A Peek into the Pumpkin patch...

I know, I know, I'm jumping the gun here but do you blame me, fellow Halloween fanatics?

Found this awesome interactive site: Crumpkin's Pumpkins. It's chock-full of colorful graphics, spooky music, even a gift shop with all sorts of Samhein swag. In spite of having tons of housework to do, I slacked off by spending the better part of an hour just cruising around the site, moving my cursor around to experience every hidden goody and finding myself getting VERY excited over it! Pumpkin porn it is, I tell you! Drool... Well, needless to say, the fact that it's less than ninety days till Halloween lights a fire under my hiney to get things in order. 

Since July, Mark and I have been going over initial plans on the layout of the yard. We have several acres to fill full of fun and fright for our party in October - no small task for sure. But it's okay, that alone gets my heart pumping and my creativity flowing like mad. There will be many different stations and themes all throughout our property, including a walk through our Haunted Woods. To say we're striving for LEGENDARY status this year is a serious understatement!

Needless to say, in the meantime, we are all absolutely hating the hot, muggy summertime weather, which seemingly drags by at an agonizing pace each day. Ugh, so much sun! The past couple days have brought rain and plenty of thunder and lightning, so a small respite from the heat was temporarily had. Another day closer to The Day... it's all about inching toward the vivid Autumn colors and cooler days and nights, where we get to indulge in revelry with friends and family and enjoy the fruits of the harvest.

But do check out the site below first. Take your time exploring everything, there are surprises around every corner... just like our home!

Click on link below to visit Crumpkin's Pumpkins!

http://www.crumpkinspumpkins.com/#page_top

Halloween tales, pumpkins, friendship, and midnight dancing...

And oh, it was wondrous, indeed!

The Last One Out (the Halloween play our friend, John Davis, wrote and directed) saw a sold-out performance last night at Encore Theater. 

Our freshly carved Jack O'Lanterns and corn stalks await you at theater's entrance

The Secret Commonwealth played live before the show and during intermission. People in the audience laughed, gasped, cried, and laughed again... reliving their own childhoods and coming-of-age in a magical two hours among mutual friends and family. 

John Davis, the maker of magical things

I'm sad that the play's run ends today, but am so proud of John for bringing it to life.

The awesome cast of The Last One Out takes a final bow

Needless to say, Mark gave the show a remarkable and poignant performance as the narrator/grown up version of Jack Daves. Honey, I salute you, and am proud beyond words. Kisses and huggies!

Stopped by two pumpkin patches yesterday on our way out to the show and in the late afternoon autumn sunlight, was bedazzled by the sights and smells and colors that can only be conjured properly during this time of year. The first one was in West Meade, the second, out in the beautiful countryside in Lebanon. Both were delightful! It was a perfect day for reveling amongst the gourds, too, with a dry, cool wind a-blowin' in the bluest of blue skies. 

Blue autumn skies and corn stalks and hay bales and pumpkins...these are a few of my favorite things!

I could live in a pumpkin patch all the time, surrounded by fat gourds, vivid buckets of chrysanthemums, and framed by the striking foliage hues. 

Pumpkins so numerous and colorful, lining up as if they were fat puppies waiting to be adopted.

So many fine, plump gourds! So little time. 

I'll take this one!

There were a few varieties I have not really seen before - namely, the 'Fairy Tale' (aka Cinderella pumpkin) type, which I am completely enamored with. They truly had a supernatural quality to them, and you can easily imagine Cinderella's carriage being transformed from one of them. 

The Fairy Tale pumpkin lives up to its moniker!

It came in several resplendent shapes and colors

Is it possible to fall in love with a pumpkin? Well, maybe not in the traditional sense, of course... but I did. Mark anticipates me bringing home at least a dozen of these exquisite specimens. I'm anxious to grow some of them as well, and will create another new pumpkin patch in our yard early next spring. 

Whimsical hay bales added a cute creative touch

Lest we forget - we carved our own pumpkins yesterday morning. What a joy that is. 

Let the fun begin!

If I could do this once a month (as opposed to just once a year), I'd be a much happier person. Not that I'm sad, mind you, I just derive so much pleasure from it!

Mmm! Guts!

We don't simply toss out the innards - nay! Our kitchen gets mighty busy as we cook plenty of marvelous dishes, from roasting the seeds, to harvest breads and muffins and even a Native American stew with pumpkin, sweet potato, onions and corn. Ahh, the smells emanating from the kitchen are hypnotic: cinnamon and allspice and ginger and nutmeg...

It nourishes both body and soul. 

Lighting the way in our kitchen

John's hearse emanated mystery and magic in anticipation of Halloween

Who goes there? The Pumpkin Hags do!

I've not yet come up with a name for him/her/it, other than the "Pumpkin Hags." Both made of polymer clay, painted with many coats of acrylic, awaiting their bodies to be attached... they're pretty much half-way finished... oh I'm excited!

More as things develop...

ToPumpkins? PumMatoes?

I present to you these first plump specimens of my Cherokee Purple tomato plant.
Wow (if I do ever-so-humbly say so meself)... they are spectacular! The ripening one on the left really looks like a miniature pumpkin. (Hmm, is it possible to cross-polinate these with a pumpkin plant, and come up with a hybrid? Things to ponder.) It is just beginning to show the purple streaks this variety is known for and gets its name from.

I've slavishly devoted myself to this plant, providing it with a safe, happy and organic environment for it to flourish. Each day, I make sure it's been well-watered (including giving it a home-made calcium concoction I create in my own kitchen from the crushed eggs of organic, free-range chickens, to ensure its beauteous tomatoes retain their perfect, blemish-free skin), pruning it just so, and instantly removing any sort of offensive pest that may deem harm a single green leaf. Miss Cherokee Purple has rewarded me by growing into more of a giant bushy tree than a mere plant at lightning speed, and is now laden with (at last count) 17 gloriously plump fruit of various size and stage of development, all glistening like sweet, vitamin-C infused jewels in the hot Tennessee sun.


This shot was taken this morning, showing a small section of what I'm growing this season on my patio. It includes the Cherokee Purple tomato (the big bushy plant in the back), various types of lavender (another big favorite of mine), rosemary (mmm, num num num!), poblano, bell, and two types of jalapeno peppers ('cuz Mama likes it hot, baby), mesclun lettuce, lemon thyme, mint, stevia, arugula (I just love saying 'aruuuuugula'), and luscious purple basil.

Not too bad for a (former) city girl, eh?