What a cold and dismal day, not one that makes you want to venture outside the warm confines of the front door, and so I haven’t but that hasn’t stopped me from being able to express my creative side, albeit in a slightly different guise than normal. With Halloween just around the corner, and as we’re going away for a couple of days (I would say to escape the cold weather but we’re staying in the UK, AND we all know that if we’re going away for a short break or the family holiday… it will rain (even if we’re off to the hottest of countries… we will bring the rain with us… what can I say, Dear Reader, it’s a talent!) today was the only day left for me to create some sort of ghoulish face on the small (travel size) pumpkin we’d bought for this festive season. I decided, in light of the size of pumpkin and limited time available to create the carving, to keep the design simple, with the traditional googly eyes, slit nose and buck teeth open mouth.
I sketched out the design on the surface of the squashes skin using a sharpie (of the pen variety, not a knife) before setting too with surgical scalpel which I’d fitted a new blade to, however I’d only made half a dozen incisions and the blade suddenly broke in two – and I wasn’t even pressing very hard – so it was back to the standard vegetable kitchen knife (which I keep as sharp as a medical scalpel anyway!). Fifteen minutes later, the gourd had been fully hollowed out, a flickering lamp installed inside, and was looking out of the front window waiting for my boy who was out on a village trail. He immediately saw the Jack O’Lantern as he walked towards the house and started to grin like a Cheshire Cat, all the reward I need for my efforts!
* No, I’m not referring to reading my blog, Cheeky!
Andrew Skelton: 
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