{"id":9449,"date":"2013-10-31T13:03:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T13:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=9449"},"modified":"2026-01-15T20:19:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T20:19:54","slug":"pumpkin-party-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=9449","title":{"rendered":"Pumpkin Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

……..Last night we had carving of pumpkins. I have written a lot lately about poetry – sorry to be such a bore – but it is an escape, for me anyway. Lines from poems often roll around in my head or pop up when I’m about to write, which happened just now. The first line of the post is actually an echo from the title of a poem by Henry Reed, “Today we have naming of parts.”<\/p>\n

Carving pumpkins is a family affair in our house. I go out with my husband to pick out two pumpkins at the local supermarket. We used to go into the country to buy one from a farmer, but they were very expensive and quite small for the money. So now we drive three blocks to the grocery store, where they are more of a lost leader and buy two very plump pumpkins.<\/p>\n

My husband hollows them out and our two sons carve them. Here is my eldest’s take on the horrid Jack o’ the Lantern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pumpkin – with outside light<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Here he is again with a candle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pumpkin with inside light.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\nAnd here is my youngest’s interpretation. He looks a lot like Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

Here is a link to a wonderful history of the pumpkin and why it is called One of the Three Sisters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

Finally the poem mentioned above, in case you were interested. It really has nothing to do with pumpkins. It’s the wrong season as well. However, the title is orange.<\/p>\n

\nNaming of Parts<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\nToday we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
\nWe had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning,
\nWe shall have what to do after firing. But today,
\nToday we have naming of parts. Japonica
\nGlistens like coral in all the neighboring gardens,
\nAnd today we have naming of parts.<\/p>\n

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
\nIs the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
\nWhen you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
\nWhich in your case you have not got. The branches
\nHold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
\nWhich in our case we have not got.<\/p>\n

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
\nWith an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
\nSee anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
\nIf you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
\nAre fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
\nAny of them using their finger.<\/p>\n

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
\nIs to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
\nRapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
\nEasing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
\nThe early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
\nThey call is easing the Spring.<\/p>\n

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
\nIf you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
\nAnd the breech, the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
\nWhich in our case we have not got; and the almond blossom
\nSilent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
\nFor today we have the naming of parts. <\/div>\n

\nTonight we will have screaming of witches. <\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nHave an amazing day!!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

……..Last night we had carving of pumpkins. I have written a lot lately about poetry – sorry to be such a bore – but it is an escape, for me anyway. Lines from poems often roll around in my head or pop up when I’m about to write, which happened just now. The first line […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9454,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9449\/revisions\/9454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}