Ah Fall

I love fall, so I'm greatly enjoying my calendar stating that it's currently November first. Fall is the perfect season - it's not hot and humid, making me feel sticky and like a part of the unwashed masses, like in summer. Winter is blindingly cold, I have a perpetual runny nose thanks to my reaction to being cold (doctor told me that was the cause, I'm still doubtful).

The most glorious part of fall though is Halloween and all the joy that comes leading up to it. Lucky for me M enjoys this particular holiday as much as I do. We were going to try out a haunted forest but pumpkin carving took us longer than M expected. Instead we went for the corn maze at night. We managed to navigate both sections of the maze in just over an hours (1 hour 12 minutes to be exact). It was a blast, except for those young whipper snappers who couldn't seem to understand that if you go through the corn it ruins the maze. Bah, kids these days.

Anyway, one of M's favorite fall activities is pumpkin carving. It's a big deal in his book and is planned months in advance. Really, he talks about it all summer as the pumpkins grown, worrying and fretting that there won't be enough pumpkins for everyone that comes to the pumpkin carving party. There were plenty, but he lamented that the pumpkins weren't larger.

Between the worrying though he took the time to teach me the fine art of pumpkin carving, the proper way (according to M). Carving what I always thought of as elaborate is not actually as difficult are I originally thought. There are so many stencils and directions on the web that will be much more clear than me, as a mere novice, can provide.

I attempted to use a stencil, but I neglected to consider that my pumpkin was still a bit damp from wiping off the stray pumpkin innards. About a quarter of the way through outlining my stencil started to disintegrate. This was not a complete disaster, but did require me to free hand the outline of the design onto the pumpkin. It didn't turn out perfectly but I was impressed with the final product.

On a side note, I decided to treat myself this halloween weekend. No homework was done all night. Instead I knit and watched appropriate documentaries about haunted houses.


*DISCLAIMER: My camera is malfunctioning so any pictures are actually from M's friend or his sister.*