Pumpkin

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At The End of August

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Camphorweed (Pluchea odorata)

Now that we are getting to the end of August, Summer comes to an end as well. Tomorrow begins the meteorological Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. My favorite season of the year will arrive soon. Even when it takes another six to eight weeks before Autumn shows the first signs here in North Texas, I’m so ready to celebrate the colorful and cooler season with apples, pumpkins, tea, candles and Harvest/Halloween decor. The tent will come back out for camping weekends. Gardening will be so much more fun, when it is not so warm anymore. And we can take the dogs out for a walk and in the doggy park more often, again. Oh, do I love Autumn!

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Our Greenhouse/Garden In Early May 2019

The plants are doing great in the greenhouse. We have tiny tomatoes showing under the blossoms. When the fruits are bigger, I will blog and show some photos of them. But right now, they are still very small. One of our Lemon Basil plants began to bloom. The fennel is getting bigger, which will be a great host for Black Swallowtail Caterpillars in Summer. The Shasta Daisies are flourishing. The peppers are still tiny. Once it gets warmer, they will start to grow bigger, too. I have to be patient with them.

Lemon Basil Blossoms
Fennel
Shasta Daisy Droplets
The bell pepper looks like a miniature boxing glove.

Last Winter, I dumped a Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin in the compost. Now, we have seedlings growing out of it. We will leave them all in there and hope they make it. Probably only the strongest will survive. If we get a pumpkin or two out of it, that would be awesome. And if we not, it will be fun to see how far along the seedlings will grow in that pile. Hey, the tomatoes grow on almost a foot of kitchen compost. Why shouldn’t it work for the pumpkins, right?! 😉 The broccoli is done! It blooms and soon will go to seed. I’ll collect them for the next season. I’m surprised, how well the Rosemary does in the raised bed. This herb usually likes well drained soil and not much rain.

Our broccoli blooms and will go to seed soon.
We have pumpkin seedlings growing in the compost.
Rosemary
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Little Autumn Pumpkin

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Little Pumpkin played “Hide-and-Seek” with me one Autumn afternoon, several years back.

Little Pumpkin is hiding in the Autumn foliage.
Little Pumpkin thought it can hide from me. 😉

Happy Autumn!

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Smashing Pumpkins …

… after Halloween has been a tradition in our family for over a decade. Back in the days, when Katelynn was little, Kevin smashed it for her. And Katelynn kicked the Pumpkin all over the backyard. These days, the girls are big enough to smash them themselves.

Katelynn picked a pumpkin from the frontyard and smashed it in the backyard. Sara watched her and saw, how much fun her big sister had with the Jack-o-Lantern. She ran out to the front, picked a pumpkin, dragged it in the backyard and kicked it. Luis looked at the girls and those “Jacks”. He was not sure, what to think of this game. He sniffed around the pumpkins, when the girls were done. We leave the smashed vegetables out in the grass. Mr. Squirrel, Mrs. Rabbit, and Mrs. Cottontail might pick on them, before the pumpkins become nutrition for the soil.

Sara has so much fun, destroying the pumpkins.
Katelynn rips the pumpkin in small pieces.

Video of Pumpkin Smashing: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132943299@N07/43905969100/in/album-72157678416071305/

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Halloween 2018

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First it looked very bleak for Trick-or-Treat. But when I picked up Katelynn from school, she mentioned something about “Trunk-or-Treat” in her school gym. “… Maybe Sara would be interested in it, since it rains”, she said. Kevin went with the girls, and Katelynn’s friend to the High School. And when it stopped raining, they went Trick-or-Treating in the neighborhood. My job was to get the pizza in the oven and give out candy.

Since Luis barks too much, I had him in the backyard. But somehow he managed to open the patio door and came back in. He was in, but Lexi and the cats were out. Luis ended up in Sara’s room; Lexi came back in; Joshua spent some time in the garage; and Chewbacca kept checking out the backyard, until he got tired of getting “rained on” from the trees.

“Ranger” in front of the Halloween tree.
This year’s Jack-o-Lanterns

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The Night Before Halloween

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Tonight I checked my decoration and lights, before the big day tomorrow. On Halloween, it suppose to rain all day. I don’t know, if we can go to Trick-or-Treat. But we have a Plan B, in case that part falls in the water. I will spend most of the day, carving pumpkins and cooking a good Vegetable Beef Soup. Who knows, maybe I get a little fire going in the fire place.

Ceramic Pumpkin
Skull & Lights
Spooky ghosts fly across the wall.
Ceramic Gourd

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