T.

I realize that the pumpkins and gourds and skull
on my header look really moldy, but they're not.

Loving all the pumpkins piled outside the grocery
stores and at the fruit stands -- I can't resist the urge
to pat them all. Something very satisfying about that
hollow thunk. I used to grow gourds from year to year,
and when they self-seeded, they often cross-pollinated
and I enjoyed some very alien-looking gourd incarnations
for quite a few years. Then I planted grapes, and apple
trees, and there went the sun. Now I'm down to pots
of geraniums and herbs on the back deck, in another
house. In the old house, the apple trees are plagued
with apple maggots, but the grapes ripen golden and sweet,
and the starlings enjoy every last one.