I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Friday, October 9, 2015

Pumpkin Picking




Happy Columbus Day weekend! This is the start of Fall here at the beach. And this is, to me, a fun time of year. I'm so glad we still have Columbus Day, that our country has not become so historically and politically correct that we cannot enjoy the celebration of the ''discovery'' of our country.
And of course October is pumpkin time. Every year my friend L and I go to the garden center to enjoy their gorgeous autumn flowers and fun Halloween decorations---


pumpkins, apples and gourds galore.


We no longer have little kids to bring to the pumpkin patch, for that oh so exciting ritual, Choosing the Jack o'lantern. But we come anyway. Maybe we're a little sad, a little nostalgic but mostly we just have fun.





I look at the enormous-est, gigantic-est thirty pound pumpkins and wonder which my son would have chosen. He always wanted the biggest pumpkin on the lot.


This year the fall flowers are exceptional.














 I love the ornamental corn plant.



 Spooky very dark purple kale, much darker in person.








Fun ghosts and goblins...






Thee's always a display of baby animals...what a slim piggy!


Pumpkins...all sizes...all kinds.






I love the warty ones, especially if they're blue.


Even the fairy gardens are all decked out for Trick or Treat!



 Note the witch's legs in her stripey stockings!


I like when they use full sized plants in the fairy displays. These are deep black/ purple??? begonias?





Beautiful local apples. Many varieties to try.



These called Opalescent, just glowed, almost neon pink.



I got a white pumpkin this year!


Afterwards, we went by Trader Joe's to get cheeses to go with our apples. I splurged on French Brie and a Camembert. Oh, look! Pumpkin cornbread! How delish with chili.


TJ's had the green squash, Kombocha. I haven't tried it yet, its description of ''earthy'' has put me off.


Instead I got butternut squash and parsnips to roast with garlic and corn and pumpkin seeds.
And I couldn't resist the tiny pumpkins on these branches. The label says pumpkin tree. Adorable. I hope Mo doesn't eat the little fruits!


Back home over the bridges. The marshes are turning amber now. [It wasn't a gorgeous day, too bad].





At the garden store at one point, I looked up into the rafters and saw the big flock of birds flying overhead. Just a mixed blackbird flock, starlings and blackbirds--but so perfectly Autumn! Eerie.







This weekend I'll put away my blue quilts and pillows and china. In with the brown, the sepia, out with the blue, for now.
Have a fun weekend. Did you buy your jacko'lantern yet? Large or small or--=humongous? Do you make a scarecrow or two, hang a wreath of gourds and bittersweet?




love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

Changing the subject....
Seen on our daily walks, a different small plastic lawn goose. She resides about 3 blocks from the Goose family. She always is dressed nicely. This week she is decked out for Halloween. At first I thought she was dressed up as, well, a goose. Hahahaha. But the next day her little pumpkin basket appeared and I realised she is wearing a ghost costume for Trick or Treat. So cute. Kind of?