A plethora of pumpkins

Pumpkin panorama                 Photo credit: Tom Twaro

Last Thursday, 40 pumpkins were dropped off at our office and we were asked to kindly carve them up. Sounded like a good idea - and we're a creative bunch. My co-workers have been bringing in their pumpkins all week. Most carved one. Some carved two. Some asked their spouses or significant others to help. Our copy director's husband used a power drill to poke holes through the one that's the fifth from the left - isn't that nifty? The crazy glowing porcupine on the far left was engineered by one of our sales guys. I just love the diversity of our designs. Some of the guys built a platform across the shrubberies along the side of the building, drilled holes through the pumpkins and then ran white lights through the whole lot. The panorama pic above doesn't quite capture all of them, so be sure to check out this link. We're very close to a busy road, which makes it impossible to fit the whole length of our display into one shot.

I love carving pumpkins. My freshman year in college, we had a carving contest in my dorm and my team won. I have a photo somewhere of Karl from Flushing posing with our masterpiece. I remember that we were inspired to sculpt our squash rather than go the traditional route. It was nothing like these - but still pretty impressive.

I don't know where we got this year's pumpkins from, but these were no ordinary specimens. None of those lopsided, dented, funky blobs. These were plump and shiny and perfect. I only took a "before" picture of one of mine. I almost didn't want to cut into it, it was so perfect! I decided to go with a classic friendly jack-o-lantern and then a super-simple design I thought might look interesting when lit from within.

Before

After

There's a village near here that hosts The Great Pumpkin Roll every year before Halloween. They started it 17 years ago as a positive response to pranksters who had a tradition of making a giant grody mess. It is now a popular event for all ages that brings the community together and has raised thousands of dollars for the local Parks and Recreation department. You can watch some of the fun here - the action starts around the 1:20 mark.

Wild and wooly weekend

A. Raise your hand if you knew this was how 

Brussels sprouts grew. 

Well, not that wild and wooly ...

Friday: While most of the family went to the Red Wings game, I came home from work, ate leftovers and watched a movie on Netflix before picking up Sharon's friend's daughter at the airport. She and I then went to Walmart at 1 a.m. because the airline lost her luggage and she needed a few items in case her bag that was in Atlanta or Argentina or Azerbaijan didn't show up. Got the People of Walmart song stuck in my head. It's oh, so very wrong but oh, so very funny.

Saturday: Went to the farmers market and purchased Brussels sprouts. See photo A. I'm planning to roast them. Then I went to watch Sammy and Ashton play hockey. And then I saw the Footloose remake (read a review here - written by the son of a friend in my yoga class) with Kay and went to Starbucks afterward for mochas and chitchat. When I got home, I started carving pumpkins for work (we have a huge display in front of the office) and then went to dinner with Sharon and her childhood friend and three daughters (including the one whose luggage had still not been delivered).

Sunday: After church I took an impromptu and informative trip to the Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor with Barb, preceded by a detour to the cupcake shop and followed by an early dinner at Frita Batidas (my new favorite Ann Arbor eatery).

Calabaza salad and chorizo frito - oh, yummmm - served on 

eco-friendly plantain leaves with compostable cutlery!

Rows of white picnic tables festooned with a selection of salsas,
seasoned salt and bag-o-limes adds to the understated ambience. 

But back to this Fiber Expo thing ... three whole barns full of wooly, furry, funny critters and wooly, furry, funny people creating beautiful creations out of formless fluff. I will never look at sweaters the same way again. I really didn't expect the critters, and they were a terrific bonus since I don't know a drop spindle from a niddy-noddy and really only went on this jaunt for the ride. (And the promise of good food. And friend time.)

Oh - did you know that our English expression "spinning a yarn" is "raconter des salades" in French?

I call it "Fiber Flower Salad." 

Indeed. It was a very educational afternoon. After I'd finished pestering all of the animals and while Barb was off purchasing balls of fluff, some nice ladies introduced me to needlefelting and I made this bookmark-whatchamacallit-cat-toy-dust collector.

Now I want to needlefelt all sorts of things. And I'm rather inspired to learn how to knit socks.

All in all, I had a lovely time. And when I arrived home with a full head and a happy tummy, I finished carving pumpkins and did laundry. I'll try to post pumpkin pics tomorrow.

These two were humming a little song (it's a thing alpacas do).

Alpaca babies!

Feel my sheeps ears ... they're made of boiled wool. Baaaa!

Lady, leave my butt alone. I'm feeling a draft in here.

But I would like just a little trim around the eyes, puhleez.

Can you tell I'm a little bit horngry?

This is what silk looks like when it's gathered from the 

silkworms. (I did not see or pet any silkworms.)

Cheeeeese!

We learned that camels shed their hair (part of the molting process) - it is generally not shorn like other animals valued for their coats. As you can imagine, the hairy fibers are kind of dirty when they're gathered up but then are sorted and washed and "de-haired" before being spun into yarn. 

Pretty pretty colors everywhere! (But sadly, I did
not see any technicolor sheepses.)

The second Sunday in October

Women and girls carry water home in Geles, an Arab village in Darfur.

Credit: Paul Jeffrey/ACT-Caritas

The CROP Walk in our community is always the second Sunday in October. I've walked the 6.2 miles of our local Walk almost every year for the last 16 or 17 years. (Two years ago, I helped hand out snacks at my sister's church, which was one of the rest stops.) It is a wonderful annual tradition, and I especially enjoy sharing it with some of the young people in my life. It's pretty cool to walk - rain (or snow!) or shine - with hundreds of others working to end hunger locally and around the world.

If the women and girls in the photo above can walk this distance every day just to get water - I figure I can do it once a year -- what an easy way to help raise awareness - and funds - to help dig wells in deserts and provide nourishing meals close to home.

Will you help me "de-feet" hunger?

Can you hear me now?

Where's the jelly?

I lost my cell phone at work yesterday. I remember picking it up off my desk and putting it in my purse before heading out for lunch. And then later in the afternoon realized it was missing. I completely retraced my steps after work ... nada. A mystery.

So even with things like email and Facebook (and LinkedIn and Twitter) and a regular phone, I still feel disconnected. Itchy. Annoyed.

So please don't call or text me on my cell today.

I saw this truck while on my way home from work the other day and it made me think of peanut butter. When I was a little girl, I was convinced that cement trucks were peanut butter mixing trucks. Still, today, I think of peanut butter every time I see one of these. Especially the orange ones. (OK. Is it a concrete mixer or a cement mixer? I know the difference in the two materials but was not finding a definitive answer by googling.)

I heard the other day on NPR that we're having a bit of a peanut shortage this year.

Oh, it's cold here. I have nothing important to say but I just don't want to extract myself from my cozy nest with a snuggling kitty cat. I can't bring myself to turn the furnace on just yet. Brrrrr ...

Happy Saturday!