Hellooooo!
Won't you join us for a pumpkin collecting day?
We are not picking them all, as they are not all ready.
However, we are picking the ones that are either ready, or have had their vines chewed by little creatures, or have plum fallen off the vine.
The boys LOVE the pumpkin patch.
They trample right through it, sniffing about.
And so, we get collecting...
The leaves do an incredible job at hiding their pumpkin babies.
I am always surprised how, just when I think I know where all the pumpkins are, another is revealed under a huge leaf.
Matty especially LOVES the pumpkin patch.
I am sure it smells like all sorts of little creatures.
He hunts them out, then he lets his little big brother have them.
Yucky.
Matty found a punkin!
Or two.
Yay!
A Cinderella and a Jack-O-Lantern.
Then I got to pick a HUGE, I mean HUGE, Jack-O-Lantern myself.
Perfectly round too.
Sooo heavy.
The one in the center of the cart below is quite large, but that green fairytale pumpkin takes the cake.
It's massive.
Now that one is sooooo heavy.
Something chewed its stem off the vine though.
So, we'll see if he can ripen up off the vine.
He is still pretty as a greenie.
You will find some sugar babies intertwined amongst the basil as well.
I planted 4 kinds of basil seeds in sooo many places.
I was so paranoid about not having basil, and now I have so much, I am not sure what to make of it.
Lovee is taking a bunch to a local Italian restaurant for me.
We will also have lots stored in olive oil, and in pesto, in the freezer for winter.
It keeps beautifully in the freezer packed in olive oil or made in pesto, and is always a huge treat during the cold months.
I am a huge basil fan.
Did Matty (short for Matisse) find a sugar baby?
Oh yes he did.
Gotta love those mid-sized, perfectly round, sugar babies.
Delicious too.
Oh and, did I tell you that the pumpkin patch exploded so huge, that it has overtaken the little breezeway between the pumpkin patch and the vegetable garden?
It's insane stuff, I tell ya.
A bit messy, but exciting.
The patch is about 120 square feet and growing.
We also have some rotting ones as you can see below.
I am tyring to turn them, but the vines are very fragile.
A few of the fairytale pumpkins are the only ones having rotting issues.
Their skin isn't as tough as the big orange Halloween guys.
But, they are my fave for roasting.
Incredibly orange flesh, and beyond delicious.
So, what can I say?
It's been a grueling summer.
But good too.
It's ending too fast.
Even though I love autumn.
I have so many more things I wanted to do this summer.
It rained like crazy for 3 days, now it is hotter than hot and sunny again.
There are so many mosquitoes I could cry.
More than ever really, because of the rains.
But, pumpkins make the world better.
So, we are happy campers.
I love pumpkin days.
I can't wait to see how the rest of the lil' guys still growing out there, turn out.
For today we have...
Mister Scarecrow can not wait to get a new head.
And I can't wait to carve one.
The scent of a candle burning inside of a pumpkin makes me crazy, I love it so.
Happy Pumpkin Day!
;-)
