En Garde! A Tale Of Two Jack O'Lanterns.

It's been many years since I've hacked out a
Jack O'Lantern from an unsuspecting orange gourd.

BOO!

But last night, daughter Anne and I performed
some skin-and-seed-ectomies on a couple of
plump $5 pumpkins from the local supermarket.

 We cleaned them out.

Anne helped me, as I am sort of slipshod about these things.

Carving pumpkins with my daughter is

very much like coloring Easter Eggs with her.

I take an egg, draw a lopsided bunny in white crayon, and dip it in pink dye.

She takes an egg, and inks in a facsimile of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  In living color.

I was ridiculously proud of my traditional,
goof-ball-faced, gap-toothed Jack O'Lantern.  

And then . . . I saw Anne's.

Yes, it's a raven, and it is quothing "Nevermore."

Complete with quoth marks.

(Apologies to Mr. Poe.  I'm only funning.)

(Want to read The Raven by EdgarAllen Poe?  Click here!)

No stencil.  Free hand.

Her first attempt at pumpkin carving.  

So, while my first pumpkin carving in probably 15 years
isn't exactly  a work of art, guess what?
Pumpkin carving is one of my Favorite Things.

I want to do more of them,
but Shop Rite is sold out!
**************************

We have a few leaves down at That Old House.

Howard and Annie did a lot of leaf removal today, bless their hearts.

I made meatloaf -- Cass

Claudia at Mockingbird Hill Cottage is our hostess for

A Favorite Thing . . . on Saturdays.   Click here!

P. S.   I was going to include a recipe for an apple cake in this post, and I had better pictures of the Jack O'Lanterns, too . . . but after a few pictures loaded, Blogger would not load anymore.  It just stopped.  Dead.  Bad Blogger.  Bad, bad Blogger.  I've been having problems with very slow picture loading, but it's never just refused pictures at all before.  Anyone else have this problem?