October Daily 12: Square Kilometres and Pumpkins

 

I found this image of the outline of British Columbia, my province, overlaid on various other parts of the world. It gives some inkling of how large the land mass of BC is. I live on the Island outlined in blue in the bottom left of the sketch. 

Our population is 5.2 million, and it's concentrated in a few clusters, particularly southern Vancouver Island (where I live) and the lower mainland, ie Greater Vancouver. In most of BC's regional districts the population density is fewer than 10 people per square kilometre. There's a lot of wilderness!

Yesterday I noticed lots of families in the pumpkin patch beside the road, choosing pumpkins for Halloween. I took this photo on that misty morning last week. The pumpkins are sometimes grown in other fields and placed here for pumpkin hunters to find. 

Isn't this the perfect pumpkin? Wouldn't it make a wonderful carriage for Cinderella? 

What do you do with pumpkins? Decorate? Soup? Pie? 

A Week of Contrast

Unusually warm sunshine for the end of October began our week. My eldest daughter and I enjoy birthdays just two days apart and we try to go out for coffee or lunch together during this time. 
This year, we went to Butchart Gardens for a walk and then enjoyed scones and tea in the coffee shop.

I wondered if we would see any dahlias. Yes, indeed. They were still their in all their glowing colour. We were just in time, though, for I noted a wheelbarrow filled with cut plants and tubers. The lifting out has begun. 

Dahlias are so varied. It's almost the end of the fall flowers now and we watched gardeners planting bucket fulls of spring bulbs. One gardener threw them over the beds, letting them fall where they may, while others followed and dug the bulbs in with long-handled tools.

I planted bulbs in my own garden last Saturday. What a hopeful thing it is to place dry brown bits into the ground, and cover them up, trusting that they will transform into beautiful flowers in a few months. First, however, they, and we, must pass the winter season.  

  
We had an unexpectedly early taste of winter this week, too. The temperature dropped to below freezing and the snow began to fall. I was glad to spend time drinking tea while toasting myself by the fire. 

Today the sun returned, but the temperature continues low. A good day to bake a cake and use the copper beating bowl Tim gave me for my birthday. In an odd bit of happy coincidence, my youngest daughter gave me a set of copper measuring spoons. The two givers didn't consult each other, nor had I mentioned a desire for copper items.

I baked a pumpkin chiffon cake and it turned out well, light and airy with a delicate pumpkin flavour. I put the recipe on my other blog. Here's a link. Copper is supposed to give egg whites an edge on beating up. 

Sunshine to snow to rain and back to sunshine. What will this week hold? 

Linking with Mosaic Monday, hosted by Maggie of Normandy Life.   

Happy Thanksgiving

Late afternoon light shows off the sculptural petals of this dahlia just before I clipped it for the house. 

Blueberry leaves are fire engine red and will soon begin to tumble to the ground.

A storm blew in this afternoon and rain pelts the garden. This pumpkin, photographed yesterday, is the brightest spot in my garden.

Indoors, we're warm and toasty. The pumpkin pies are cooling. My parents arrived this afternoon and the recipe pictured above was sitting on the counter. Mom was surprised to see it there, well used and spattered. It's the recipe from her own childhood, one that her mother used. 

Bread slices dry in the laundry room (on the counter, not in the dryer!). The turkey is thawing. Potatoes and sweet potatoes, pickles and onions are bursting the cupboards. Tomorrow we gather in thankfulness.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends! 
  

Fabric Pumpkin Tutorial

I seem to have a thing for pumpkins this year. White ones. First, the paper book ones. Now these. I've been admiring the plushy velvet ones I've seen, but didn't have any velvet. What I do have is some silk dupioni. 

So I thought I'd whip some up, and in the process, do a little tutorial in case any of you want to try them out. They are easy to make.

Supplies you will need:

fabric scraps for pumpkin

(I used silk dupioni, but you could use a print, or velvet, or whatever you have)

even smaller fabric scraps to hold rice in the bottom of the pumpkin

(tight weave - about 6 inches square)

thread to match

hand sewing needle

sewing machine

scissors

rice, flax seed, or barley

polyester stuffing

stem - either from a real squash or pumpkin, dried

OR a stick

wire for tendrils

paper for leaves

1.  For three pumpkins, cut the following:

- three circles of silk dupioni (or whatever you are using for the outside of your pumpkin) with these diameters, 9 inches, 10.5 inches, and 13.5 inches

- six circles of cotton, two each with a diameter of 3.5 inches, 4.5 inches, 5 inches

NOTE: These numbers are not set in stone - I used plates, bowls and lids that were in my kitchen 

2. Using your sewing machine, stitch the two smaller circles together, leaving about 2 inches open for filling. I drew a pencil line over the stitching so you can see where I stitched. 

3.  Using a funnel, pour rice, barley or flax seed into the circle to fill it. Don't overfill. This will sit in the bottom of your pumpkin to give it shape and a nice weight.

 4.  Shake the filling to one side and carefully stitch the opening closed. Don't run over the filling with your needle - breakage could occur.

5.  Center the filled pouch on a pumpkin circle. 

6.  Using doubled thread in a hand sewing needle, stitch, using a running stitch, around the edge of the pumpkin, folding over the edge as you stitch.

7.  Pull the stitches tightly to gather, leaving an opening for filling. Don't cut your thread.

8.  Fill with fibrefill. Don't overfill the pumpkin or it will look stiff and unnatural. You want a soft, squishy look. Push the stuffing around the edges to plump them out.

9.  Place the pumpkin stem in the opening and pull up the threads around it. When the stem is secure, tie off your thread ends and cut them.

10. Twist wire around the stem for tendrils. 

12. Make paper leaves from an old book. My book was not old so I colored the leaves with a tea wash, letting them dry naturally which resulted in a bit of crinkling that I think adds to the verisimilitude of the look. Truth to be told, I used one of my French books - one that I didn't enjoy and will never read again. 

Et voilà - you have a pumpkin! Or three! Play with them as you like.

If you make these, I'd love to hear about it!