This hobby is one of those where you pick up all sorts of skills, even if its only becoming an expert on packaging and opening the aforementioned items. I don’t know about my regular readers but I often get asked can you do this, or can you do that, because my hobby has a practical element to it, so simple DIY tasks are often pointed my way. Such a day was today, with instructions to bring kids (ours, rather than a random selection), home and get the knives out.

What do you want to make? I says looking glumly at a large fruit, pumpkins of course aren’t vegetables despite how they may look like one and grow like one, they are like tomatoes a fruit. Well the smallest wallet lightener isn’t really into hammer house of horror, and is into cartoons big time, so a quick look through her favourite books brings out one of Britains finest. ‘Ok then you draw it and I’ll cut it’, or certainly the bits that would lead to an in depth knowledge of the local hospital casualty department when if it all goes horribly wrong. I have to admit it was actually good fun refreshing my knife and carving skills, I’ll likely need them soon. In the next week or two I’m soon going to be doing a similar task on foam board insulation for scenery, and the practise is actually going to be very handy, a pumpkin and foam board having a similar texture. Now you wouldn’t have thought that would you, so if any of you are thinking ‘what will I get out of this I’d rather be opening boxes’, when she offers you a sharp knife, resist the temptation and go and carve a pumpkin instead. The wifes literally walked in and said you’ve got to do the other now, so back to the chopping board rather than the drawing one!

So about an hour or so later we’ve got our pumpkin in front of an appreciative and attentive audience!