November's Gold at Childhood's Gate

For the past month or so, it's been a real pumpkin-fest at Penn State's Arboretum. Each October, the Arboretum sponsors a pumpkin carving contest, and as part of the festivities, the grounds are strewn with really cool displays of pumpkins and gourds.

This is a photo of the entrance to Childhood's Gate, the children's garden at the Arboretum. I wanted to show you not just the golden tones of November at the Arboretum, but another interesting way to display pumpkins and gourds.

In summertime, there are pools containing water lilies by the entrance to Childhood's Gate. But in off seasons, the water is drained, the lilies are removed, and the area is used for other kinds of displays (including, last year at Christmas, evergreens decorated with handmade and natural ornaments).

The area now contains several wire-formed pumpkin shapes that actually contain pumpkins in them! I know that when I first walked past, I did a double-take. Pumpkins! How cool! What a neat way to display them!

But I had other thoughts as well, including: What infraction did these pumpkins commit to end up in pumpkin jail? I wonder if they want to be trapped inside? Or do they want to be free? To be Free Pumpkins and go forth and live the lives they have dreamed of. . . . 

And so the tune to accompany this image of these pumpkins imprisoned in wire containers (all in fun, of course, as no pumpkins have actually been harmed for this Blip) is Europe, with Prisoners in Paradise.