Shorter days, longer nights, darker mornings … and a need for gloves as we move, a tad too fast, towards the winter months. October can be gloomy which is one of the reasons that, annually, I seek out a pumpkin or two, as I consider it to be the most cheerful of vegetables.
The bulbous, uncompromising, natural expansion of the pumpkin is something I find hugely comforting. I love its orange, the pithy stalks, the fact that sometimes they can be just too heavy to carry. [I am no fan of Halloween so this is not a commercial pitch for having pumpkins in the house as lanterns! Having said this, they are infinitely easier to carve than a turnip, which how it used to be in our house!].
Pumpkins make excellent soup, curry, bread and roasted … delicious. And the seeds are even recommended by the NHS for a healthy snack that is full of fibre, zinc and iron.
And they look just fabulous on the table.
What’s not to like?
When the chips are down and the nights drawing in, colour can be a useful mood lifter. Whether a pumpkin, a crisp new, brilliantly coloured notebook, red shoes, a fluttering oak leaf, blue sky, the winter crocus peeking through the compost, a passer-by’s lipstick … all provide that fleeting but hugely important colourful distraction.
Aligned to this try 5,4,3,2,1 … my favourite distraction often shared with Smart Works clients and mentees. Works inside and out. And anywhere you are.
Identify five things you can see … whether a door, a desk, a car, the grass, the sky etc etc …
Four things you can hear … the tread of cars, footsteps, laughter, rain
Three you can touch … watch, knees, chair
Two you can smell … coffee, furniture polish
And one you can taste … toothpaste …
Or perhaps pumpkin!
As someone once said, dusk brings promises of a new dawn. And for me, one as orange as possible. [As colleagues know this is the time of year for my orange coat, orange rucksack, orange notebook … I really do love orange!].
[With thanks to the Hill of Tarvit, near Cupar for the pumpkin extravaganza].
