highly recommend booking as far in advance as possible. I was unlucky in 2012 when I arrived in San Francisco without booking ahead because I wasn't sure there would be time to go. One morning I had a bit of time but there were no tickets, sold out days in advance.

At any rate, it was my second trip to Alcatraz, the first one being several years earlier when I attended the World Horror Convention.  The tour was packed and as before, I wore the headset and listened to all the re-enactments.

When we arrived at the solitary confinement area, a few of the end cells were open so people could go into them. The very ones investigated on TV. Hundreds of people were pouring in and out so I didn't expect to feel anything more than the creepy dread that had already snaked through my bones from the moment I set foot on the island.

I went into the cell and it was just as they said in the show. At the door frame, it feels like you've gone through a looking-glass into a topsy-turvy dimension. It felt evil. It was dark and horrible. I left quickly. I took selfies, some came out, some not. I took many selfies at the island so not sure if the ones I'm posting were really from the cell.

After I left the cell, my entire being changed. I was dark, sad, gloomy, nauseous, a sense of darkness over me. It felt like a hand clamping around my head and pressing.

It lasted for days.

Rainy herself said a couple of times that the Black Mass in the room at the Haunted Mansion might have been the "thing" I dragged back from Alcatraz. She felt it too.

So, to anyone watching that episode of Ghost Adventure, let it be known that what they are describing is real.

It actually freaked me out when I realized that they were examining the very cells that creeped me out. I thought they might pick up more in the off-limits areas such as the infirmary. But those cells, where thousands of tourists go in and out to see what solitary is like, still hold an evil residue from something.

On the show, they talked about an inmate who was killed in the cell by "something" and no one ever knew what. The reality was likely someone went in and killed him but the ghost hunters told stories about people seeing demons in 13 and 14. They also caught some creepy evidence which you'll have to watch the show to see for yourself.

After the Alcatraz episode, there was the Mustang Ranch episode. That was a creeper too. The "Do Not Disturb" sign reminded me of something that would happen at the Lizzie Borden house.

I see on their website that they are airing their Lizzie Borden adventure next week. Can't wait!

After walking around Alcatraz for a couple of hours, I was nauseated and sensed a "blackness" attaching itself to me.

Only the birds know the truth.

Mimico Pumpkin Parade

 

For many weeks, I wondered what the Mimico Pumpkin parade was all about.

 

I entertained thoughts of some Wickerman ritual taking place but in the end, it was an innocent activity designed to help residents compost their pumpkins.

 

It turned out to be a Samhain-type celebration but instead of livestock being slaughtered, it was the pumpkins. Killing two birds with one stone, as it were, the pumpkins came equipped with their own fire. Another year of good luck is certainly in store for Mimico judging by the number of residents who took part in the ghoulish sacrifice. Some of the humans came in costumes to confuse the pumpkins spirits. No one wants an angry jack-o-lantern stalking him in his nightmares.

 

The pumpkins gathered over the evening, flicking as the sun set over the lake, bravely waiting to face the compost trucks in a few short hours.

 

I took a walk around the parade at about six-thirty and then returned around seven-thirty.

 

There were some beautifully carved pumpkins. This was a very successful event.

 

For some of the pumpkin pictures, I used a flash. For others, I let the light of the pumpkins be the flash. 

 

When I returned to the park at seven-thirty, I saw several groups of parents walking away from the park quickly, holding pumpkins while children wailed behind them that they didn't want their pumpkins to die.

By eight o'clock, there were hundreds, if not, thousands of pumpkins winding across the bandstand and through the playground behind the hedges. As I was leaving, even  more people were arriving with more pumpkins in wagons, strollers, and cradled in their arms.

This pumpkin pleaded with me as I left the park to not leave him there, with the others, to face their fate of behind squashed in a compost truck.

I didn't stay to see when the truck came or how the pumpkins met their face. Their beautiful faces flickered in my mind and I didn't want to contemplate their demise.

When I returned the next day, there wasn't a single seed left to show where the pumpkins had paraded.

Many of the pumpkins didn't want their pictures taken. My camera malfunctioned countless times. It may have been all the flickering candles confusing the camera equipment.

Some of the pictures are interesting.

 

This looks like all the pumpkins turned into tiny shrouded ghosts, marching in lines.

 

 

I tried to take a picture of this dog in a costume but the pumpkins' souls photobombed the shot. The camera refused to focus.

 



There was a wagon full of pumpkins. It wasn't moving. I have no idea why this picture didn't come out fabulous. I think the pumpkins were already ghosts long before the compost truck came.

Are spirits streaming from the jack-o-lanterns on this Samhain night?