I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
--Henry David Thoreau
****************************************************************
I leave all my pumpkins out and about even though Halloween has come and gone. I just like even saying the word--pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin.
They share the stage with my outdoor statuary and front porch, and indoors nestled around my collectibles. I am lucky to be the recipient of many pumpkins because my son grows them commercially (for Winco and others) and provides me with as many as I want.
My late friend, Marion Hilton, also loved pumpkins and used them in her wonderful photographs of early homes and settings. I once went to an autumn gathering at her antique-filled home and she had emptied out an old painted primitive open cupboard of everything on display and filled the shelves with all sizes of pumpkins. She was thrilled when she discovered the variety of pumpkin called "Cinderella" years ago.
I made a little vignette above my kitchen sink nestling pumpkins,a great gourd (from Bauman's in Woodburn), and some autumn leaves next to my shell pot (purchased at stars, of course). I really like the pale pumpkins mixed in with the others.
I had fun using a pumpkin as a model and painting it a couple of weeks ago and using a quote from a book called The Merchant of Marvels by Frederic Clement. I took a photo of the painting for you.
It says: "I possess pumpkin seeds and carriage seeds. If you plan to go to the ball, you had better now plant the carriage seeds...
unless, of course, you have a Fairy Godmother. Then the pumpkin seeds will suffice."
****************************************************************
After the Thanksgiving weekend, it is time to turn my thoughts to December and a different sort of decoration. The pumpkins are given to the neighbor's cows across the way.
I sign off with a photo of my side yard and an excerpt from a Thomas Hood poem:
...No fruits, no flowers
no leaves, no birds,
November!
(There will be no leaves that is until after I rake them!!!!)
Gayle@starsantique.com
