I spent Autumn this year drifting around a bit and getting ready for the next stage of my life — interviewing, accepting a job, and finding a place to live.  But I also took some time to enjoy the fall colors and some of the spookiness of the Halloween season.  In Kentucky I visited a pumpkin patch and farm market with a friend on a beautiful fall day.

I was a bit surprised to see the variety of pumpkins available, including a bin of what I believe are Queensland blue pumpkins.  I don’t know if I’ve seen them in the US much before, although they’re one of the most common varieties in Australia.

There were gourds galore, in a lovely variety of shapes and colors!

My friend was in search of jack-o-lantern pumpkins, so we took the tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch, passing through the vineyard on the way.

I think that everyone has something different in mind when they think of “the perfect pumpkin,” but my instructions were to find one that had no major blemishes, was very large, and had a good stem.  There were plenty to choose from, and we soon found what we were looking for.

While waiting for the tractor back to the farm, we enjoyed wandering around the fields, and checking out the stunning white pumpkins.  Ok, we ended up getting one of those too..

As we wandered back to the tractor stop, I found it!  The Great Pumpkin!  It’s hard to tell from this photo, but this pumpkin was so large that it came up to my knee when I was standing beside it.  Yes, I know, I’m not all that tall, but still… this was a big pumpkin!  However it was also a heavy pumpkin, so we decided to leave it for some other lucky, and very strong, person to take home.

We next visited the koi pond on the property to feed the fish and ducks.  I couldn’t help thinking about how creepy it might feel to the ducks to have fish touching their feet while they swim… ~shiver~.   But they didn’t seem to mind much.

I fed a few of the little quackers by hand.  Except for some experimental finger nibbles, they were very polite, and honked softly at me the whole time.

I kept wishing that I had a house door to hang these decorations on, especially the beautiful large Indian corn.  Well, next year!

The farm was also a vineyard, so we sampled a couple of the wines, and then had lunch at the on-site restaurant.  I didn’t order the duck…

My friend was rather surprised that I had never visited a haunted house, so decided to introduce me to them, and in the evening we went to the “Hayride to Hell” and the “Field of Screams.”

The Field in particular was rather creepy, since the light breeze was constantly moving the rustling corn stalks around us, and you just never knew when someone was going to jump out at you!  We also went to the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a haunted house in an old tuberculosis hospital where many people died.  It was far creepier, and potentially really haunted (!!), so I’m glad I warmed up with the corn field first!  [Sorry for the lack of pictures, but they’re not allowed, and it was very dark anyway.]

So I really had a lovely Autumn this year, and am definitely looking forward to decorating a house and going to more haunted attractions next year!