Patti’s Private Pumpkin Patch

The garden smells of decay, the leaves drying and swirling, flowers blackening, bees swarming for the last of the nectar.  The tomatoes are fading, the pumpkins ripening, neon shades of orange, some still a faded green.  They are stocked in bins outside the grocery and hardware stores, gourds in nets, ready for picking–and payment by weight.

But, my friend Patti has been visiting a pay-by-the-carload pumpkin patch north of the IL border for fifteen years, packing the car with a rainbow of pumpkins. We played a couple hour of hooky to visit her secret spot earlier this week, gathering pumpkins on their opening day.  What fun we had on a lovely autumn afternoon!  The first car in, we parked by an open field dotted with pumpkins, scattered gourds on the ground. We traipsed back and forth, pumpkins in hand, tiny ones in a bucket piling higher, the trunk filling.

babies

Once the car was filled with green and orange pumpkins, tall and round and skull-shaped ones, the search was on for the elusive white pumpkin.  We wandered in the fields, sneaking a few more treasures, but we only found four small white ones intermingled with the orange ones.

A full load!

All this, for only $65.  Plus an afternoon of  sun, searching through fields, spending time with a good friend.  Worth the late nights catching up working. Plus, the porch looks great with the decorations, and the kids are ready to carve them, toasting the seeds.  C

 

Cyber kisses and handshakes?

Yesterday I felt like Alice who slipped down the tunnel, caught in a maze of doors to open, lost in the keypad of my laptop.  I had a couple spare hours–what should I update first?  Excluding work, there was a myriad of electronic options–write on my blog, update my facebook page, find new contacts on Linkedin, upload and sort vacation photos, post new pictures on my Flickr page after categorizing photos, visit my family’s new social networking page, surf the internet, respond to an evite, donate online to a friend’s upcoming charity walk, start on a new freelance project…the list expands as I reminisce. 

I chose to start with a short facebook update, donation, then uploaded my photos woefully after the fact on my flickr page; hopefully the friends I sent emails to remembered attending the events with me!  But since I had photos from a school function to turn in, I can cross that item off my “to-do” list.  And there is now a new “2009″ photos folder on my computer, already bulging with pictures from San Diego.

I was satisfied with my choices, but I continued to think about my long  “to-do” list that all involved the computer.

A day later, still rambling through the Gateway, I wonder if people still make face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact, with all the electonic conversations, bullets, rants, thoughts that pulse through the airwaves all day and nite.  But is a cyber handshake enough to cinch the deal?  If my friend is scared for the future, I can’t give her a hug online or reassure with the written word like the timbre and tone a voice and touch can give.  And when emotional, skittering fingers across cold, unfeeling letters can misconstrue words and thoughts. 

Yes, the computer (and the cell phone with texting) is a wonderful, useful time-saving  tool, but what are we losing, with the lack of  human interaction? Only time, measured in milli-seconds and over analyzed, will tell. C

 

Walking

 I know that teens can think they walk on water, but this is ridiculous!  Happy 14th birthday, dear Tara!  C

 

Body Parts

The human body can be beautiful, it can be grotesque.  One assignment for school has been to shoot body parts, but none of the entire face.  Here are a couple of mine, with my daughter Devon my muse.

love the texture, the simplicity, the color, the neatness–and the messiness simultaneously

 and my favorite…

 C

 

Autumn Glory!

Can we still call it Indian summer in November?  The hovering sun and warmth is predicted to end today, but the summerlike conditions have been and amazing break for a normally grey time in Chicago.  Wearing shorts biking yesterday?  Working the horses outside?  A lovely treat for all. 

We jump for joy with with weather…until tonight, when light snow is expected.

Here is more autumn beauty to share:

C

 

Spring Cleaning

 Girls spinning on a spring day. 

 White skirts, a sure sign of spring.

   Such innocent fun!

Just a couple reasons kids should be forever in blue jeans.  Imagine the grass stains.  And all kids should have a dog to love.  C

 

 

Has spring sprung?

Will spring arrive by May?  I certainly hope so,  despite this funky snow/rain/cold weekend.  Here are  some  photos I shot in December, just to remind us that the weather truly was worse out there. (but

gave opportunities for beautiful pictures).

With the sun peeking through the billowing grey and white clouds, I can see two Mallards (nicknamed Chip and Dip) swimming in the water-filled culvert in the front yard.  We had a muskrat hanging around the backyard all day yesterday, fascinating us as he waddled about the yard, and an elegant heron flew overhead.  The frogs serenade us with their mating songs throughout the days and nights–do they ever sleep?–and the first crocus are searching for warmth, their purple and white heads turned towards the sun. 

Here are a couple pictures I took after writing this post today, of our yard and Freddie–the new nickname for the muskrat:

Yes, spring is coming–just slower than usual.  We who live in the Midwest can certainly appreciate the changing seasons, especially after a snow-filled winter.  C