Our Great Little Pumpkin

Off the cap of my cranium I can’t remember how long ago exactly  it was that I amended a patch of soil in the backyard and we planted several pumpkin plants… I think it was near the middle/end of August.

We knew we’d gotten a late start if we were thinking about harvesting a would-be jack o’lantern for Halloween, and we also knew there was a chance the plants wouldn’t bear any fruit whatsoever.

Over the next couple weeks, the vines took off growing in every direction and there was a good amount of flowering but little else, until finally I spied a bloom that had a little something extra at its base. Low and behold a pumpkin had been born.

Other pollinated blossoms would bear tiny fruits, but only this first one managed to survive and thrive, growing from the size of a pea to a marble to a golf ball to a tennis ball to a softball.

I was ready to let it keep on growing until yesterday, when I traced its vine trough the tangle back to its place in the ground and found it withering severely. I knew it was time to cut the chord.

And the result is just about the most adorable palm-sized little I done ever did see. From where it grew upon a rock, it’s backside has a nice arch to it, allowing  it to seat with a nice backwards lean so its “face” has a nice upward tilt… am I anthropomorphologizing this vegetable too much?

click image to doublify

Little more than the size of an extra-large coffee mug, our great little pumpkin weighed in very close to my 20-ounce guess yesterday: 19.7 ounces.

We’re very proud.

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Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."