Autumn is definitely upon us, and the temperature has plunged this week. Still, we have blue skies and crisp weather for the moment, which is not a bad thing. The clocks went back today, which is a bad thing. It's already been getting dark quite early, so now it will be all short days and gloom for the foreseeable. On the bright side,
once again, I headed to the local park to capture a few pictures of the autumn leaves:
Last night, on the other hand, I had an entirely new autumn experience: pumpkin carving! I expected I would be terrible at this, since I have pretty much zero artistic ability and my knife skills are poor at best (and not enhanced by drinking wine). So on balance I think I did a pretty good job. I was pretty terrified of the bold stabs with a butcher knife you had to do to get into the top of the thing:
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| You can imagine the Psycho music here |
And surprised at how much scraping and pulling out of gooey handfuls of flesh and seeds that had to be undertaken once you did get the top off. It's hard work!
It was a lot of fun though! I did a double-sided design, a pretty basic scary face on one side (and I managed to screw that up even) and hearts and stars on the back. It made a nice change from going out on the booze for once!
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| Marcia, Laura, Margot, me, Mathilde, Caroline and our pumpkins |
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| The back of my pumpkin. The other ladies took the piss that I made a heart, but you know, love's a scary thing, right? |
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| Mathilde's pumpkin was far superior to anything I could have managed. Unfairly, this was her first time as well! |
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| Spoooooky! I cut the bottom teeth the wrong way round so they all fell off. Whoops! |
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| Yes, someone did a jizzing cock pumpkin... |
There's more Halloween fun to come. On Wednesday I think everybody I've ever met in Tours and more are all headed to one of the Irish pubs. Handily, the 1st of November is a public holiday in France, so everyone can kick up their heels without worrying about work the next day. You'll have to stay tuned to discover my (not very exciting) costume!
Just a technical note to finish on - I reached my free photo storage limit on Blogger, so I added my other gmail address as a "blog author" and hey presto, I can upload photos again! So now you'll see some posts by Gwan and some by Gwannel, but it's all me. Everyone seems to say Wordpress is better than Blogger etc. but I've had the blog for over 6 years now, so I'd rather just keep the continuity going if possible.
I don't mind so much that the sun sets early, it's that it rises so late that get my goat. Having to be at work at 8am, it's depressing to get there when it's dark. Major boo!
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I LOVE your pumpkin photo. As a huge fan of Halloween, I have to say that this is the perfect image for the "holiday". It's a black and white photo of a hot chick stabbing an orange pumpkin. Perfect, just perfect!
Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween to you too! I love that description of the photo, and thank you!
DeleteAh, I don't have to get out of bed anymore, but usually yes, it is soooo difficult getting up when it's still dark outside. I'm hoping to take advantage of the extra hour by getting up a leetle bit earlier than I have been though, because I am quite the disgrace. You have a new job?
I do COMPLETE with a contract! To be shared...
DeleteWarning: It's not glamorous...like at all.
Hi Gwan!
I'm on my third glass of wine. : )
Woohoo, well done you! Enjoy the wine, I'm saving myself for Halloween mischief tomorrow
DeleteI love the pumpkin stabbing pic too! Also very impressed with your autumn leaves - the Parisian ones seem to fade to grey more than turn glorious red and orange :-(
ReplyDeleteThank you. I wonder why that is, pollution?? It is a particularly pretty park though.
DeleteYou fool! It should have been a turnip (as per the family tradition).
ReplyDeleteWell I've learnt that you would need a superior degree of carving prowess to tackle a turnip!
DeleteI totally love the pumpkin pics - what a fun idea! You just may have inspired me....our neighbors already think our balcony is weird because we grow so many things on it (and put Christmas lights on it during the winter), so why not a carved pumpkin too??
ReplyDeleteWhy not! Especially fun in a group. I'll have to remember to buy some matches so I can stick it on my windowledge for a fun surprise if anyone looks up to the 3rd floor.
DeleteLoving your autumn leaves photos. The pretty colours I occasionally see when I am out and about are one of the only things that motivates me to get out of bed on these cold days at the moment!! Oh and the pumpkin carvings. Very impressive!!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Hopefully I'll get down to the Loire to see if there are any nice colours down there, although from memory I think I did that last year and didn't find much of interest. It's gone cold so quickly, anything we can find for motivation is good!
DeleteLovely tree pictures Gwan. The one of you with the knife is scary though! and I think the heart pumpkin is very clever and arty.
ReplyDeleteLove Denise
Thanks a lot! I know, I was joking about developing bloodlust, but actually stabbing stuff is hard work, I think that alone would put me off ;)
Deletethat park is beaut-i-ful! and i didnt carve a pumpkin this year...which after seeing this, kind of makes me sad. mostly just baking the pumpkin seeds, but still :)
ReplyDeleteSuper pretty! I miss having a garden and a balcony, but at least there's the park. There's still time for the pumpkin carving, right?
DeleteTonite be Halloween! Have installed the automaatic machine guns with movement sensors trained on our driveway, plus selected anti personnel mines (set to trip at 10kg so as to get the little bs). If they get past those tricks they'll deserve a treat
ReplyDeleteDid any of them make it?
DeleteThat cat carved was a first timer! Insane! That's some serious pumpkin carving talent!
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween Gwan! :)
Happy Halloween! I knoooow, she put me to shame!
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