the pumpkins, as promised

There is a little shed that appears every October in a grassy spot near our old apartment. They string lights from the trees and have pumpkins and mums first and then switch over to Christmas trees in November. It's a fairly festive spot and we had gotten pumpkins there a few years ago, so that's where we headed on Saturday when the fall festival turned out to be a lot more "festival" than "fall".


My only real complaint is that most of the pumpkins there were so regular. You know- medium orange, perfectly round, standard pumpkins. And I am not a standard pumpkin girl.

So we really had to put forth some effort, but we finally found a tan pumpkin shaped more like a squash and some nice white pumpkins. We threw in a standard for the color factor.



I came away partially satisfied. I had a nice grouping of small-ish pumpkins that would fit on the table next to the front door. I felt confident in their abilities to create the type of still life that I envisioned for that table. But I hadn't found what I really went looking for. I had something very specific in mind.

Back at the homestead, the three pumpkins fit perfectly on their assigned table. They even seemed happy there. But the look, as I knew it would be, was not quite right. Yet.

Until today. I was leaving Bi-Lo with a cart full of groceries. There was a bin of pumpkins outside by the door and I happened to glance in and I saw her. The One. The queen pumpkin.

She was exactly what I'd been looking for. Bright, almost red, orange. Squat. Decent stem. Not perfectly smooth (some call them warts, I like to think of them as beauty marks).

I must admit, I felt a little sheepish buying a pumpkin from Bi-Lo. And she seemed a bit embarrassed to be there, to tell the truth. Immodestly wedged sideways in a wooden bin, right next to a Red Box- this is not the stuff of pumpkin dreams. I quickly rescued her from the situation and we set off for home together, both probably imagining that, if anyone asked, I would say that I found her in pumpkin patch so remote you have to ride a tractor to get there. And she would, of course, agree.

The front porch is now complete. And what makes it even MORE glorious is that everything around the front porch is blooming like it's March. The white daisy mums are about to pop and I am super excited about that event. The lantana is blooming, yet again, because I suppose it didn't get the memo about it being almost November.

Who could leave the house with all this beauty right at your door? Certainly not me. One trip out today was enough and now I am parked here for the afternoon. Because cleaning bathrooms, making dinner, and sewing purses all have a rosy glow about them when you've just found the pumpkin of your dreams.