Parade of Pumpkins!


Every year on November 1st, everyone in our neighbourhood brings their pumpkins to a local park (at the end of my street) and lines them up. This has a twofold purpose:

1. How FUN!
2. Means noone is throwing their pumpkins out on the street come November 1st and that the City can come and collect them all in one place for disposal (one hopes they’re composting somewhere…).

Last year there were over 600 pumpkins there, throngs of people, hoardes of children and even a few dogs, not too sure about the whole thing! This year was no exception and I popped out mid-assignment to check it out. It was just getting dark, hence the weird lighting in the photos.

Without further ado, I present the Sorauren Park 2009 Pumpkin Parade (you can see more pics here):

























Until next year….

15 thoughts on “Parade of Pumpkins!”

  1. I was out for a sublime boeuf bourguignon dinner with my wine group (Featuring a 2000 Pinot Gris with appies; then 1990, 1992 and 1999 Burgundy to accompany the meal, 2005 Priorat near the end, and wee sip of Sauternes with home-made ginger cookies. But I digress.) so went to the parade upon my return, around 22.00.

    Was glorious then, as very quiet with only a few dozen people milling about – and of course pretty much all the pumpkins had been put out by then.

    Mardi's shots, while nice, don't convey the scale of this thing…we're talking over a kilometre of pumkins snaking around a five-hectare area. I should have gone back at that quiet hour with my tripod, but was too tired.

    If you live anywhere near us, it truly is worth the visit.

    There was a corner of "Michael Tribute" pumpkins, then the really scary ones that simply had "H1N1" on the front, doll-house ones with gourds to make furniture inside (I'm not kidding), haunted houses (one creatively using the innards as cobwebs), one Rex Murphy (who suspiciously looked a wee bit like Frankenstein), hockey players (of course), one rather odd one eating a baby doll (ummm…), Where the Wild Things Are characters, a dirty diesel train (as a protest), lots of cats, pumkin snowmen — and sooo much more. Plus the usual sort.

    Suffering a serious case of pumpkin envy, as always after this event!

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  2. Simply Life – it is definitely a fun event!

    Neil – thanks for your essay! We are all disappointed you didn't get off your butt and get your nearly digital SLR out to take better pics than these!!! 😉

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  3. I didn't know there were serious artistic pumpkin carvers until last year, but there really are masters of the craft. I wonder how you decide your true calling is in pumpkin art, anyway. The good ones don't just gouge away, as we can see from Mardi's shots: they leave translucent patches, they get shading by varying thickness of what they leave uncarved, etc. All well beyond me, and this year we didn't even carve the ones we bought. I'm hoping that goes unmentioned by the tot…

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  4. Unplanned – it's so great.

    Fresh Local and Nancy – absolutely!

    Kablooey – I want a PhD in Pumpkin Art.

    Conor – All they need is some drinks and snacks and it would be a real party!

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  5. What a fun idea! Such a fantastic way to bring the community together and to show off those pumpkins after the holiday 🙂

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