Pumpkin Patch

                                                             

Jeannette of Welcome to My Travels and I were Emailing back and forth about pumpkins and pumpkin recipes today.  I told her when I was out I would stop by our neighborhood pumpkin patch and take some pictures.  The place is called Doi's Market.  They sell produce all year around and they grow most of what they sell.  Their tomatoes are wonderful and the Maui onions are sweet and mild.  In the spring, they have the best strawberries in the Inland Empire.  Another of their specialties is corn on the cob - always sweet and perfect.  They have a big metal roaster to roast the ears of corn and when you drive up, the aroma is heavenly.

At Halloween, they turn their pumpkin field into a Pumpkin Patch so kids can go out into the field and pick their own if they want to.  They have ghosts and scarecrows set up to make it festive.  Preschools in the area sometimes take bus loads of kids there on a field trip.  There were no kids there today when I stopped to take the pictures.

Since our kids are grown up, we don't pass out candy on Halloween night anymore.  I do miss seeing the little kids dressed up but I don't miss jumping up to answer the door and I certainly do not want bags of candy in the house.  If it's not here, no one can eat it. 

My son and his wife take their kids to a Harvest Festival at their church on Halloween.  They have boothes set up where the kids get to play games and win prizes.  They also get candy as if they were out trick-or-treating.  It's a safer alternative to having them go door to door and taking candy from strangers.

I had lunch with my friend Sylvia today.  I hadn't seen her since before we went to Alaska.  Her dad has terminal brain cancer so she has been spending a lot of time with her parents.  We had such a good talk.  She told me how her dad has come to terms with his illness and he even went to the funeral home with his son and another daughter to make pre-arrangements.  He isn't afraid of dying because he has a strong faith in God.  He just says he doesn't want to linger and suffer.  I think we all hope that for loved ones and ourselves.

I told Sylvia how lucky she is to have this open dialog with her Dad.  When Den's Dad was dying, there was so little communication with him.  He just didn't want to talk about anything personal.  It actually made me cry today.  I cried with joy for her that she has this time to really connect with her Dad and to say all the things that she wants to say.  She knows he'll say everything he has to say, too.  I cried for all those things that went unsaid in my relationship with Dennis' Dad.  We were just never close.  There was always an awkward, uncomfortable thing between us.  I tried many times to bridge that gap but I just couldn't get him to open up.  I know I can't change any of the past and I'm determined to make sure that I let those I love know how much they mean to me and not take forgranted that they know.

Until later.                                      ô..ô