If you’re someone who enjoys the annual rituals of autumn this is surely the week for you, writes Sheena Grant.

There’s barely time to recover from the demands of Halloween before turning your attention to bonfire night.

All the excitement seemed to get too much for some close to where I live on the Suffolk coast - as trick or treaters went from one pumpkin-festooned door to another on Tuesday night the sky overhead with lit up with at least two different sets of fireworks.

As well as confusing, all this celebrating can get expensive if you buy in pumpkins, costumes, sweets and anything else that’s marketed for Halloween. And that’s before you even think about fireworks.

If, unlike some of my near-neighbours, you’ve decided to leave your bonfire festivities until this weekend my advice would be to seek out one of the smaller, low-key organised displays for value for money and enjoyment.

We always bypass more expensive events with huge crowds, costly sideshows and ticket prices in favour of one in a nearby village which is still spectacular, but less pricey and far more fun.

We take our own sparklers, a flask of hot chocolate and perhaps some home-made cinder toffee. The whole evening doesn’t cost any more than a few pounds.

? Following on from last week’s column about food waste and Halloween it seems that some East Anglians are ahead of the game in this area.

Research commissioned for the technology company It’s Fresh! has revealed Norwich as one of the least wasteful cities in Britain when it comes to throwing away fruit and veg. Apparently, just 17% of residents discard 10% or more of the fresh produce they buy each week, compared to the national average of 22%.

• Last week’s column: Pumpkin’s not just for making lanterns - it can be eaten too

? And going even further back, to the vexed issue of mushroom foraging that I wrote about last month, a couple of readers have got in touch to take issue with one of my correspondents about the colour of parasol gills. Graham Sparrow, of Bunwell, and John Allcock, of Norwich, both got in touch to say the gills of the parasol, Lepiota procera, are white (not brown), as are its spores. And that, I think, will have to be the final word on the subject!

• Read more:‘I’m starting to think foraging should be prescribed on the NHS’

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