A Rainy Day Pumpkin Hunt

My fella & I went for a road trip a few weeks ago to see if we couldn't find me some new shops to thrift at.  It was the first rainy day of the season & the perfect day for a drive up north.  Sadly, the thrifting in Redding was not so good ... there was nothing.  The decent things were way overpriced & the rest was mostly junk.  Not even the good kind of junk either, I was actually pretty shocked at the condition some of the merchandise was in.  I guess I am spoiled up here in our tiny mountain town full of retired city folks & antique lovers.

We tried seven stores & I spent a total of $4.25.  I found one store, however, with a huge selection of vintage children's books that were on sale for 25 cents apiece.  I cannot resist old children's books, they get me in the gotcha.

The day wasn't wasted though, as we love a good day trip & had a wonderful breakfast in a small diner called Gold Street Cafe.  It had very friendly (& heavily tattooed) staff & quirky decor.  None of the tables or chairs matched & instead of being average restaurant furniture, they all looked like they were purchased at thrift & antique shops.  Very quaint & a killer cup of decaf.  I had a mushroom & spinach omelet & a bowl of fruit.  Chucky had their pork chops with scrambled eggs, fruit & cottage cheese.  Everything was very tasty, they accidentally put cheese on my omelet, but in two minutes flat my replacement arrived.

On our way home we enjoyed the rainy weather, listened to my favorite fall playlist & stopped by the pumpkin patch so that I could take pictures & frolic amongst those gorgeous, glowing orbs.  I like to daydream about us opening up our own pumpkin patch when we are older, Chucky thinks it's cute & rolls his eyes at me, but I am completely serious.

Their welcome sign was very sweet & I loved the contrast between its bright fall colors & the sweet pink old-fashioned roses that were climbing up around it.

These huge pumpkin displays always make me jealous.

My fella's all ready for pumpkin hauling duty.

I have a rough time choosing when it comes to plants & pumpkins.  There are so many choices & I would try to fit them all in my little Honda Fit if Chucky didn't stop me.  So I took my time wandering & snapping pictures of the multitudes that wouldn't be journeying home with us.

Like these ...

& these ...

& these lovely bright minis!  Though I bet I could have gotten all of these into Yoko's hatchback!

Chucky went for the huge ones, finding a large white pumpkin he had to have first.  I was off trying to choose the perfect grey pumpkin, it was difficult because their prices were so CHEAP!  $3 for the traditional jack-o-lantern variety, $5 for the specialty heirloom varieties & $10 for the behemoths in the covered tents.  As cheap as Trader Joe's, but so many more varieties to choose from & muddy feet to boot.

Chucky's first choice.

Our pumpkin haul for the day ... or so he thought.

I fell in love with the shape, color & graceful stem of this tiny darlin'.

In all we ended up with a large white, a large orange, three traditional jack-o-lantern style, one grey & I picked out 6 tiny pumpkins of different varieties to come home with us.  I rationalized it because the thrifting had been such a bust & I hadn't even dented my $20 thrift allowance for the day.

I can't promise I won't go back once more just to wander.

The pumpkins are all arranged on the porch & we've yet to carve any ... we'll save that for mid-week.  I'm going to make some pumpkin curry with the insides & can't wait to roast all of the seeds into a delicious crunchy Paleo treat.