Yet Another Pumpkin Patch

Sunday, October 18th we went to yet another pumpkin patch to get our fill of the fall season. The Moore Pumpkin Patch is a chain and this small one is located on a lot associated with a church and only a few blocks away from Alex's home. Alex general picks two or three small pumpkins to take home with him. When we first arrived I asked Alex to pose for a picture and this is the result.  When you tell Alex to smile he closes his eyes and says "yeah, yeah" and I caught him in the action. For his eyes to be open, the shot needs to be candid.

Aside from the pumpkins there are several displays to amuse and educate. Alex made himself comfortable by the goat and the chicken.

I learned something new from the cow display. How many...

• Squirts does it take to make a gallon of milk?  350 squirts
• Gallons of milk does a cow produce in a day?  10 gallons
• Stomachs does a cow have?  4
• Hours a day does a cow spend eating/chewing? 6 eating/6 chewing
  
  

 

Even ghosts want to get into the pumpkin carving act. Alex will not carve his pumpkins, just carry them around with him.

There are several photo opportunities scattered though out the small lot of this pumpkin patch and I paused at several of them. There is the truck carrying a load of pumpkins and there is the bales of hay with cornstalks display. Alex's pumpkin preference is for small palm size pumpkins or slightly larger ones if they are light enough and have a stem for carrying. He picked one small pumpkin with a tall stem and two tiny pumpkins this year.

After the  pumpkin patch we went on to our regular Sunday bowling. Even Earl Anthony's Bowl  is decorated for the season.

Unlike his wiser son — who picked only pumpkins small enough to carry by himself — Frank picked a huge one we struggled to get into the car at the patch and out of the car once home. Frank did select a good one. It does look quite grand near our front door, even if we do not carve it.

I myself, for one, am content with an eclectic collection of soft cloth stuffed pumpkins displayed on the living room hearth. I also enjoy a fall-themed soft goods seasonal display on the dining room table.

   

Ponder: Don't Let the Forest In

Don't Let the Forest In ©2024 by CG Drews is a #1 best seller in Teen & Young Adult monster fiction per Amazon. I did not even know there was such a category. This book was a real page turner for me, despite the category — or most likely because of it. I chose this young adult book because I enjoyed the author's adult novel You Did Nothing Wrong which I recently read and reviewed 10/9/26. I gave You Did Nothing Wrong four stars and will similarly give Don't Let the Forest In four stars as well.

My reading choices this October have most certainly leaned toward the macabre, probably because I have Halloween on the brain. This leaning is weird for me. I am a "merry witch, Casper the Friendly Ghost, or smiling pumpkin" type of gal. This book is definitely none of those. Although it is chuck full of monsters, I could not help caring deeply for the characters and their struggles. These are teens in their senior year of high school and the stresses put on them, above and beyond the academic and social ones, are tremendous. I felt like I wanted to defend them and comfort them.

All the while I was reading Don't Let the Forest In, I kept visualizing how this novel would make an awesomely illustrated animated horror movie. I was about to scan some of the illustrations from the book to show what I meant and realized there were only a few in the book. Those of monsters were not at all what I had pictured. The text in this book is so vivid, my mind was filled with curling, coiling, twisting images of vines and tendrils and claws, slender and graceful while deadly. The teens longing, affection, and defense of each other ran painfully deep.

The setting takes place at a boarding school in Virginia. Andrew and Dove, twin siblings, and Thomas are the main characters and share a sort of a three-musketeers-type camaraderie. Andrew is an incredibly talented author whose strength lies in writing macabre fairy tales with monsters. Thomas is an incredibly talented artist who generates illustrations that bring these gruesome tales to life. These monsters live in the forest which is on the other side of the fence from the school. When the monsters begin to cross that boundary and seek satiation among the students and teachers, Thomas and Andrew take it upon themselves to act as protectors and fight the beasts. An intense plot keeps this book moving due to nightly monster battles. However, the emotions and relationship among the characters was also a real draw for me. A nasty, vindictive teacher, an abusive bully, and gender identification struggles add the spice to the story in the same way hops plays a key role in beer production. The resolution was not what I expected.

I rate Don't Let the Forest In four stars, deducting only one star because the novel may favor a limited audience. I could not put it down; it was riveting and sad. If you are curious... no, it did not give me nightmares. 

  ★★★★☆ Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience

I generally do not read Amazon reviews until after I have read a book to prevent the reviews from influencing my blog post. If you read this book however, and wonder how to interpret what really happened, this review on Amazon for Don't Let the Forest In is an excellent clarifier. I cite only the opening paragraph here, but the four star review is worth looking up after you've read the book.