La saison de la citrouille

~ iamthesunking

It’s autumn! And I swear I can actually feel Louis Catorze’s powers growing with the new season, quite possibly because it’s peak visiting time for pilgrims and his creepy kitty sixth sense knows this. He has one visitor coming all the way from the west coast of Ireland at the weekend, and two more, who have been before, are returning in October. (Cat Daddy: “Really? Most people who’ve seen him once don’t bother coming back.”)

Catorze is at peak energy at the moment, gallivanting all night, chasing squirrels, guzzling down Orijen, screaming (in his new, post-surgery voice – more about that another time) and I don’t suppose it helped that we gave him a steroid shot the night before the full moon, but it’s too late to do anything about that now. His fur is thick and shiny and, for an old boy, he seems in fine form. No doubt part of it is due to the drugs, but at least 83% of it is him being a bit unhinged anyway. I dread to think what he will be like on Hallowe’en.

Speaking of which, this year, against all the odds, our lone pumpkin plant survived. The flower that I photographed in early July was a largeish tennis ball by the time we came back from holiday. Cat Daddy was a little disappointed that it was green and not orange – neither of us realised that pumpkins changed colour – but, towards the end of August, it had begun to turn. I would have been grateful for any pumpkin at all, whatever the colour, but the fact that it’s an orange one makes me very happy indeed.

Now all we have to do between now and 31st October are to nurture it and pray for no unfortunate incidents (doable), and to get Catorze to pose beautifully next to it for this year’s Official Hallowe’en Portrait (somewhat more challenging).

Here are some pictures of its progress (with a 20p coin for scale, which was later removed when I realised it was leaving a mark), plus one of my warm-up photos with Catorze. The final masterpiece really won’t be much better.

Tennis ball.
Smallish football.
Just starting to turn.
Oranger.
Oranger still.
For goodness’ sake.
More orange than not.
Hallowe’en-ready.

30 thoughts on “La saison de la citrouille”

  2. What a beauty! I can just see a perfect portrait coming out of that!

    And….if it wasn’t for Mexico being Red….I would certainly be visiting his majesty again…..! I have very fond memories of my previous visit! How many guest books have you got now?

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  4. Oh that pumpkin has turned beautiful There are white pumpkins now – they call them “ghost pumpkins” and alot of people decorate with them and the orange ones together.

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        1. Oh, I would have Darth in a heartbeat! I’d have to keep him and Catorze apart so that Cat Daddy would see them separately and still only think we had one cat.

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            1. We’d just have to make sure he only viewed Darth from far away. And he doesn’t believe cats have accents! He can’t even detect Catorze’s French accent! 🙄

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    1. He most certainly doesn’t. He sits beautifully by the pumpkin when we are indoors … but when I go out to try to take a photo, he either runs away or runs towards me, screaming.

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  8. That looks pumpkinlicious, well done! I wish I were one of the returning pilgrims this year but life here is still unpredictable and chaotic xx

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  11. ‘Tis a fine pumpkin indeed 🙂 🎃 Around here it never would have made it to the orange stage, thanks to the squirrels and raccoons (and groundhogs, and who knows what else would want a taste). I hope you get a great photo with Catorze!

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