Pumpkin

In the house I lived in for the first 10 years of my life my mom had a big beautiful garden.  We had rows of green beans, and peas, carrots, radishes, and zucchini and squash and potatoes and... pumpkins!  We would pick out the giants as little starters at the nursery.  Little six packs of dark dirt with lime-y green leaves poking up through the soil.  By the time October rolled around the vines had taken over the middle of the garden.  It was fun to anticipate craving up the pumpkins and waiting impatiently for them to get just a bit bigger.

One year we had the hugest pumpkins ever.  To get them from the garden up to the patio we had to roll them up some planks of wood.  I'm pretty sure my mom brought out every knife in the kitchen in our attempts to open the pumpkins up.  All the boys that lived down our street enjoyed showing of their "manly" strength, but to no avail.  I think it was my dad who finally got the top off these giants.  The hull was about 6 inches thick - no wonder they were so hard to open up.  

Pumpkins aren't just for kids.  Lukas and I had fun this October picking out pumpkins while we were in Arcata.  And we had fun planning and carving them too.  Lukas made Mr. Peanut and I tried my hand at doing a silhouette.  It only took me about 3 hours, but it did turn out cool.  My mom got inspired too.  

Lukas has informed me that, "It's January, you know?  You can't write about pumpkins in January!"  But, I'm going to write about pumpkins so there.