Pumpkins and other things.

Autumn is celebrated in a big way here, culminating in Halloween. The shops, peoples houses, businesses have all had their decorations up now for over two weeks. They don't just stick one lonely pumpkin in the window, they decorate the entire house, inside and out, with ghosts, ghouls, witches, cobwebs, spiders and pumpkins. You look in peoples windows and see tombstones and the like.

Walmart is awash with orange decorations.

 Pumpkin outside lights, decorative gourds, scarecrows, Halloween clothes and a whole mountain of trick or treat paraphernalia.

As you can see, it's cheap.

 We still have a whole month before Halloween! There is a Halloween parade in town, which we must make sure we see.
Outside of town we can go to a corn maze and pick our own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, or just buy it cheap from Walmart.

 A pumpkin man has appeared at the farmer's market, who is not unlike the pumpkins he is selling- rotund!

I started talking to him and he was a very nice man. He is a teacher of agriculture at the local school and pumpkins are his hobby. Orange is his favourite colour!

His van was a weird and wonderful selection of pumpkins, some heritage varieties. Some were valued by the indians because they would last all winter. They are the less beautiful ones. Some of them look as if they are covered in warts! Most of them taste better than the one that is commonly used for Halloween decorations. I thought they were beautiful. He gave me one of the little ones as a present.

 Everywhere there are huge pots of chrysanthemums in autumnal shades, which people place round their front gardens. I like it! It seems to be an acknowledgement that the season is on the turn.

On a different note, a new friend was collecting a cake for her daughter's birthday. While we waited I flipped through the designs they offered and was amused to see a cake with a man with a shotgun on one side of the cake and a dead deer on the other! I didn't think that would be a big seller in Islington.

Roland has appeared in the local paper and would have been interviewed on the radio if he was prepared to be in college at 6.30am, which he wasn't. So I thought I would leave you with his cheery face..

And his photo taken specially for his interview on the college website

We have been invited to a party tonight. 6pm!!! They do start early. I will be interested to see what they eat, drink and do at parties.